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During the 1920s and 1930s, Willis Richardson (1889-1977) was respected as a significant African-American playwright and drama anthologist. His plays were performed by numerous black high school, college, and university drama groups and by various theater companies in Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Baltimore, and Atlanta. Several of his 46 plays were published in various magazines. In his essays, he urged African Americans to seek their dramatic material in their own experiences. He also edited three anthologies of plays by black dramatists. With the opening performance of The Chip Woman's Fortune (1923), he became the first African American to have a play produced on Broadway. But between 1940 and his death in 1977, Richardson came to realize that his plays were period pieces and that they no longer reflected the African-American experience. In spite of his enormous contributions, Richardson died in obscurity, and his work has been neglected by scholars. This critical biography offers the first extensive consideration of Richardson's life and work and firmly reestablishes his place in the history of the theater. ... Read more

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Part of The Library of Black America series

This collection of anecdotes, tales, jokes, toasts, rhymes, satire, riffs, poems, stand-up sketches, and snaps documents the evolution of African American humor over the past two centuries. It includes routines and writings from such luminaries as Bert Williams, Butterbeans & Susie, Stepin Fetchit, Moms Mabley, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Redd Foxx, Ishmael Reed, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Martin Lawrence, and Chris Rock. This anthology includes classic stage routines, literary examples, and witty quotations presented in their entirety. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Wonderful Collection of Humor
This collection of African American humor will take you from the beginning to the end, approximately from the 1800s to present day.Learn how slaves coped with their hardships behind the guise of humor that was directed at their masters without them ever catching onto it.See how their humor changed when African Americans were integrated into American society, how fierce and forthright it became, and come all the way to present day to comedians like Chris Rock and Richard Pryor.This book has many parts and selections from various authors.Some of the early selections are difficult to follow, for the language is traditional slave language, but later selections are much easier.I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes culture and likes to laugh. ... Read more

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Speaking powerfully and directly to a growing audience, African-American vernacular art is making its mark in the art world. In this outstanding collection of contemporary art, works by 27 self-taught artists bear eloquent testimony to the social, cultural, and spiritual experiences of Southern African Americans.

Thornton Dial Sr., Ronald Lockett, Bessie Harvey, Mose Tolliver, and Purvis Young head a roster of leading artists in this genre. Five scholars explore the significance of these emotionally charged, culturally complex artworks and their context in the larger art world; brief biographies and the artists' own statements are included.

Testimony accompanies a traveling exhibition organized by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Exhibitions International.
171 illustrations, 101 in full color, 192 pages, 91/4 x 101/4" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Valuable information - insightful essays
Not your everyday book on Outsider Art.While most art books on this subject just showcase collectors' investments, Testimony includes critical studies on the ways collections have been organized and new historical information about the relationship between African American vernacular art and the Outsider movement.All of the essays address hard questions and give you something to think about.In a field noted for its ugly politics, collectors Ronald and June Shelp have been brave and responsible in supporting this kind of writing.

Nothing Special
This is a weak survey of African-American "vernacular art". There are a few pieces of artwork shown for the various artists covered and a short bio. Nothing in depth in terms of the artwork shown or the information given. This is basically your standard collection of the usual suspects in folk art today. A little bit of Dial, Tolliver, Young, Burnside, Light, etc. And the pieces shown aren't that special. It's great they've got a couple of Mose Tolliver's, but they aren't that special in the overall spectrum of Mose's work.Since nothing is in-depth, I'm not really sure what the point of this book is as it adds nothing new to the field. It's great Ronald and June Shelp own all these pieces, but so what? Good for them, but the book adds nothing for the reader. A much better survey is Souls Grown Deep. Much more expensive, but well worth it. ... Read more

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This book examines the quilts, ceramics, paintings, sculpture, installations, assemblages, daguerreotypes, photography and performance art produced by African American artists over a two hundred year period. The author draws on archaeological discoveries and unpublished archival materials to recover the lost legacies of artists living and working in the United States. As the first critical study to provide in-depth case studies of twenty artists, this book introduces readers to works created in response to the Middle Passage, Atlantic slavery, lynching, racism, segregation, and the fight for civil rights.Bernier examines little-discussed panoramas, murals, portraits, textile designs, collages and mixed-media installations to get to grips with key motifs and formal issues within African American art history. Working within this tradition, artists experiment with cutting edge techniques and alternative subject-matter to undermine racist iconography and endorse a new visual language. They push thematic and formal boundaries to create powerful narratives and epic histories of creativity, labour, discrimination, suffering and resistance.By providing close readings of works by artists such as Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, William Edmondson, Howardena Pindell, Charles Alston, Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Betye Saar, Horace Pippin and Kara Walker, this book sheds new light on the thematic and formal complexities of an African American art tradition which still remains largely shrouded in mystery.Includes 16 colour photographs. ... Read more

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American Indian Healing Arts is a magical blend of plant lore, history, and living tradition that draws on a lifetime of study with native healers by herbalist and ethnobotanist E. Barrie Kavasch.

Here are the time-honored tribal rituals performed to promote good health, heal illness, and bring mind and spirit into harmony with nature. Here also are dozens of safe, effective earth remedies--many of which are now being confirmed by modern research.

Each chapter introduces a new stage in the life cycle, from the delightful Navajo First Smile Ceremony (welcoming a new baby) to the Apache Sunrise Ceremony (celebrating puberty) to the Seminole Old People's Dance.

At the heart of the book are more than sixty easy-to-use herbal remedies--including soothing rubs for baby, a yucca face mask for troubled skin, relaxing teas, massage oils, natural insect repellents, and fragrant smudge sticks. There are also guidelines for assembling a basic American Indian medicine chest. Amazon.com Review
Throughout their history, the American Indians have healedwith rituals using herbs, fungi, and other natural materials. Theyhave valued as sacred the spiritual side of life and their connection to theearth. Their medicine has always been holistic, treating thebody and spirit as one and illness as a sign of imbalance. Now we canbenefit from American Indian wisdom with American Indian HealingArts: Herbs, Rituals, and Remedies for Every Season of Life. Thisbook is organized by the stages of life, presenting different tribalperspectives on the significance of each, with ceremonies and healingrituals (songs, prayers, botanicals). The book includes more than 60recipes for treating health problems and other needs, from "cramp barktea" to "marigold-calendula deodorant cream." There are alsodirections for making tonics, ointments, tooth powders, and digestiveremedies, and illustrations consisting of leaf-rubbings of 80plants. Besides learning to use American Indian remedies, you learnfascinating facts about their ceremonies. The Navajo celebrate notonly birth, but the infant's first smile and first laugh, forexample. An Apache girl celebrates first menstruation by running anddancing for four days (guided and massaged by an elder woman). Ifyou're interested in alternative healing, or intrigued by AmericanIndian culture, this book will add to your knowledge. --JoanPrice ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

An excellent introduction to native american healing arts.
As one who frequently reads scholarly articles in the science of oncology and medicine, this is a refreshing shift of pace.The authors have taken great care to weave the culture, folk lore and medicinal herbs and traditions of the a number of the number of native peoples of North America into an easily read text for most anyone whether lay person or professional.For anyone who has studied popular native american folklore, there is the added benefit this culture.Truly an enjoyable read.

a little bit of everything
Not only does this comprehensive book cover native american medicine, but also native american culture as a whole. It contains information on herbs and herbal remedies, native american history and folk tales, poems, songs and sayings, different tribes and customs, and the list goes on and on. The layout is very appealing to the eye, with lovely illustrations. If you have any interest in Native American culture then you will absolutely love this book.

A must for your native American library!
This book is jam packed with herbal cures and remedies, shows photos/drawings of the herbs in their natural state so you know exactly what to look for. Well written and subject divided and a must for any native American library. Quite an encyclopedia of information.

TOO VAGUE
I found this book to lack depth and explanation.It vaguely lists certain herbs and plants that are of a healing nature, but the true content I was looking for was not here.I wanted more in-depth remedies for particular ailments, where this book applies certain remedies to a very hazy and small range of problems.I was also looking for a guide to ritualistic traditions rather than unmeasurable herbal concoctions.

Review fraud
The Institute for American Indian Studies did not review this book.The attributed review originated with the author. ... Read more

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This book illustrates and describes the decorated wall panels, sculpture and masks created during initiation rites of the young men of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola. On a broader level, the book explores the artistic and craft traditions of the local artisans.
... Read more

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Readers Theatre for African American History features a collection of twenty scripts covering a comprehensive span of history from Africa before the transatlantic slave trade through current events in our nation. In participating in these scripts, students will listen to storytellers from Africa and share the rich oral tradition about wealthy explorers who came to the Americas from Africa before Columbus. They'll experience such events as Emancipation Day on the South Carolina Sea Islands, the founding of the North Star by Frederick Douglass, and the extraordinary 1939 Lincoln Memorial concert by Marian Anderson. They'll attend an imaginary political convention where they'll meet our nation's first five African American U.S. Senators, including Senator Barack Obama. African American history is rich with opportunities for creative learning. This book brings them alive. Grades 4-8

Customer Reviews (1)

Good resource
I am a student teacher and got this because I had to put together a unit for Black History Month for my students.It worked really well, the kids enjoyed it and got really creative with costumes, etc.I am really glad I got it and it lends itself well to language arts, social studies, science etc. ... Read more

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These striking, colorful posters, selected from the more than one thousand housed at Indiana University’s Black Film Center/Archive, graphically illustrate the artistic and thematic range of racial representation in the American film industry from its early days through the present. Chosen for their value as cultural artifacts, they combine art and commerce and are richly imbued with historical and social meanings that continue to engage and inform. The earliest posters, such as the one from pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, represent truly independent productions. That crop of "race movies," dating from the late 1920s through the early 1940s, targeted a black audience hungry for respectful images of themselves. In Hollywood films, however, black life was often presented in contorted and narrowly defined ways, reflective of America’s racial morass. Yet as a whole, the posters managed to capture the artistry, if not the full range, of black performance.

Many of these posters appear in the touring exhibition "Imaging Blackness: Film Posters from the Black Film Center/Archive." Since they were originally produced as ephemera that would follow the distribution of the film and return to the studio, it is surprising that so many early posters featuring African Americans are still in existence. This collection includes some of the rarer examples.

In addition to their relative merit as commercial art, the posters are visual cues to the social construction of race in our society as revealed by that most potent dream merchant, the Hollywood film industry. Designed to catch the eye, they also offer a window into the history of race relations in the 20th-century U.S. In his foreword to the collection, filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles notes the evolution of how blacks were portrayed in the posters. Ever so slowly, he writes, "you begin to see a few black faces minus the shovels and trays." These incremental changes are notable because they show the long, slow, and continuing struggle of blacks to alter racial perceptions—as well as reality—in the film industry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A fascinating approach to film history
"Imaging Blackness: Race And Racial Representation In Film Poster Art" is compiled, edited, curated and presented by Audrey Thomas McCluskey (Associate Professor of African-American and African Diaspora Studies). Professor McCluskey draws upon her years of experience and expertise when she was formerly the director of the Black Film Center Archive at Indiana University to present a series of movie posters for the 'race movies' that were a part of cinematic history from the late 1920s through the early 1940s when African-Americans were largely barred from mainstream Hollywood productions (except for stereotypical roles as maids, butlers, and comic relief characters), necessitating independent and small budget productions featuring African-American casts. Posters were a widespread means of advertising and promotion, designed to persuade members of the public to buy a ticket and see the film publicized by the images depicted in the poster material. "Imaging Blackness" shows the steady evolution of how African-American men and women were pictured on those posters in incremental changes that paralleled the discrimination and slow progress of change of the broader American culture. A fascinating approach to film history that accords with vigorous academic standards of scholarship, "Imaging Blackness" is an especially recommended addition to academic and community library African-American Studies and American Film History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

A Must Have!
A must have for any collection of film and African American book collection. ... Read more

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"As any well-organized, carefully annotated bibliography does, this work by Southern and Wright brings order out of chaos. The 2,328 entries identify books, articles, sermons, pamphlets, and broadsides, among other formats, all centered on black folk culture with emphasis on the manifestations of that culture from 1600 to 1920 through song, dance, games, sermons, and illustrations. . . . This carefully done and useful bibliography is recommended for libraries on all campuses where there is an interest in the black experience." Choice ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A must-read for all hoofers!
This book is essential in every tap dancer's personallibrary.A must read for allhoofers! ... Read more

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Completing the two-volume set, Souls Grown Deep, Vol. 2 takes the visual and historical presentation of the first volume to a richer level, offering an even broader array of artistic styles and media. Published in 2000, the first volume explored the diverse historical roots of the genre and introduced artists whose work recalled the South of the pre–civil rights era. This sequel brings the movement into the present, delving into the work of the current generation of artists who are creating a complex form of art that blurs the boundaries between folk and contemporary art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Splendid Production, Assembled with no Common Sense
To start with the positives: Every work is shown in full color. The well-chosen works of Thornton Dial and Ronald Lockett give you the full scope of these artists' work. But the hodgepodge of other artists--and the works illustrated--seem to have been picked at random, with no criteria whatsoever and still less discrimination.

Some familiar, popular artists are over-represented. For examples, Mary T. Smith gets 27 pages of lovely paintings that swiftly become repetitious. Purvis Young gets 39 pages; photos of his illustrated books take up way too much space. Mary Proctor is passed over in a twinkling, we get to see none of her vibrant, ecstatic pictures of women in religious rapture.

These mixed blessings aside, the book becomes a real dog's lunch. The reader must trudge through Pearl Fryar's site-specific topiary "sculptures" in the outdoors, and George Kornegay's hillside of used tires. Down through Emmer Sewell's old automobile tire surmounted by a plastic chair, and Asberry Davis's piles of junk overgrown with weeds: "I tie things up to my fences and my trees."

Then there's Dinah Young--whose many illustrated works include a pile of logs, a milk jug and old broom; dead branches piled at the foot of a tree; a branch atop of an upended 5-gallon paint can; and backyard graves for a baby possum and raccoon.

The clueless interviewer assumes that she's making a statement.

She disagrees: "How many times I got to tell you . . . I'm just piling up old junk. I'm doing not a damn thing else."

The interviewer will have none of that. He tries again: "Don't you care how they look?"

"I don't make no design of them. I don't be making ANYTHING." She is so right!

Worse yet, this tome is MASSIVE, with a trim size of 10.5" by 12.5" and a weight of more than 7 pounds. With half as many artists and only a third of the illustrations, this might have been a far, far better book and a real joy.

Souls Grown Deep vol 1
An eye-opening overview of the significant art happening in the USA in the second half of the twentieth century, far from the eyes of the New York tastemakers.

Sensational - Deeper than Volume 1
Anyone that has Vol 1 needs to buy this Vol or even if you have an interest in some of the listed artists in this book and don't have Vol 1 buy this one. Vol 1 had a general history of African American Vernacular Art where as this volume has a more in depth look at particular artists and their enviroments. The essays are longer and you get many more examples of each artists work as well as many pictures of the artists in their environments or the art in the original environments or even in a few cases the artists working on pieces.

To see the art in it's original environment gives the proper perspective to understanding the nature of the art.

I think this book is definately the equal or if not better than the first and it is wonderful of the Arnetts to put two books together of such high quality at affordable prices. I dream of a third book.

When these books sell out people will be climbing over the top of each other to get them and the price of secondhand copies will skyrocket.
Don't miss out ... Read more

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An history of the visual arts of Africa - sculpture, painting and architecture; textiles, pottery and other household objects; jewellery, ceremonial and religious dress and body art. The author examines the major influences on African culture and art over the centuries: the civilizations of Egypt and the Mediterranean coast, the spread of Islam, the Bantu migrations, the evolution of the tribal system, the arrival of the Europeans and Christianity and the development of trade within Africa and beyond. He then examines the earliest known art forms, the preshitoric rock art found in a number of regions and the artefacts of the ancient Nubian, Aksumite and Nok cultures, and goes on to consider the development of the visual arts in a number of individual regions ranging from the Sahara to the Cape, from Ethiopia and the Swahili coast in the east to the Niger Delta and Benin in the west. ... Read more

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This work examines and analyzes how the cinematic image of AfricanAmericans became a fixed image with strict rules of depiction bothwritten and unwritten. And, how those very limited and under-informedimages would not and could not be challenged or transformed until thepower relations in the American film industry began to change andafforded blacks the opportunity at the very least to tell stories froman informed position. ... Read more

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Western-educated Elites in Kenya, 1900-1963: The African American Factor proposes to conduct a critical examination of the emergence of the American-educated Kenyan elites (the Asomi) and their role in the nationalist movement and eventually their Africanization of the Civil and Private sectors in Kenya. These historic leaders considered the struggle to eliminate racism and shed the yoke of colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, and America as one fight against one common enemy, the European. Their efforts resulted in the development of the American-educated Asomi in Kenya. I wrote this book to provide a historical perspective on development of western-educated Kenyans. The work is divided into five chapters that consist of an examination of Traditional, Islamic, Missionary, and government education and the subsequent higher education that Kenyan students received in the United States prior to returning to their homeland. It is written for advanced undergraduates, graduated students, and historians, who already possess a general knowledge about Kenyan history, but want a deeper understanding of the global influence of the Pan-African movement in the first half of the twentieth century.This text depicts the commonalities that existed between Africans and African-Americans during their fights for independence and equality. ... Read more

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While chronicling the development of Teer's National Black Theatre of Harlem, this study explores the National Black Theatre's quest to develop a new black theory of acting. Teer's theory of performance was realized in a theater that combined elements of Pentacostal worship and African ritual, melding spontaneity from the performers, percussive music, singing, dancing, emotional expression from both actors and audience, and spectacle. The National Black Theatre's major achievement is the creation of an original art form that helps African Americans identify with their roots and invites spontaneous audience interaction. The study offers the National Black Theatre as a model African American community theater with valuable lessons for other theaters. The innovative methods of the National Black Theatre provide a model for enlightening and sensitizing audiences to cultural diversity. A pioneering institution, the National Black Theatre has proven itself over its 25 year history to be a cultural treasure and the quintessential theater in Harlem.(Bibliography, and index; foreword by Dr. Winona Fletcher, Professor Emeritus of Theater and Drama and Afro-American Studies; Founder of the National Black Theatre) ... Read more