Hardcover VIEW BOOK ON AMAZON ...

"... While quietly wrestling with what it meant to be a black American artist at mid-century, Bearden opened himself to a world of cultural influences.

He found inspiration in Benin bronzes and paintings by Duccio; the Bible and Buddhism; The Odyssey and the blues; contemporary urban life and the rural lore of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. .. in the mid-1930s, ... as a newly-minted New York University grad—he toiled by day as a social worker and painted at night.

Bearden's best-known works are his Dada-influenced photomontages...His output also included stunning book illustrations and costume designs, political cartoons, incisive essays about the role of the black artist and even popular songs.

More than 200 color illustrations display Bearden’s coloristic wizardry as a master of painted collage and lyrical landscape. ..." (...exerpted from Cathy Curtis - Amazon Product Page )

Hardcover VIEW BOOK ON AMAZON ...

"Shange's lyrical poem is a tribute to the language of music and the magical, often mystical, rhythms that connect people. Music defines who we are as individuals, the places where we live, and how we exist within our communities. Music is life.

Written in a syncopated style that has its own melody, the poem is perfectly married to twenty-one extraordinary and diverse works from Romare Bearden who once said, "I paint in the tradition of the blues." (...exerpted from Amazon Product Page )