March 15, 1929 Cecil Percival Taylor, jazz pianist and poet, was born in New York City. Taylor began playing piano at the age of six and studied at the New York College of Music and New England Conservatory. He formed his own band and released his first recording, “Jazz Advance,” in 1956. In 1964, Taylor […]
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Archibald John Motley, Jr. – January 16th in African American History
January 16, 1981 Archibald John Motley, Jr., African-American painter, ceramist, and sculptor, died. Motley was born October 7, 1891 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He studied painting at the School of Art Institute of Chicago and graduated in 1918. His painting “Mending Socks” was voted the most popular work in a 1927 exhibit of works by […]
December 3rd in African American History – Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks
December 3, 2000 Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks, poet and novelist, died. Brooks was born June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas but raised in Chicago, Illinois. She published her first poem in a children’s magazine at 13 and by the time she was 16 she had a portfolio of 75 published poems. Brooks’ first book of poetry, […]
August 27th in African American History – Norman W. Lewis
August 27, 1979 Norman W. Lewis, painter, scholar, and educator, died. Lewis was born July 23, 1909 in Harlem, New York. Always interested in art, he had amassed a large art history library by the time he was a young man. His early paintings were mostly figurative, including “Meeting Place” (1930), “The Yellow Hat” (1936), […]