April 2014
Volume 1, Issue 5
HBCU Digest
April 2014
Celebrating Excellence in Art Education
CONTENTS
Publisher Jarrett L. Carter, Sr. Editor Autumn A. Arnett Assistant Editor Kyle Yeldell Contributors Lois Elfman Shana Pinnock Christina Sturdivant Meagan Krystina Williams
5 Letter from the Editor
6 MAKING MUSIC COUNT
Morehouse grad uses music to teach math to K-12 students By Shana Pinnock
8 ART IS ALIVE!
Schools find value in preserving history, culture through arts. By Lois Elfman
12 LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION
HBCU alumni turn their eyes to the film industry By Meagan Krystina Williams and Christina Sturdivant
GALLERY SHOWCASE
14 Clark Atlanta University 20 Hampton University 23 North Carolina Central University 28 Talladega College
Cover image courtesy of Johnson C. Smith University
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HOWARD UNIVERSITY Howard University, one of the nation’s leading research universities, is dedicated to educating students from diverse backgrounds at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels. Guided by our extraordinary cadre of faculty, students are immersed in cutting-edge scholarship and innovation, including nanotechnology, human genome research and atmospheric science, as well as the social sciences, arts and humanities on four campuses. Since its inception more than 145 years ago, Howard University has been at the forefront of preparing globally competent students for positions of leadership and social responsibility.
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April 2014
Letter from the Editor Dear Reader, When I interviewed Dr. Nikky Finney for the Genesis Scholars feature in January, she spoke at great lengths about Talladega College’s Amistad Murals. I had never heard of them at the time, but her entire life seemed to have been shaped by these murals. (Perhaps that is a little dramatic, but she DID decide to attend Talladega based on being inspired by them, and it is arguable that one’s choices in higher education go on to shape his or her life.)
I thought about that interview and those murals over the weeks and months that followed and knew that Talladega was more than likely not the only campus housing art so profound that it drew students (and donors) to the campus. I decided I wanted to find a way to showcase some of the art hidden on these campuses to show even some who may never make it to Atlanta or Durham or Hampton or Talladega to see them in person. Many of the campus galleries house decades, even centuries, of history and culture. Even in compiling the feature, for example, I learned more about Hale Woodruff and his connection to HBCUs (listen, I was more impressed that the main administrative building on campus was named “Arnett Hall.” I’m a sports girl, not an artsy girl) than I learned during my time on campus. So, as with every issue, it is my sincere desire that your eyes are opened and curiosities piqued by not just the feature articles contained on the pages herein, but by the visual presentation of some of the treasures housed on HBCU campuses across the nation. Most sincerely,
Autumn A. Arnett Editor HBCU Digest
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Making Music Count
HBCU Digest
April 2014
Morehouse Grad Uses Music to Teach Math to K-12 Students By Shana Pinnock
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or many students of all ages, learning math is considered an insurmountable challenge. Often, perplexing equations and calculations lead to a number of young people becoming intimidated by the subject and discouraged about their ability to ever “get” math. One Morehouse College graduate is working fervently to change that perception through his love of music and his own company, Make Music Count. Marcus Blackwell, who graduated in 2009 graduate with a degree in mathematics, knows the fear math can cause adolescents. “My issue with math while growing up wasn’t with learning the material—it was the delivery from the teachers. It always seemed as if the teachers taught the courses with the intent of also conveying the message that ‘this subject is hard.’ That leads to a lack of confidence and, as we know, confidence is half the battle when approaching anything new or difficult,” says Blackwell. Blackwell, a musician since the age of 16, and current music director at Elizabeth Baptist Church in Georgia, learned how to play music by ear, listening to notes and replicating them without reading from a traditional musical score. “Especially during college, as my skill on the piano increased, my friends and family would ask me to teach them. Usually those that asked had no musical theory knowledge, so I started explaining music through math application, ” says Blackwell. It was through these impromptu music lessons that Blackwell created the formula that is the basis for Make Music Count. Each lesson is based on learning musical notes in a song. Each note is derived through a mathematical equation that varies from addition, to subtraction, multiplication, division and algebraic equations . Capital letters represent musical notes on the piano, and numbers represent movement from one note to another. So, for example, C + ½ = C#. When Blackwell left his promising job as an analyst for GE Energy in 2013, many thought his decision was sudden and erratic. They didn’t know he wisely used his exposure to the GE business model as a foundation and blueprint to build his own company. “I actually began developing the concept of Make Music Count while I was working at GE,” says Blackwell. “MMC took two years of preparation before I decided to leave. I was fortunate enough to have a great boss that allowed me to leave early every Tuesday for my last five months with the company so that I could voluntarily teach my curriculum at Kennedy Middle School with Raising Expectations.” Those five months of preparation with Raising Expectations, a non-profit youth development program that aims to tutor and enhance the academic performance of Atlanta students, led to Blackwell securing his first paid teaching opportunity working with South Cobb (Ga.) High School during the summer months. While there, Blackwell taught his Make Music Count formula in a hour-long class sessions, three days a week, to class sizes varying between 15 and 20 students. He took this prospect as confirmation that he was not the only person to believe in his vision. Armed with his four self-published textbooks and his keyboard, Blackwell then
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took to 50 schools within the state of Georgia presenting each of them with his idea. Initially, only three decided to pursue implementing his curriculum with school system. Now, less than a year after his first “big break,” Blackwell is teaching Make Music Count at 15 schools across the state. Blackwell credits this large growth in school participation to the success rate of his formula helping students enhance their math test scores. On average, students enrolled in his program see at least a 28% improvement in their scores after one semester. Considering that he serves student from elementary school to high school, one must wonder how Blackwell is able to keep his students engaged while learning the material. In order to appeal to each student, Blackwell’s lessons involve teaching students the notes, and math, to today’s latest hip-hop and R&B songs. Such popular songs like “I’m Different,” by 2 Chainz, “All Gold Everything,” by Trinidad James, “Diamonds” by Rihanna, and Grammy Award-winning “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis allow the young scholars to learn sometimes baffling mathematical concepts with ease. It also helps that students are excited to learn how to play music. “Most of my students have never played an instrument before. An hour after being in my class, all of them are playing the latest hip-hop song they listen to on the radio.” When asked where he would like to see Make Music Count in the next ten years, Blackwell says his goal is to see every school system implement his program, not as a replacement for traditional math courses, but an additional tool for students to learn. He hopes his curriculum will start a movement for new ways to teach students in not just mathematics but the other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields as well. “Essentially, I’m looking for ways to lead more youth to pursuing degrees in the STEM fields,” says Blackwell. “There is a new initiative called STEAM that involves incorporating the Arts into the STEM fields,” Blackwell says. “I believe that if I keep pursuing this calling of mine, Make Music Count will be one of the tools needed to take that initiative worldwide.” For more information: www.makemusiccount.org Email: marcus@makemusiccount.org Twitter: @_makemusiccount | Instagram: @makemusiccount
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Art is Alive!
HBCU Digest
April 2014
Schools Find Value in Preserving History, Culture through the Arts
Photo courtey of Johnson C. Smith University
By Lois Elfman
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he history of mankind has shown us that the arts play a great role in our lives and developing our societies and cultures,” says Dr. Gail Medford, coordinator of the Theatre Arts program in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Bowie State University. “When you look at the history of man, it’s not told through science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” she continues. “It’s told through the arts—visual arts, dance and through the oral interpretations of life, ergo theatre performances. The arts are very, very important in education for helping these young people understand where they came from and who they are.” Students today feel external and internal pressures to achieve returns on their investments in higher education. Unquestionably, majoring in theatre, art, dance or music does not provide readily apparent paths to financial security, but the passion that drives students to these majors is undeniable. Individuals from the institutions interviewed for this article make it clear that nowhere is arts education more important than at Historically Black Colleges and Universities; it is through the arts that
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students deeply connect with the past, present and future. men year, but felt depressed and admittedly underachieved Dr. April Massey, acting dean of the College of Arts and academically. Switching to the theatre program, her grades Sciences at the University of the District of Columbia, says the soared as did her excitement about college. arts bring students together. “I call myself a Renaissance artist because I really want to “We have found that those programs, those opportunities to be able to do everything when it comes to theatre—tech work, engage creatively, give them community,” Massey says. “They playwriting, directing and acting,” says Lewis. give them a vehicle for expression. Students gravitate toward Both women see the power of theatre to create change. that. I don’t know if that is an HBCU-specific kind of thing or “[Artists] are the people who start the revolution and the if it is that students need creative outlets and sometimes their evolution of mankind—not physically, but mentally,” Lewis major programs don’t allow for that. says. “It allows students across major areas to connect,” she adds. At Johnson C. Smith University, education in the arts is “It gives students who have a specific interest in the arts opexpanding. Wanda Ebright, associate professor of dance and portunity to explore and develop those talents.” chair of the Department of Visual, Performing and CommuAt UDC, the existence of arts programs is tempered with nication Arts, was hired to start a dance program. economic realities. In 2010, the theatre major was discontinEbright was decisive that she wanted to create a format that ued due to high cost and diminished interest. The university makes sense for students and aligns with the goals and objecis currently undergoing a reorganization of the Department of tives of this institution. To explore how other HBCU’s present Visual and Performing Arts in order to keep the department dance programs, she went to the Web sites of every HBCU to thriving. research their dance The graphic Students feel external and internal pressures to achieve returns programs, but found design program, only a handful of on their investments in higher education. Majoring in theatre, which had been schools that offered a stand-alone in dance. art, dance or music does not provide readily apparent paths to degrees Bachelor of the “There’s dance at Arts degree, will financial security, but the passion that drives students to these commencement, connow be under the vocation, talent shows. majors is undeniable. Bachelor of Fine We have African Arts. The program drums playing as we and all of the content will remain intact. process in for any formal event. There’s dance everywhere [on In music, there are concentrations that enable students HBCU campuses] that I look, but it’s not in the curriculum,” to pursue performance and/or music education. They are Ebright says. also giving additional focus to arts management with course Realizing there were few resources she could tap into when options expanding in the business of music. This is especially building Johnson C. Smith’s dance program, she has designed relevant at UDC where there are many non-traditional stuthe curriculum herself. dents, some of whom already have professional experience in “I’m learning, so I can be authentic and make good choices music performance and are pursuing degrees to either go into for the university where I work,” she notes. “For me, it’s makmusic education or expand their career options. ing sure that what I’m teaching the students to do, what we’re Medford says that at Bowie State, professional readiness offering them, is going to prepare them the same way that the is of great importance with the business aspect of theatre as institutional mission prepares students in every other degree much a part of the program as performing. program on the campus.” “That helps them see other areas they can get into—not only The department got a huge boost with a $975,000 grant in the arts, but in other disciplines as well,” says Medford. “We from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $500,000 of which also encourage students to minor in something else dependwill go to hiring two new full-time faculty members for a ing upon, of course, what it is they want to do with their minimum of three years as well as adjunct faculty in the difcareers. ferent arts disciplines in the visual and performing arts. “A lot of businesses and other types of employers will hire “The arts are a reflection of a culture,” Ebright says. “Whattheatre people because of their collaborative skills. They know ever is going on in our country, our city, our state…people are how to work as part of a team.” living that and they’re feeling things about it. The arts channel Crystal Roberts, who graduated from Bowie State in 2013, all that feeling. They highlight viewpoints. The arts help peohas goals both in performing and production. Since gradple search for solutions to problems in everyday life. uating, she’s done an internship as a stage manager and is “In the arts there are always going to be people trying to currently looking for work in the same field. Active in theatre maintain traditions, cultural history,” she continues. “There is since childhood, her family knew it was what she wanted to also a group of people always trying to break away from what’s study in college and didn’t give her much resistance. always been done before. I call them groundbreakers or trailBowie State sophomore Tamyra Lewis, who attended a blazers. I’m kind of fascinated personally with the fact that the performing arts high school, tried to study business her fresh- arts make room for both of those things all the time.” www.hbcudigest.com
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At Winston-Salem State University, Dr. Michael Magruder, professor and chair of the Department of Music, is also director of bands. Under his guidance, the Red Sea of Sound marching band has received numerous awards and accolades. Many of his students seek to emulate him and go into music education. “My ultimate goal is to teach at the collegiate level, but I would like to start at the high school level,” says Jonathan Lilly, who earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast production at another university, but enrolled at WSSU because of his love of music and education. “We have a very diverse group of students coming to our department,” says Magruder. “They come to us because they’ve participated in marching bands or in choirs, and they recognize that we have a very distinct choir and a very distinct marching band program. When they get here, they realize there’s more to music than just marching band and choir. That’s when they open up and they realize this world of music is different than what they imagined prior to coming here.” Christopher Walker says he discovered classical music at
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WSSU and sees himself going to graduate school as well as pursuing a performing career. Anthony Howard, a vocalist, also aspires to be a music teacher and performer. Magruder began his career teaching first at a junior high school and then at high schools before reaching the college level more than 20 years ago. “If you want ultimate fulfillment and joy in what you do, I suggest education,” he says. “We don’t have the best musicians here at WSSU. That’s why this idea of teaching and learning comes into play. We have students who are developing. I love the idea of helping them develop and go onto the next level in their playing and their careers.” Kevin Gary says he knows some people come to college looking to be economically safe. If that is a priority, that is what a student should follow. His passion for music and education drives him. Gary also sees himself as an agent of change. “Music has created a driving force for a lot of revolution in the world—be it from jazz, be it from slave hymns,” he says. “We are true keepers of history, of culture and of the human self.”
Despite increasing pressure to pursue scientific majors and other fields that will yield a high return on investment, many students are still choosing to follow their passions and pursue arts degrees. Photo courtesy of Bowie State University.
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Robert Poole, M.F.A. ’02 Filmmaker
Crystal de Gregory, Ph.D. ’03 Founder & Executive Editor HBCUStory, Inc.
Anna Wilkins Presidential Scholar Political Science Major
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John Rigeuer, Ph.D. ’03 Scientist, Commissariat a L’Energie et aux Energies Alternative (CEA) Grenoble, FRANCE
Hampton alumnus R. Preston Clark says screenwriting allows him to mix his love of storytelling with poetic license.
Lights, Camera, Action HBCU Alumni Turn Their Eyes to the Film Industry By Meagan Krystina Williams and Christina Sturdivant
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n a conversation about HBCU alumni and their impact on the film industry, “School Daze” and “Spike Lee” are not only recurring keywords, but often the extent of the conversation. Despite the fact that the graduating institutions of many filmmakers is not often touted, HBCU alumni are making unique, undeniable and unstoppable marks on the film industry and are helping to change the perceptions of Black characters along the way. In many mainstream “Black” movies, the prototypical “mad Black woman,” “old Black church lady” and “wayward young Black boy slinging crack on the corner,” frustrate a number of Black audiences. While those portrayals may not be wholly inaccurate, they are extremely marginalized and present the
entirety of society with an opportunity to mentally reinforce unflattering perspectives of Black people. But HBCU alumni, who often spend the entirety of their collegiate careers confronting the realities of race and racial perceptions, do a brilliant job of skillfully and artistically challenging these stigma-strengthening depictions by presenting images that depict Black characters in diverse lights. San Diego Calif. native, R. Preston Clark discovered screenwriting as a print journalism major at Hampton University. “I fell in love with it because it combined all my favorite things,” he says. “It allowed me to tell stories, which is the reason why I loved journalism, then it had some of the creative
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license of poetry and I’ve always loved movies. So combining film with my love for writing seemed like the right thing to do.” Clark’s first screenplay he hopes to hit the big screen, God Gave us Tomorrow is the tale of two college students who fall in love through poetry, but have to fight for their relationship due to family issues. While still in the early stages of production, Clark’s script has caught the attention of actor and Howard University alumnus Isaiah Washington who has signed on to produce and star in the film. “He said he loves it because it’s Love Jones part 2,” says Clark. Clark largely attributes his ability to craft characters with depth and storylines with such intensity to the opportunity he had to attend Hampton University, where he says he “met and got to know such an interesting collection of Black people who represent so many different facets of life.” Ordinarily, he explains, “we are limited to the Black experience that is specific to us, and that is not an accurate depiction of the Black experience [overall].” The sort of insight Clark reveals having is inherently unique to HBCU alumni who have had an opportunity to interactively realize how very vast the spectrum of the African-American experience is. This realization is reflected in the way HBCU alumni cinematically illuminate the seldom-acknowledged truths about Black culture…truths that once acknowledged, significantly contribute to the understanding of the complexity of the Black American experience. HBCU alumni have a deliberate, undeniable effect on the evolution of the film industry and on its audiences. The impact garners its undeniability from the well-preparedness of the HBCU alumni behind the projects. Former Howard University student and unsung film industry heavyweight Kenny Buford says his Howard experience played a critical role in helping to prepare him for a career in film. “You [have to] be fearless when you write, and to be fearless you have to feel like your audience will get it,” he said. “The first audience I had was at Howard University, and going to Howard let me know that I’d have an audience that would listen.” As a film professor and chair of St. Augustine’s department of film and interactive media, Natalie Bullock-Brown can attest that this type of self-certainty that leads to success among HBCU film students is woven into the way the HBCU leadership caters to their student body. “Going to an HBCU for film tends to be a more nurturing environment than you might not find at a PWI,” she says, “You get a level of attention and one on one interaction at an HBCU that you’re not going to get elsewhere and that helps you to feel more confident because it causes you to feel like you’re cared for and you’re not one in a thousand different students that are filmmaking hopefuls.” For the past seven years, Bullock-Brown counts it a privilege to be able to impart her knowledge into the lives of her students and be able to “have an and impact and influence on young African American students and steer them in a direction that will help them to realize their dreams.” Once HBCU alumni graduate, the road to film production
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is far from easy. Many are denied mainstream permission, acceptance or validation and are faced with limited resources, small budgets and minimal marketing assistance. Recognizing the limitations that Black filmmakers face in the industry, Howard University’s Film Department strives to provide a wealth of resources to students during their time in undergrad, which spans far beyond the classroom. Historically, Howard students have attended film festivals in West Africa, the Caribbean, Cannes, Canada as well as in the US. Howard professors also encourage and help students go to use social media, network, complete internships and work with faculty on their projects. Still says, Dr. Paula Whatley Matabane, Associate Professor and TV Production Sequence Coordinator at Howard University, HBCU’s “could do better by understanding institutionally how critical culture and media are to the well-being and development of people of African descent, especially given the reality of our 400 year history in America. We have to overcome the stereotyping, distortions and lies about who we are and our history.” To do so, she believes, HBCUs should take actions such as increasing media budgets to purchase more and better equipment and facilities, keep students up to date on latest technology and software and be more creative in using broadband and social media for distribution of student and faculty products. During his time in the industry, Buford recalls that “at every corner of my career, past and present, there’s been somebody like myself that’s gone to an HBCU, be it a fellow writer, or an executive.” He went on to explain how he is always mindful of the fact that he has “a responsibility to [his] people,” and while he along with many Black filmmakers have been pidgeonholded as “Black writers,” he takes it all in stride. “I never had a problem with being called a Black writer or a hip hop writer,” he says. “I know who my audience is and I do what I do because I love it.” As a documentary filmmaker focusing on social justice issues, the types of films that Bullock-Brown produces deal with issues that are pertinent to the Black community specifically. In the larger scope, she still believes that just by the fact that a Black person is doing a story, even if its not “Black” story, it’s tilted based on their reality and the experiences which “is going to impact the way that we tell that story—regardless of whether you’re trying to tell a story that is a Black or not, your Blackness is going to come through.” To this end, Clark feels that is imperative that each new generation of filmmakers have the right to tell their version of the Black experience and life in general, and he plans to serve as a vessel to produce high-quality work that will inspire the next generation and make a difference. “If my characters are actually blessed to be seen by the mass public, they have to be a representation us that we can be proud of and the younger generation has to be able to see that. Just like with any craft, you look to those who came before you to see what’s possible and to eclipse that. We want that next generation to eclipse what’s happening right now and they can’t do that unless they see that its possible.”
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Panel One (left): Native Forms portrays interpretation various African icons found in cave paintings, sculpture and masks, and their relationship to cultural activities of African people. It implies an affinity African artists have with nature. Panel Two (right): Interchange refers to the ongoing cultural exchange among Africans and Europeans, and the subsequent influences that shaped Western civilization.
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From www.cau.edu:
The Art of the Negro murals were painted by Hale Aspacio Woodruff (1900-1980) and consist of six canvas panels housed in the atrium of Trevor Arnett Hall at Clark Atlanta University. Woodruff, art professor and founder of the Atlanta University art department and permanent collections painted the series between 1950-1951. Woodruff intended to provide students of an historically Black university, and its visitors, with images of Black Americans’ cultural past. Referring to his motive for painting the murals, Woodruff stated: “It portrays what I call the Art of the Negro. This has to do with a kind of interpretive treatment of African art. ... I look at the African artist certainly as one of my ancestors regardless of how we feel about each other today. I’ve always had a high regard and respect for the African artist and his art. So this mural, ... is for me, a kind of token of my esteem for African art.” - Hale Aspacio Woodruff www.hbcudigest.com
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Panel Three: Dissipation dramatizes the colonization and subjugation of Africa by European cultures with specific reference to the British burning of the city Benin in 1897 and the looting of all their art.
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Panel Four: Parallels illustrates the relationships and commonalities among the ancient and traditional art forms of non-European cultures (i.e., Mayans, Aztecs, African, New Guinea and Amercian Indians).
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Panel Five: Influences conveys the impact of traditional art forms (assigning African art the central role) on the development of Western art in the 20th Century.
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Panel Six: Muses symbolizes the involuntary marriage of African and European cultures and the evolution of the African artist (as represented in the center) in the Western hemisphere. Seventeen important artists of color who symbolize this cultural background represent Woodruff ’s notion including Iqueigha, 13th century sculptor, 20th Century primitive, Joshua Johnston, colonial portraitist; Henry O. Tanner, religious painter and Jacob Lawrence, a contemporary narrative serial painter.
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Hampton University From Hampton.edu: Emancipation did not happen at once everywhere in the United States and its territories. It came to different regions at different times. Hampton University successfully acquired one of three pens of identical construction which President Abraham Lincoln used in 1862 and 1863 to sign the three proclamations which emancipated enslaved African-Americans. The Pen of Liberty, although very simple in construction, is a symbol of the strength and tenacity not only of the founder of Hampton but for the generations of graduates from this university and the members of the surrounding community.
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Hampton University boasts the nation’s oldest African-American museum. It features works highlighting African-American, African, American Indian and Asian Pacific Islander cultures in over 9,000 works and exhibits.
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North Carolina Central University The North Carolina Central University Museum of Art serves as home to Robin Holder’s “A Layered Perspective” exhibit. Select images are shown in the pages that follow. Below: People That Love You (1999). Pg. 24: Nina’s Choice (1994) Pg. 25: The Future Rests in How I Teach My Child (2013) Pg. 26: Good Guys and Bad Guys (1998) Pg. 27: Try to Protect Them (2009)
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Woodruff ’s Amistad Murals Atlanta University’s Hale Woodruff was commissioned to paint a series of murals, known as the Amistad Murals, in 1938, and they have become known as one of his best documented works. From Talladega.edu: “After completing a time in Mexico City studying and working with Diego Rivera, Woodruff went to Talladega and completed a true documentation through art of La Amistad and its cargo. The first series of murals were done in three panels (shown below and opposite). The first, The Revolt, depicts an April 1839 mutiny onboard the Amistad after 53 Africans were kidnapped from what is now known as Sierra Leone and sold into the Spanish slave trade. The second, The Trial, represents what would become the first civil rights case in America. Former President John Quincy Adams argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of the captives. In 1841, the 35 surviving Africans won their freedom, and were returned to Africa. In the third panel (bottom right), Woodruff illustrates the landing of the repatriated slaves back on the shores of their native continent in his Return to Africa panel. The principal figures in this panel are Cinque—often regarded as leader of the Africans, James Steel (a missionary who wanted to return with the repatriated slaves in order to immerse himself in God’s work) and Margue, a Black woman whose son would later return to the U.S. to receive a Ph.D. from Yale. Woodruff also painted a second set of murals, the Founding Panels, for Talladega College to show the transition from slavery to freedom and highlight Talladega’s role in the transition.
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The Founding Panels
Woodruff ’s fourth mural for Talladega (The Underground Railroad, above) depicted what is considered perhaps the most dramatic protest against slavery in the United States.
Opening Day at Talladega College was Woodruff ’s fifth mural for the institution. In 1867, many of the freedmen for whom the school was built were unable to pay tuition on the first day of registration, so they bartered with chickens, pigs, barrels of fruits and vegetables, musical instruments, a plow, sugar cane—pretty much anything the school would accept. Swayne Hall, the oldest building on campus, is shown in the background.
The Building of Savery Library celebrates the construction of the library, which was funded by a $65,000 grant from The Harkness Foundation, in addition to the sale of land, an insurance settlement from a burned barn and indivuidual contributions. Students furnished much of the labor for the building.
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January 2014
You’re sitting in your first class. After initial introductions, you learn that right in front of you is a veteran who has served his country for decades abroad. To your right is a shy young man on his first extended stay since leaving his hometown of Laurel, Mississippi. To your left is an extroverted evangelist and physics major from Nigeria who’s doing research you’ll never be able to pronounce. Finally, just behind you is a biology major from Chicago whose sole passion is to quickly get the foundation from which she someday will return to her neighborhood as a doctor. And you? Well, you immediately realize that you, too, are special. You are an Alabama A&M University student with a powerful mixture of dream, potential and the drive to make it all happen. You are A&M. Nestled in the final stretches of the Appalachians, this hillside campus boasts a location within one of the most liveable cities in the world. Its academics are bolstered by a gifted faculty with a thirst for research and learning. And, diverse undergraduate and graduate degrees offer the more than 5,000 students curricula leading toward Ph.D. degrees in several areas. Join us. Make your first class first-class. From community and regional planning to apparel, merchanising and design to food science and physics--AAMU brings together the world and its views, handing both to you one classroom at a time. Experience Engagement ... Fulfillment ... Celebration!
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HBCU Digest is the national news resource of record for historically Black colleges and universities. About Us
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Advertise with us! Advertising with the Digest is an ideal way to promote events, campaigns, products and education and career opportunities to an engaged audience. HBCUDigest.com (Two banner ads - 728x90, 300x250) $500/month, $2,500/annual HBCU Digest monthly print edition (Full page color print ad) $750/month, $5,000/annual
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