BLOCKSON: VALERIO:
It’s going to be popular, too.
VALERIO:
Jerry, we’d like to ask about
your work for the African Burial Ground
I’d love to ask you a question,
National Monument.
Mr. Blockson, as a historian. How do you explain the Middle Passage to children,
PINKNEY:
to adults? It would be interesting to
was discovered in New York, in Lower
talk about how Jerry does it, and Julius
Manhattan. Now there is an interactive
Lester does it in the book, but as a
museum on that site. The National Park
historian—it’s not included in so many of
Service came to me and said that they
our history books, so how do you do it?
wanted to have these images of seven
BLOCKSON:
individuals who were believed to have
That’s a good question. It’s
been buried there. The Park Service
hard for me even to think about it. I have
supplied me with a little vignette for each
a mental block when I come to that
person, a backstory, and information
period, and those ships. Jerry, how did
about the clothes they would have worn.
you feel when you did the drawings for
The information they shared with me
The Old African? PINKNEY:
An African burial ground
came from clips of newspaper articles about escaping slaves. The images would
Well, I often talk about my work
be set up as life-size cutouts.
as my life. In my artistic process, there are times when I’m sad and there are
VALERIO:
times when there are tears, but there are
This figure, Peter Williams, Sr.,
is extremely elegant and beautifully
many times when there is joy. If you look
dressed.
at my work, you’ll see a sense of balance, so it isn’t all one thing. For The Old
BLOCKSON:
African, which was my most demanding
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in
and emotionally difficult project to date,
New York. He was enslaved and bought
it took me over a year to complete the
his own freedom. He became unhappy
body of paintings for the book. But then
with the unequal treatment of black
you’ll find I Want to Be, which is hopeful
parishioners at the John Street Methodist
and joyous.
Episcopal Church in New York.
26
He started the African