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Augusta Savage
The Shape of a Sculptor's Life
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A powerful biography in poems about a trailblazing artist and a pillar of the Harlem Renaissance—with an afterword by the curator of the Art & Artifacts Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Augusta Savage was arguably the most influential American artist of the 1930s. A gifted sculptor, Savage was commissioned to create a portrait bust of W.E.B. Du Bois for the New York Public Library. She flourished during the Harlem Renaissance, and became a teacher to an entire generation of African American artists, including Jacob Lawrence, and would go on to be nationally recognized as one of the featured artists at the 1939 World’s Fair. She was the first-ever recorded Black gallerist. After being denied an artists’ fellowship abroad on the basis of race, Augusta Savage worked to advance equal rights in the arts. And yet popular history has forgotten her name. Deftly written and brimming with photographs of Savage’s stunning sculpture, this is an important portrait of an exceptional artist who, despite the limitations she faced, was compelled to forge a life through art and creativity.
Excerpt
SECTION I
1892–1930
Portrait of a Baby
Leap-Year Baby
Augusta Christine Fells, 2/29/1892
Born on a date that in most years doesn’t exist—
the only recluse of the calendar—
born on the bonus day, the extra day,
that falls every fourth year, for some reason
most people can’t explain or understand.
To age by leap years, one to every four
years aged by ordinary people who
sprint toward their end. A leaper’s free to choose
to celebrate on February twenty-eighth,
or March first, or February twenty-ninth,
thus choosing how old, how special, to be.
Leap-year babies believe they are unique.
They know they’re born to make something happen.
But all of us are born knowing that. Right?
First Duckling
Gus Fells, 1898
from squish
to a formable ball,
head, body
wings, tail, feathers detailed by fingernails,
and to the pond-seeing eyes, the slightly smiling beak
coming closer and closer to a heartbeat in the caught
breath of a colored girl who feels like God
Fifth Duckling
Garden Figure
Birth Order
Augusta, born seventh of fourteen
The firstborn child is a perfectionist.
The second child is a people-pleaser.
The third child is a little hellion.
The fourth child feels somehow different.
The fifth child is a perpetual sidekick.
The sixth child seethes with secret rebellion.
The seventh child is beaten for making art.
The eighth child wins the blue ribbon for charm.
The ninth is shy; the tenth an extrovert.
The eleventh child can disappear at will.
The seventh child is beaten for making art.
The twelfth and thirteenth children are a set.
The fourteenth child is the baby for eighty years.
The seventh child is beaten for making art.
The Figure of a Frog
for Augusta Savage
Wildfire
The child made tiny somethings from pinches
of the clay she found right in the backyard.
Enough ducklings for a duckling parade,
enough little bunnies and mice to bring
the other children to squeals of delight.
A large family of small laughing pigs.
Banjo-playing, fiddling, cakewalking dogs.
But the God of her father sent Moses
down from the mountain with that Thou Shalt Not
against making images. Her father’s
fear of his God drove him to search for her
secret hiding places, to cut switches,
to beat the living daylights of art’s sin
out of her, a man beating back wildfire.
Girl with Pigtails
Fingers Remember
No Clay
While the Whole White World was at war
the Fellses grabbed the golden ring
of opportunity and moved
lock, stock, barrel, kit and caboodle
a few steps up to West Palm Beach.
There was a colored high school there, and jobs.
Gussie went back to school. Studied,
learned. Peace reigned in her father’s house.
Birth siblings and siblings-in-law,
nieces and nephews aplenty,
a table grace before each meal,
a nice young man to walk out with:
She was almost happy. Almost
forgot art, forgave the beatings.
But she could find no clay. No clay.
Strut, Miss Savage
What girl wouldn’t marry a guy
with such a terrific name? Who,
given a choice, wouldn’t toss off
her meh surname, like a wedding
bouquet, and become a Savage
from now on in? To choose her name,
and to create her own future,
to name herself herself, set free
of all of her past but the love.
Augusta Savage. Mrs. James
Savage. Mrs. Fierce. Mrs. Strong.
Miss Tiger with the secret smile,
in her own home, with her own man
who has vowed to love her daughter
as if she were his, and who stopped
the wagon at Chase Pottery
and waited while his wife ran in
to introduce herself, who jumped
out and ran to help her carry
the buckets of clay Mr. Chase
had given her. Me. Augusta
Savage. My new name, my true life.
Augusta Savage
Making
Before I knead, clay
is white canvas, empty page,
a night without dreams.
Little warming lump,
you look back out of my palm,
ask me for a face.
Shapes I remember
with the tips of my fingers
emerge, and confess.
The duckling parade
I made and Papa destroyed
Genre:
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Praise for Augusta Savage:
—Booklist, starred review
A Kirkus Best Book of the Year
A School Library Journal Best of the Year
A CCBC Children's Choice
A CBC Teacher Favorite Award Winner
A Claudia Lewis Award Winner for Poetry by the Bank Street College of Education
A BACLA-SLJ Honor Award Winner for Nonfiction
An Ohioana Book Award Finalist
A Junior Library Guild Selection
* "A stunning portrait of artistic genius and Black history in America." -
* "A wonderful addition to young people’s literature on African American artists."
—Horn Book, starred review -
* "In a rich biography in verse, Nelson (A is for Oboe) gives voice to the Black sculptor Augusta Savage (1892-1962), a key Harlem Renaissance figure."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review -
* "Nelson’s arresting poetry, which is accompanied by photographs of Savage’s work, dazzles as it experiments with form. … A lyrical biography from a master of the craft."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review - * "A master poet breathes life and color into this portrait of a historically significant sculptor and her remarkable story."—School Library Journal, starred review
-
Praise for A Wreath for Emmett Till:
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
* "A towering achievement." -
* "This memorial to the lynched teen is in the Homeric tradition of poet-as-historian . . . This chosen formality brings distance and reflection to readers, but also calls attention to the horrifically ugly events."
—School Library Journal, starred review -
"These poems are a powerful achievement that teens and adults will want to discuss together."
—Booklist, ALA starred review - "A moving elegy indeed." —The Bulletin
- On Sale
- Jan 25, 2022
- Page Count
- 128 pages
- Publisher
- Christy Ottaviano Books
- ISBN-13
- 9780316298025
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