Tag Archives: history

In Honor of Black History Month

Dunbar's Mask

Dunbar’s Mask

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
       We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
       We wear the mask!

Harlem

Sometimes a poem inspires me to illustrate it. This is one of my favorite poems and the painting that it inspired:


Harlem

by Langston Hughes

What happens tIM000040.JPGo a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat
Or crust and sugar over - 
Like a syrupy sweet

Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load. 

Or does it explode?

 

Thanks, Obama

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Black Love is Black Power

Politics aside, I’d like to thank President and Mrs. Obama for bringing 8 years of class, elegance, love, grace and warmth to the White House.

Wishing the Obama family much success in their future endeavors. You will be missed.

This original print is also available as a shower curtain, pillow, phone case, coffee mug and much more.

As old as 1968

Kwanzaa yenu iwe nahari. This means, “may your Kwanzaa be a happy one.”

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The Gift is available as prints or greeting cards at Fine Art America.

This holiday was started in 1968 by Maulana Ron Karenga after the Watts riots and is celebrated by millions of people of African decent in the US and the Caribbean. Continue reading →