Illustrated Black History
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
*AWARD WINNER* of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Debut Author / and the NCBR Recognition Award
A gorgeous collection of 145 original portraits that celebrates Black pioneers—famous and little-known--in politics, science, literature, music, and more—with biographical reflections, all created and curated by an award-winning graphic designer.
Illustrated Black History is a breathtaking collection of original portraits depicting black heroes—both famous and unsung—who made their mark on activism, science, politics, business, medicine, technology, food, arts, entertainment, and more. Each entry includes a lush drawing or painting by artist George McCalman, along with an insightful essay summarizing the person’s life story.
The 145 entries range from the famous to the little-known, from literary luminary James Baldwin to documentarian Madeline Anderson, who produced “I Am Somebody” about the 1969 strike of mostly female hospital workers; from Aretha Franklin to James and Eloyce Gist, who had a traveling ministry in the early 1900s; from Colin Kaepernick to Guion S. Bluford, the first Black person to travel into space.
Beautifully designed with over 300 unique four-color artworks and accessible to readers of all ages, this eye-opening, educational, dynamic, and timely compendium pays homage to Black Americans and their achievements, and showcases the depth and breadth of Black genius.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Graphic designer McCalman expands on his project to paint one "Black history pioneer" every day for a month in this vibrant and stylish portrait collection. The book's 145 subjects include basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, poet Maya Angelou, and essayist James Baldwin, as well as lesser-known figures like abolitionist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, who refused to give up her seat in the "colored" section of a Philadelphia trolley car in 1858; James Hemings, who was enslaved by Thomas Jefferson and became the "first American to be trained as a chef in France"; and Baby Esther Jones, the Harlem jazz singer whose "boop-boop-a-doop" was appropriated for the cartoon character Betty Boop. Each pioneer gets a full-page illustration and an accompanying biographical sketch highlighting their achievements; civil rights attorney Eva Jefferson Paterson, for example, "deftly summarized the violent history of American politics" in a televised debate with Vice President Spiro Agnew when she was student government president of Northwestern University. There are also essays from James Beard Award winner Bryant Terry, journalist Patrice Peck, and others about their influences. The portraits, which range from brisk line drawings to saturated watercolors, complement the diversity and unruliness of the people profiled. This vivid survey of Black history leaps off the page.
