why we “show up”
I got this wonderful email earlier this evening. I’ve spent the past few hours working on my powerpoint presentation for tomorrow’s talk at the Brooklyn Public Library; I’m presenting before up to 175 kids, most of whom haven’t read Bird…but the more I give these presentations, the better I am at “freestyling.” Shadra gave me a scanner months ago, and I never took it out of the box, but tonight I’ve been scanning old photographs to give kids a sense of who I was as a child and why Ezra Jack Keats’ books meant so much to me: I saw myself, for once! They had Afros, I had an Afro; they wore ponchos, I wore a poncho…
If nothing else, it should give them a reason to laugh. So I took a break from the ppt and found this lovely email from an attendee of the Brooklyn Museum conference:
Dear Zetta Elliott,
I just wanted to send (this somewhat belated) note saying how much I enjoyed your talk at the museum on Saturday. As a visual artist (I make artist books out of vintage textiles – corsets, doll beds – that have embroidered stories of women’s history) I’ll admit, a lot of the vocabulary was somewhat over my head…but I’ve got to tell you, that when you showed Mickalene Thomas’s work – it made me dash out of the symposium and up the stairs to see the painting – which just blew me away. The PPT slide didn’t do it justice – all those shiny pieces on it – were just truly dazzling – and it was so great to get really really excited over some art…and a woman’s work, I feel that it’s been a while for me anyway, and for that – I just wanted to say THANKS. I realize you are probably very very busy, so I will keep this short. If you are interested in seeing what I do – you can see my corset, bed and paper books at: web.mac.com/picturetown. Thanks again for such an interesting talk. I felt that you were a breath of fresh air, and I realize it wasn’t easy going last at the end of the day, but I thought at least, it was worth the wait!
Tammy Stone
Do check out the link–her artwork is amazing…hurray for women artists!
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