ARTSPEAK! Harlem Renaissance poem "The Birthday Birds of Bonaventure Island" (for Lee)

Welcome to day #13 of 2018 ARTSPEAK!, in which I am focusing on art and artists from the Harlem Renaissance. Today I am in Tallahassee, FL, where I will be visiting family (yay!) and participating in the Word of the South Festival tomorrow... on stage at noon, with author-illustrator Laura Freeman.

And it's a very special Poetry Friday, thanks to our hostess with the mostest, Robyn Hood Black, who's throwing a birthday party for the one and only Lee Bennett Hopkins!!! Be sure to grab cake and confetti and other mayhem during today's Roundup at Life on the Deckle Edge.

To celebrate, I decided to write today's poem for Lee!

Before we get to today's poem, please be sure and visit Linda at A Word Edgewise to see how our Progressive Poem is progressing!

Today I'm continuing my Harlem Renaissance poetry project by introducing another artist, the third so far in this series: Palmer Hayden.

Here are the poems in the series so far:

"Boat Dock, Early Evening" after Boats at the Dock by Palmer Hayden
"Prayer for the Berry Pickers" after Berry Pickers by Palmer Hayden
"Sometimes Books Are the Only Playground I Need" after Among Them is a Girl Reading by Palmer Hayden
"Measurements" after Octoroon Girl by Archibald Motley
"Barbeque" after Barbecue by Archibald Motley

"American Idyll, 1934" after An Idyll of the Deep South by Aaron Douglas
"The Toiler" after The Toiler by Aaron Douglas
"Let There Be Poetry" after The Creation by Aaron Douglas
"Boy with Plane" after Boy with Plane by Aaron Douglas
"To a Dancer" after Sahdji (Tribal Women) by Aaron Douglas
"For the Builders" after Building More Stately Mansions by Aaron Douglas
"This Poem is a Dream" after Aspiration by Aaron Douglas

I learned in the book HARLEM STOMP! that Hayden was a janitor and then came to prominence as the first winner of the Harmon Foundation art competition in 1926 (an art contest created to recognize African American artists). Much of Hayden's work centered on black American life, legends and folk heroes. He was criticized for lapsing into a portrayal of blacks that seemed rooted in cultural stereotypes, a reminder that “blacks were performing for a white audience.” I also love the information about Palmer's life and work found here.

And I love this quote: "I decided to paint to support my love of art, rather than have art support me." — Palmer Hayden quoted in Nora Holt, "Painter Palmer Hayden Symbolizes John Henry," New York Times, 1 Feb. 1947. We'll be sticking with Hayden for a few more days.

One thing I learned about Palmer Hayden is that he painted a lot of boats and seascapes, both here in the U.S. and in Europe... and Canada, as it turns out! I learned that thanks to today's piece: Isle de Bonaventure.

The Isle of Bonaventure is off the coast of Quebec, Canada, and it is hosts a significant migratory bird population. The birds in the painting are gannets (which I'd never heard of). It's their black-tipped wings that give them away! Read more here.

And since today is Lee's birthday, and we're all celebrating, I thought first of playing a version of "Happy Birthday" on my cello, but I'm in a hotel room (!), and so I thought the best I could do is make my poem somehow about Lee's birthday. Here's where I landed. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEE!

The Birthday Birds of Bonaventure Island

- for Lee Bennett Hopkins on his 80^th birthday

The gannets wing in

same time each year

their graceful white bodies

warming the sky,

each wingbeat

echoing past year's journey:

its hurricanes

and oil spills

its glide-rise currents

and stunning skyscapes.

Have you ever seen

so many birds?

Look closer:

their black tipped wings

are commas,

urging you onward,

                        ever onward.

- Irene Latham