Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor's Life

by Marilyn Nelson Narrated by Marilyn Nelson, Grace Angela Henry

Overview

A powerful biography in poems¿ about a trailblazing artist and a pillar of the Harlem Renaissance-with an afterword by the curator 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 artists who, despite the limitations she faced, was compelled to forge a life through art and creativity.

Editorial Reviews

MARCH 2022 - AudioFile

Acclaimed poet Marilyn Nelson narrates her own words in this biography-in-verse of the Black sculptor and teacher Augusta Savage. Born in Florida in 1892, Savage moved to New York City in 1921. There her sculpture commissions earned her praise and scholarships for further study in Europe. With slow, elongated diction and a flat cadence, Nelson conveys the dreamy wonder of the artist’s inner world. While her deliberate-sounding narration is sometimes too careful to convey the authentic dialect and emotions of the artist and her community, the triumph of Savage’s accomplishments is unmistakable in Nelson’s voice. The afterword, narrated in a smooth journalistic tone by Grace Angela Henry, provides useful context for the poems. S.C. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

★ 11/29/2021

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. Written primarily in the first person, moving poems convey Savage’s artistic “hunger/ to pull something out of yourself” while tracing her Florida childhood as the seventh of 14 children (“beaten for making art”), her three marriages, her endeavors to make a living as an artist in New York and Europe, and her final quiet years in a Catskills town. Graceful descriptions of sculptures such as Gamin—“looks with a bemused, level/ gaze/ at the ridiculous/ and cruel stupidity/ this world abounds in/ his lips half curved, knowingly”—pay homage to her work, while concrete poems, including “The Figure of a Frog,” describe art as representation (“A figure of a frog is not a frog”). The appearance of several Black historical figures ground the poems in their era; photographs of Savage’s sculptures serve as a useful introduction to the artist’s art and legacy. Back matter includes a straightforward biographical afterword by Tammi Lawson, curator of the NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Ages 14–up. (Jan.)■

From the Publisher

Praise for Augusta Savage:
A Claudia Lewis Award Winner for Poetry by the Bank Street College of Education 
A BCALA Children & Young Adult Award Winner
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of the Year
A School Library Journal Best of the Year
A Kirkus Best Book of the Year​
A Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year
A CCBC Children's Choice
A CBC Teacher Favorite Award Winner
An Ohioana Book Award Finalist 
A Mississippi Magnolia Book Award Winner
A Junior Library Guild Selection

* "A stunning portrait of artistic genius and Black history in America."

—Booklist, starred review

* "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:

* "A towering achievement."

—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "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

School Library Journal

★ 04/01/2022

Gr 6 Up—Influential Harlem Renaissance artist Augusta Savage (1892–1962) rarely had the money to cast her art in bronze. Instead, what survives of her work, collected in major museums all over the country, is made of humble materials like plaster and clay. Her sculptures are realistic, insightful, and compassionate, much like the sure-footed poetry in this book by celebrated author Nelson. The artist's life—what is known of it—is related largely in the first person. A variety of poetic forms are precisely chosen to fit opportunities, setbacks, triumphs, and encounters with famous people, children, and a truly unhinged admirer. Poems are paired with archival photos and reproductions of artwork and often describe the act of creation and the puzzles that each subject poses—how to capture Marcus Garvey's "black light" or the clear-eyed determination of the young model for "Portrait Head of John Henry." One of the last poems describes Savage at the kitchen table in her home in rural Saugerties, NY, creating a bas-relief of a young dancer using plaster poured into a cookie sheet. This psychological portrait gathers the artist's natural talent, technical expertise, and love of teaching and creating, balanced against the restrictions she faced due to poverty, racism and misogyny, to leave readers with a woman as real and dimensional as the portraits she left the world. VERDICT A master poet breathes life and color into this portrait of a historically significant sculptor and her remarkable story.—Paula Willey

MARCH 2022 - AudioFile

Acclaimed poet Marilyn Nelson narrates her own words in this biography-in-verse of the Black sculptor and teacher Augusta Savage. Born in Florida in 1892, Savage moved to New York City in 1921. There her sculpture commissions earned her praise and scholarships for further study in Europe. With slow, elongated diction and a flat cadence, Nelson conveys the dreamy wonder of the artist’s inner world. While her deliberate-sounding narration is sometimes too careful to convey the authentic dialect and emotions of the artist and her community, the triumph of Savage’s accomplishments is unmistakable in Nelson’s voice. The afterword, narrated in a smooth journalistic tone by Grace Angela Henry, provides useful context for the poems. S.C. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2021-10-26
A renowned poet brings a Harlem Renaissance artist’s story to life.

Nelson focuses her poetic skills on Black sculptor and teacher Augusta Savage in this biography for budding historians, artists, and poetry lovers alike. Savage’s life makes for great material—she was born in Florida in 1892, a middle child with 13 siblings, into a world of racial discrimination. She was thrice married, the first time at only 15, and in 1921 moved to New York City in search of better opportunities. Savage created a number of stunning sculptures that captured elements and figures of contemporary Black life. Nelson’s arresting poetry, which is accompanied by photographs of Savage’s work, dazzles as it experiments with form and supplies elegant lines about the artist’s many triumphs and struggles. In one concrete poem, Nelson writes: “At eighteen, Gussie was widowed, with a / toddler older than her youngest siblings. / The family’s hand opened and closed / in welcome. But fingers remember.” The poems follow Savage’s life in chronological order, beginning with her birth and ending with a meditation on her striking 1959 sculpture, Bas Relief of a Female Dancer. At times the enticing verses beg for more biographical context to add weight; readers will benefit from starting with the informative afterword by Tammi Lawson, curator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

A lyrical biography from a master of the craft. (photo credits) (Verse biography. 12-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176405675
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	01/25/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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