Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe's vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat's own introduce young...

"There are many forms of art and literature. Learn about Black people who have excelled in literature and the arts, including author Jason Reynolds, dancer Misty Copeland, and painter Kehinde Wiley." --

"Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds--and...

In a powerful poem accompanied by majestic paintings of influentialmen, Shange reflects on her childhood when her home was often filled withvisionaries and talented artists like Ellington, DuBois, Gillespie, andRobeson.

A picture book biography about the barber shop of woodcarver Elijah Pierce, recipient of the highest folk art honor in the United States.

Born in Georgia at the end of the nineteenth century, Alma Woodsey Thomas defied society's expectations for black women. She did not marry, have children, or work as a domestic. Instead, Thomas was a teacher and an artist. Fascinated by nature and the universe, she could paint vivid scenes of everything from the trees in her yard to NASA's first moon landing. Readers will learn that she wouldn't win public acclaim for her art until later in life....

"Romare Bearden (1911-1988), one of the most prolific, original, and acclaimed American artists of the twentieth century, richly depicted scenes and figures rooted in the American South and the Black experience. Bearden hailed from North Carolina but wasforced to relocate to the North when a white mob harassed [his family] in the 1910s. His family story is a compelling, complicated saga of Black middle-class achievement in the face of relentless waves...

Introduces readers to Benny Andrews, one of the most important African-American painters of the 20th century.

"One of the most important and underappreciated visual artists of the twentieth century, Romare Bearden started as a cartoonist during his college years and emerged as a painter during the 1930s, at the tail end of the Harlem Renaissance and in time to bepart of a significant community of black artists supported by the WPA. Though light-skinned and able to "pass," Bearden embraced his African heritage, choosing to paint social realist canvases of...