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How an Artist Learned About Freedom From ‘The Negro Motorist Green Book’ | The New York Times

African American Art, African American History ... Posted by: KOLUMN Magazine Staff

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How an Artist Learned About Freedom From ‘The Negro Motorist Green Book’ | The New York Times

Meredith Mendelsohn, The New York Times



[dropcap]On[/dropcap] a recent wintry morning, the multimedia artist Derrick Adams was sitting in his cozy basement studio in Brooklyn talking about distant cities and faraway times. “It’s like reading a fairy tale book. I see the names of beauty schools and men’s clubs and taverns, and I think, ‘What does that place look like?’”

Derrick Adams, African American Art, African American Artist, Black Art, Black Artists, The Negro Motorist Green Book, The Green Book, African American History, Black History, KOLUMN Magazine, KOLUMN“Figure in the Urban Landscape 3,” 2017, Derrick Adams

Mr. Adams was referring to the establishments listed in the “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” a series of AAA-like guides for black travelers published from 1936 through 1966, and the inspiration for “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary,” an immersive installation opening at the Museum of Arts and Design (known as MAD) on Jan. 25. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″]

Widely used at a time when African-Americans were navigating physical and social mobility through the swamp of Jim Crow laws and attitudes in the mid-20th century, the Green Books, as they came to be known, listed businesses from gas, food and lodging to nightclubs and haberdasheries that welcomed African-Americans when many did not.

Derrick Adams, African American Art, African American Artist, Black Art, Black Artists, The Negro Motorist Green Book, The Green Book, African American History, Black History, KOLUMN Magazine, KOLUMNA Collage in progress,Derrick Adams

While they reflect a disturbing reality of American history, the books also offered the hope of partaking in the American dream. “They enabled African-Americans to travel like Americans and to feel American,” the artist said.

Recognized internationally for his kaleidoscopic explorations of the black experience, Mr. Adams, 47, who is African-American, is the first major visual artist to use the Green Books as a creative point of departure. For him, they are not only a Civil Rights artifact and instrument of social change, but also a fascinating record of black leisure time and the built environment — subjects that are continuously percolating in his work.

Derrick Adams, African American Art, African American Artist, Black Art, Black Artists, The Negro Motorist Green Book, The Green Book, African American History, Black History, KOLUMN Magazine, KOLUMN

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