Ellington Was Not a Street
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In a reflective tribute to the African-American community of old, noted poet Ntozake Shange recalls her childhood home and the close-knit group of innovators that often gathered there. These men of vision, brought to life in the majestic paintings of artist Kadir Nelson, lived at a time when the color of their skin dictated where they could live, what schools they could attend, and even where they could sit on a bus or in a movie theater.
Yet in the face of this tremendous adversity, these dedicated souls and others like them not only demonstrated the importance of Black culture in America, but also helped issue in a movement that "changed the world." Their lives and their works inspire us to this day, and serve as a guide to how we approach the challenges of tomorrow.
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Ellington Was Not a Street takes us into a time of bold African-American community, experienced by poet Ntozake Shange when she was a child in her family home. It was a time of the congregation of Duke Ellington and Paul Robeson, Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Barretto, W. E. B. DuBois and the Clovers, and Shange was a witness to it all. Illustrated brilliantly by the amazing Kadir Nelson.
