Summertime...in Bronzeville - Impromptu

Bronzevillian Renaissance in Bronzeville & beyond.....

Driving on a warm summer day... thinking about the movie I had been watching titled Brother to Brother. The film is about a young student who is learning about himself and how to express his artistry while also learning about writers during the Harlem Renaissance..... The film steps back in time and looks at these writers in Harlem such as Langston Hughes , Zora Neale Hurston and more....

Writer- Zora Neal Hurston

I began reflecting upon my own experiences with

artists and writers in Bronzeville...and my own artistic coming of age in Chicago.

I spent many a summer at the Lake Meadows Art Fairs and Harper Court Art Fairs dancing with the Sun Drummers, floating 2 the Gold Coast Art Fair up north with my cousin, painter, Frank Smith and cruising through the 57th St Art Fair in Hyde Park.

River of Darkness

by Frank Smith

I spent a summer selling my own pen & ink notecards and performing in an African dance troupe to raise money 2 get to the Motherland for the first time......Ghana.......

I've spent fun nights out with dancers, mimes and crazy folk going to see the Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey......laughing at the Bistro and dancing 2 Old School... House and Funk at NEO's back in the day-day.

Listening 2 the poets rock some neo - soul floetry, I reflect on how The Last Poets were my beginnings. Jazzoetry is Poetry!

Jam Sessions at home.....Old Town jazz at the Pickle Barrel and Lincoln Avenue clubs like Ratso's and of course, the Jazz Showcase, near north was my entre' into my love for live music.

As a musician.......I've spent many a minute in numerous bands playing numerous gigs that flowed into one long musical memory of gigs, jam sessions and concerts. Memories of Miles Davis, Sun Ra concerts and Jazz Fests in Chicago flow through my mind.

I can almost feel the wail of the guitar from the Blues Fest and the shout of the Gospel Fest that rings in June in the summertime.

I spent a lifetime as a Nubian in Bronzeville who lived right around the corner from THE Blues club........The original Checkerboard... so I heard the Blues anytime I wanted.....

Culturally, I realize I've been spoiled... growing up in Bronzeville and in Chicago.

There's so many cultural feasts in the summer flow in Chicago - from music festivals and food sampling at the Taste - to the Bud Biliken Parade marching bands from all over the country.

There's a cultural richness that shines like sunshine... that it carries me through the Hawk in Chicago's winter.

Then I began to dig deeper... to go way back in the way back.... thinking about the stories I had been told about my mother's own experiences with the writer, Langston Hughes back in the day in Bronzeville when he would come to visit her home....

Writer-Langston Hughes

Artists have always been around my family.......

I remember seeing Gwendolyn Brooks and Margaret Burroughs come to visit our home. I remember visiting Etta Moten Barnett on ML King drive with my mom very shortly before I went on a trip to West Africa. Mrs. Barnett gave me  a donation to help me on my journey.

Poetess-Gwendolyn Brooks

I remember visiting the Art Institute, loving the lions and going to exhibits at the Bronzeville's Art Institute-The Southside Community Art Center.

I remembered painting a mural with my mother, sister and with the Father of Muralist art, Bill Walker, right on 44th st on the side of Price School. It was mural that spoke to the lifestyles in the community. As I drive past these days... that mural has been replaced.

In Bronzeville, Walker began a Muralist Movement in Chicago starting with his mural titled the Wall of Respect in 1967.

Wall of Respect-Chicago 1967

by Muralist - Painter Bill Walker

Fast forward 2 now........ Saturday July 19, 2008 I feel like I'm in a movie of my own... except it's the Bronzeville Renaissance and it's own parallel universe.....

On the way to Lake Meadows Shopping center for a snack with a song writing buddy suddenly I feel the urge to show them my grandmother's old house so I turn off King drive and head down Calumet.

I'm drivin' past 3219 and see that the door's open... The owner is chatting with someone and it looks like maybe an art exhibit opening. I stop to chat with the gallery owner, Helen West. She invites me in to catch the last moments of a book signing for an author....

Once inside the mansion I pause.. remembering moments at the house as a child growing up and marvel at the changes that have been made in the internal design...while enjoying the intense color on the walls, the paintings and the overall gallery and energy of the space today....

As I began to chat with the author, she told me of her inspiration and how she came to write her story about a woman who contemplates suicide in eight days.

I met a male singer who regaled us with some low-down blues acapella.

It was so low that I just had 2 give him a little harmony 2 go with the flow.

A glass of wine, some chocolate covered strawberries, a chat with a photographer, a mini tour through the setting of intense paintings and sculptures and a flow of creative exchange in conversations made the movie come 2 life in this impromptu moment in Bronzeville.

I believe the spirit has a mind of its own...... making me turn down the street where my grandmother lived and where the the arts still do...

On the gig....Jazz Pianist, Paul Smith

Paul Smith and saxophonist, Keith Robinson - Chicago

Jam Sessions at the home of my Grandfather.....

Jam Sessions Back in the Day.... before Cherokee

Many a piano player came to the Jam sessions at my grandfather's house on 65th and Rhodes.

My father, Paul Smith was a jazz pianist. His family, the Smiths were all musicians. Pianist, Art Tatum was my father's hero and a great friend. He would come to jam after-hours after the gig.

Folks would stand outside to listen to the music. And it was a diverse group inside....who came to play and listen. All night jam sessions were a way of life and musicians would come in town and walk right in. During that time, nobody locked their doors. Musicians would come and knock... hoping for a shot to see if GOD was in the house. Classical and jazz were required to make it through the Smith jams. No slacking allowed and you better know the bridge.....to the song.

After hours.....

Legendary Pianist,

Art Tatum plays at 6557 S. Rhodes

Photo courtesy of the Aki Antonia Collection c2008
All rights reserved. Do not reprint without permission.

My grandmother's home at 3219 S Calumet

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1890's, 

the Robert W Rolston Homes 

was one of the only row houses that Wright constructed.

At 3219......

Growing up in Bronzeville included spending lots of time at my grandmother's home at 3219 S Calumet. My love for the architecture in Bronzeville started there at her home. I spent many years visiting family and hunting for Easter eggs in that huge mansion. 

My grandmother purchased the home in the 1940's and all her children lived there with their families. My mother's family lived in the home for thirty plus years into the late 1970's.

My grandmother had a great love for the arts and it was a home where she hosted many artistic people. My mother and her family were encouraged to pursue their artistic dreams there. Many artists and writers came to visit. My mother was an artist during the W.P.A. period and studied with the late George Neal, an African-American painter of that period. The spirit of the arts lives on in the home today, as it has been transformed by its owner currently into an art gallery named Neleh Galleries International.

My mother, (left) Annie Smith creates sculpture at the Ada S. McKinnley Center.

At the center, there was a colony of artists which included artists, George Neal, William Carter and the father of writer, Euseni Eugene Perkins, artist, Marion Perkins. 

My mother was a W.P.A. artist at the oldest art Center in the nation and in Bronzeville, the South Side Community Art Center on 38th and Michigan. 

Her friends and contemporaries included artist, Margaret Burroughs, Poet Laureate, Gwendolyn Brooks, writer, Langston Hughes and muralist, Bill Walker, creator of the Wall of Respect. She was also an artist who studied with and was painted in portrait by artist, George Neal in a painting titled " The Unfinished Portrait of Ann." 

Photos are from the AA Collection. c2008. All rights reserved.

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