Flâneur

In my dreams I am a Lady Flâneur with camera. My name Sophronia The Famous Female Flapper Flâneur of the Harlem Renaissance. Little known lost Twin Flame and alter ego of my Grandmother EVA SOPHRONIA GORDON PALMER.

https://dancingpalmtrees.com/category/eva-sophronia-gordon-palmer-grandmother/

Take my picture in Flapper Finery and transport me back to the Roaring Twenties.

I would be in the Salon of the day hobnobbing with Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Augusta Savage, Elizabeth Catlett, and Dorothy West. My photograph would be taken by the famous Black photographer James Van Der Zee.

Every week would be infamously dyed a different shade of Red. Cherry Crush, Vampire Red, Rose Red, Flaming Electric Lava Red, Passion Red all to match my Fiery personality. A Great Beauty like my Aunt Thelma Palmer Varner.

Aunt Thelma circa 1940s or 50s — Thelma Rosalie Palmer Varner

I’d Charleston and Lindy Hop across 125th Street. Why Yes I’d be a Name. I’d be a Personality. Pizzazz in a Petite Package. Bohemian. Footloose and Fancy Free. Carefree with no worries.

I’d be a Jazz Baby with the likes of Duke Ellington. Singers such as Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong.

Holding court in Mt. Morris Park armed with my Eastman Kodak Brownie there to see and be seen capturing every day Harlemites and Glorious Black Culture. Moving easily and seamless between the 20th and 21st Centuries as the First Time Traveling Female Flâneur. Racing forward in time for a day at Rockaway Playland with a same day trip to Coney Island. No boundaries. Nothing to hold me back. I’d Fly Free as as a Winged Spirit beyond dimensions laughing through eternity. A wiggle of the nose. A tug on the ear. Three 3 clicks of my red patent leather shoes and in milliseconds there I’d be on yet another Fabulous Adventure!! ❤ ❤

Imagination and Day Dreams can take you places where reality does not permit you to go. Fantasy…………..Happiness…………..

Soon a Return to Caturday!

Caturday, July 1st 2017

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/wanderlust/

The Daily Post

PHOTO CHALLENGE

Wanderlust

Wanderlust: A History of Walking

A Great Book. Definitely a Five 5 Star Read.

WANDERLUST: A HISTORY OF WALKING

Penguin Books

June 1, 2001

336 pages

Drawing together many histories-of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores-Rebecca Solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking.

Arguing that the history of walking includes walking for pleasure as well as for political, aesthetic, and social meaning, Solnit focuses on the walkers whose everyday and extreme acts have shaped our culture, from philosophers to poets to mountaineers.

She profiles some of the most significant walkers in history and fiction-from Wordsworth to Gary Snyder, from Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet to Andre Breton’s Nadja-finding a profound relationship between walking and thinking and walking and culture. Solnit argues for the necessity of preserving the time and space in which to walk in our ever more car-dependent and accelerated world.

Jacob Lawrence

On February 10, 2017February 10, 2017 By dancingpalmtreesIn Artist, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, The African Americans Many Rivers to Cross Episode 4- Making a way Out of no way 1897 1940, Uncategorized

Jacob Lawrence

http://www.jacobandgwenlawrence.org/

http://www.biography.com/people/jacob-lawrence-9375562

Jacob Lawrence Biography

Academic, Painter (1917–2000)

Jacob Lawrence was an American painter, and the most widely acclaimed African-American artist of the 20th century. He is best known for his Migration Series.

Synopsis

Born in New Jersey but raised in New York City’s Harlem, Jacob Lawrence was the most widely acclaimed African-American artist of the 20th century. Known for producing narrative collections like the Migration Series and War Series, he brought the African-American experience to life using blacks and browns juxtaposed with vivid colors. He also taught, and spent 15 years as a professor at the University of Washington.

Early Life and Career

Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 7, 1917, Jacob Lawrence moved with his parents to Easton, Pennsylvania, at the age of 2. When his parents separated in 1924, his mother deposited him and his two younger siblings in foster care in Philadelphia, and went to work in New York City. When he was 13, Lawrence joined his mother in Harlem.

Lawrence was introduced to art shortly after his arrival, when his mother enrolled him in Utopia Children’s Center, which had an after-school art program. He dropped out of school at 16 but took classes at the Harlem Art Workshop with Charles Alston and frequently visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1937, Lawrence won a scholarship to the American Artists School in New York. When he graduated in 1939, he received funding from the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project. He had already developed his own style of modernism, and began creating narrative series, painting 30 or more paintings on one subject. He completed his best-known series, Migration of the Negro or simply The Migration Series, in 1941. The series was exhibited at Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery in 1942, making Lawrence the first African-American to join the gallery.

World War II and After

At the outbreak of World War II, Lawrence was drafted into the United States Coast Guard. After being briefly stationed in Florida and Massachusetts, he was assigned to be the Coast Guard artist aboard a troopship, documenting the experience of war around the world. He produced 48 paintings during this time, all of which have been lost.

When his tour of duty ended, Lawrence received a Guggenheim Fellowship and painted his War Series. He was also invited by Josef Albers to teach the summer session at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Albers reportedly hired a private train car to transport Lawrence and his wife to the college so they wouldn’t be forced to transfer to the “colored” car when the train crossed the Mason-Dixon Line.

Back in New York after his stint in the south, Lawrence continued to paint. He grew depressed, however, and in 1949, he checked himself into Hillside Hospital in Queens, where he stayed for 11 months. He painted as an inpatient, and the work created during this time differs significantly from his other work, with subdued colors and people who appear resigned or in agony.

After leaving Hillside, Lawrence turned his attention to the theater. In 1951, he painted works based on memories of performances at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. He also began teaching again, first at Pratt Institute and later the New School for Social Research and the Art Students League.

Teaching and Commissions

In 1971, Lawrence accepted a tenured position as a professor at University of Washington in Seattle, where he taught until he retired in 1986. In addition to teaching, he spent much of the rest of his life painting commissions, producing limited-edition prints to help fund nonprofits like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Children’s Defense Fund and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He also painted murals for the Harold Washington Center in Chicago, the University of Washington and Howard University, as well as a 72-foot mural for New York City’s Times Square subway station.

Lawrence painted until a few weeks before he died, on June 9, 2000.

Personal Life

Lawrence married Gwendolyn Knight, a sculptor and painter, in 1941. She actively supported his work, providing both assistance and criticism, and helped him compose captions for many of his series.

http://www.jacobandgwenlawrence.org/

Hear the Artist in his own words.

Jacob Lawrence

The African Americans Many Rivers to Cross Episode 4- Making a way Out of no way 1897 1940

https://youtu.be/JIOH8QvaLSQ

Good Vacation News

On January 8, 2017 By dancingpalmtreesIn 1 Chronicles 4:10 New King James Version (NKJV), Christian, Christianity, Edward G. Palmer, Edward Gordon Palmer, Edward Palmer, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, Harlem Renaissance Exhibit at Yale, Jeremiah 29:11New King James Version (NKJV), Saratoga Dreaming........, Saratoga Springs, Saratoga, NY, Stephen, Stephen Vincent Palmer, Uncategorized12 Comments

Blogging Family,

Remember how I was moaning and groaning over the extremely high Con Edison bill and thought I was not going to be able to go away end of Feb/March 2017. Well I was wrong! I received this great email message a few days ago.

Hello, Deborah.

Thanks so much for your note and glad to hear of your interest and plans.

MetroNorth from Grand Central or 125th Street is the way to come — and it ends in New Haven at Union Station here. Beinecke Library is downtown in the heart of the Yale campus, an easy taxi/Uber from the station (and a nice enough walk if the weather is decent).

Our hours and other information are here: http://beinecke.library.yale.edu

The Yale University Art Gallery, among other venues on campus, are also worth checking out on a visit. Yale’s art museums, like Beinecke’s exhibitions, are free and open to the public. The Yale Calendar of Events — http://calendar.yale.edu/cal/opa — and Yale Arts Calendar — http://artscalendar.yale.edu/ — are great resources.

P.S. ~~ All that overtime I do helped me pay my half of the bill. My room-mate and I split the electric bill. Hard work does pay off and working on Holidays is a good thing! Mo’ Money! Mo’ Money! Mo’ Money!

So Yes I will be going to see the Yale Harlem Renaissance special exhibit for my birthday!! Hooray!! Maybe not right on Feb. 27th which will be my BornDay Celebration but I plan to take that week off on vacation anyway. My only consideration will be the weather as Snowstorms put an end to train travel. But with God’s Blessings and Divine Favor it will NOT Snow and the temps will rise to the 40s at least for my vacation week!

On the subject of Vacation Big Ups to both my Supervisors who are excellent young Ladies! They are a Blessing to work with. We work well together. They have a sense of humor and are Flexible! I know I’ve said this before but I cannot repeat it enough, I’m so Glad and Happy I moved to the Evening/Night Shift!! The rest of my co-workers on both the evening and night shifts are Super Nice. We have each others back and support each other. My work environment is the best its been in 8 years. This is my 9th year at the museum and I’m so Blessed to be with a community of people who are fun to be with.

As for Saratoga, well I did go there with my Dad many years ago and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip. My Dad Edward G. Palmer was a true Blessing for me and my brother Stephen as he took us many places and exposed us to locations outside New York City.

When I was in the military Daddy had more Father/Son bonding time. Daddy and Stephen went on an Alaskan cruise! I’m sure they had fun. Stephen was very close to Daddy and even though he can’t really tell me what they did I’m sure Stephen has fond memories of the Cruise.

The moral of the Story is that and always is God answers prayer. Maybe not in the way we want or on our time line but the Lord always comes through. For that I am Grateful.

As the Mothers of the Church used to say, God will make a way out of no way! Say Amen Somebody!!

1 Chronicles 4:10
New King James Version (NKJV)

10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.

Jeremiah 29:11 New King James Version (NKJV)

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

State of Mind | The Daily Post

On February 27, 2016February 27, 2016 By dancingpalmtreesIn Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, Uncategorized6 Comments

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/state-of-mind/

PHOTO CHALLENGE

State of Mind

This week, let your inner world and the outside one converge in a photo.

Billy Joel – New York State of Mind (Audio)

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New York Skyline as seen from Central Park

Harlem blues

Jay Z Empire State of Mind featuring Alicia Keys Lyrics

https://youtu.be/nFqgJdw5b_4

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Jay-Z & Alicia Keys Perform Empire State of Mind (AMA’s 2009)

https://youtu.be/RPQD5RT_MPg

The Classic One and Only Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra – New York, New York

The Daily Post ~~ Seat Guru

On November 28, 2015November 28, 2015 By dancingpalmtreesIn Harlem Renaissance, Uncategorized12 Comments

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/seat-guru/

Seat Guru

You get to plan a dinner party for 4-8 of your favorite writers/artists/musicians/other notable figures, whether dead or alive. Who do you seat next to whom in order to inspire the most fun evening?

I’d seat these Black Literary, Harlem Renaissance, Educators, Social, Political and Cultural Leaders in a semi-circle horseshoe fashion. That way they would be able to see, hear, discuss and listen to each other’s outlook on the state of the African diaspora in general and the state of Black America specifically.

I’d make liberal use of today’s innovative technology enabling this discussion to be broadcast worldwide.

Given their diverse lifestyles, experiences, and viewpoints we would be like sponges absorbing wisdom, knowledge and understanding I know the resulting dialogue and debate would be scintillating!