Visual Stories is an exhibit of fifty-one paintings by the renowned artist and children’s book illustrator, James Ransome, that depicts an extraordinary array of African American experiences, particularly from the Black South. The selected paintings span decades of collaboration with major publishers and numerous children’s authors, and reflect themes of emancipation from slavery, segregation and the Jim Crow era, and the strong family traditions that were necessary to maintain and keep the African American family together. Ransome’s paintings embody the powerful strength of family, faith, and fortitude that gives these people the courage to face difficult social and political conditions.
Two of our subscription databases, Grove Art Online and Grove Music Online, have recently been updated and given new names. Grove Art is now Oxford Art Online and is a combination of the former Grove Art Online and Oxford Art Reference. It is an extensive, authoritative online art resource available with search and browse capabilities. Users can choose to view biographies, subject entries, or images when searching or browsing. This functionality allows users greater access to the more than 23,000 subject entries, 21,000 biographies, 500,000 bibliographic citations, 40,000 image links and 5,000 images contained within Grove Art Online.
In May of 2002, President George W. Bush, by way of an official Presidential Proclamation, declared June as Black Music Month. During this month Americans are to celebrate the rich contributions made to our culture by "highlighting the enduring legacy of African-American musicians, singers, and composers." Here in Cleveland we can certainly take this idea one step further and celebrate the many fantastic contributors those of which have come from the citizens of our fair city. In previous posts (1,2,3) we highlighted several Cleveland-area African American Jazz musicians who's careers were quite successful. Listed below are those artists along with several others connected to the city of Cleveland:
The John G. White and Special Collections Department is currently displaying items on travelers, travel, exploration, and adventure, which includes items on gypsies or Romani, referred to as Travelers in some cultures. These nomadic wanderers carried their history and culture in carriage and caravan. Also on display are photograph albums of trips to the Western United States by John G. White and several fellow adventurers who are clearly caught up in the natural beauty of the vast resources of the American West. Featured are various images and narratives by men and women who followed a calling and set out to see new sights and experience cultures previously unknown to the West, as well as a collection of souvenir booklets from various locations in the United States and abroad. Born and raised in the Greater Cleveland area, Joe Lovano has been one of the most recognizable tenor saxophone players in jazz for the last twenty years. His versatile playing style has placed him in many unique situations from the basic jazz quartet to duos, nonets, and big bands. His series of recordings for Blue Note Records have won awards from Downbeat magazine and his 52nd Street Themes was nominated for a Grammy in 2006. He has periodically returned to Cleveland to share his talent and play tribute to his roots. Tadd Dameron, born in Cleveland, was a notable arranger and bandleader during the modern jazz era of the 1940s and 1950s. As a bandleader, he discovered trumpeters Fats Navarro and Clifford Brown, and composed many jazz standards. His arranging style influenced many jazz musicians including hard boppers and the futuristic Sun Ra.
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes, in seeing the universe with the eyes of another, of hundreds of others, in seeing the hundreds of universes that each of them sees. - Marcel Proust
Vanessa Rubin, born and raised in Cleveland, is among the finest of today's contemporary jazz singers. After working in Cleveland, she moved to New York City and released her first record for Novus in 1992. Influenced by Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, and Betty Carter, she continues to record for Telarc and perform in various venues including her Sing Dameron! The Tadd Dameron Vocal Legacy at the Kennedy Center in 2005. 
Albert Ayler expanded the expressive possibilities of jazz saxophone and helped to develop the free jazz of the 1960s. Born in Cleveland, Ohio he carried his music first to Europe and then to New York City bringing the ecstasy of gospel music into jazz. He worked with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, and Sonny Rollins; his own groups included his brother Donald, Gary Peacock, Sunny Murray, Charles Tyler, and Ronald Shannon Jackson. He influenced his contemporaries like Rollins, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, and Pharoah Sanders, and is an influence today on younger players including David Murray, Peter Brotzmann, Ken Vandermark, and Mats Gustafsson. 