Author Description

Jacob Lawrence came of age in Harlem during the Depression. Amidst racist oppression, hunger, and unhealthy circumstances, he found grace, humor, and heroism. All impelled him to record what he saw. The history he learned, in and out of school, moved him to interpret what he read and heard. Lawrence won national attention with 's 1941 publication of his powerful series, inspired by the massive 20th-century exodus of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. Lawrence acknowledged influences from a remarkably diverse group of predecessors, though these influences must have had to do with sensibility, not with technique, because Lawrence's visual style was all his own. This calendar presents paintings covering more than 50 years of Lawrence's long and distinguished career. All of Pomegranate's calendars are printed with soy-based inks on environmentally sourced paper.