By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM).  “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.

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By Jennifer Porter Gore | Word-In-Black | San Diego Voice and Viewpoint

In 2024, the number of U.S. mothers who died as a result of pregnancy or childbirth dropped compared to 2023. But while slightly fewer Black mothers died that year, they still had three times the mortality rate of white women.

South Carolina’s rates of maternal deaths outpaced even the national rates. In fact, the state’s overall rate of maternal deaths between 2019 and 2023 was higher than all but eight states and the District of Columbia.

Last month healthcare leaders, birth workers, and community members gathered to honor the legacy of Charleston native Dr. Janell Green Smith, a nurse-midwife and doctor of nursing practice who died in January from childbirth complications. She had participated in more than 300 births and specialized in helping Black women give birth safely.

Her death shocked the community and her colleagues who are determined to address concerns about Black maternal health. The event also covered the importance of protecting mental health during grief and of men’s role in solving the maternal health crisis.

As both a therapist and a father, Lawrence Lovell, a licensed professional counselor and founder of Breakthrough Solutions, discussed ways the event’s attendees could process their grief over Green Smith’s death. He also shared ways male partners can advocate for women’s maternal health during pregnancy and childbirth.

Lovell spoke not just as a therapist but also as a father whose own family had briefly crossed paths with Green Smith. The event, he said, emerged organically from a moment of collective mourning.

Despite the grief, “it was still, like, a really beautiful event, a much-needed event, and it almost felt like we were all giving each other a collective family hug,” says Lovell.

His connection to Green Smith, Lovell says, was brief but meaningful during his wife’s pregnancy with their second child. Green Smith was practicing at the same birthing center where they had their child. She began practicing in Greenville a short time later.Even that short connection carried significance for Lovell, given the small number of Black maternal health professionals.

Lovell did not initially plan to become a mental health practitioner; he chose the career path after graduating from college, when someone suggested he consider psychology. His interest deepened when he noticed how few Black men work in mental health.

“Being Black man and playing football in college, there weren’t a lot of people that look like me talking about mental health,” says Lovell. “[I wanted] to give people that look like me an opportunity to work with someone that looks like them.”

Working with Expectant and New Parents

Lovell often counsels couples preparing for parenthood by, helping partners understand what a successful pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery look like. That often means helping women manage postpartum depression.

As a man, Lovell says, it’s “humbling” that a woman “just trusts me enough to work with me through their pregnancy or their postpartum recovery.”

In his work, Lovell has noticed how few men understand pregnancy before they experience it with their partner. Because early pregnancy symptoms are often invisible, he says, men may underestimate how much support a mom-to-be actually needs.

“Sometimes they may not realize they don’t know much about pregnancy and what to expect in those three trimesters,” Lovell says. “I tell a lot of the men that just because you can’t see [she’s pregnant] doesn’t mean that she won’t appreciate your intense support in that first trimester.”

Education about pregnancy and postpartum recovery, he says, can change how men support their partners.

Teaching Advocacy in the Delivery Room

Another major focus of Lovell’s counseling is preparing men to advocate for mothers during labor.

“Helping men understand what pregnancy looks like: what delivery is going to look like, and what are the realistic expectations that I should have of myself in postpartum,” he says.

Lovell encourages partners to be honest about their expectations for what will happen during delivery. He helps them prepare for the big day by discussing the birth plan and knowing how to quickly recognize problems. Clear communication, he says, prevents misunderstandings.

He regularly trains men to ask their partners detailed questions about their expectations during and after pregnancy. Advocacy in medical settings can be especially important and requires attention to details the mother may not be able to address.

“It’s always important to fine-tune things and truly understand what helps your partner feel most supported,” Lovell says. “Instead of guessing, you should ask.”

Lovell recalls a moment during the birth of his first child when he had to take that role.

During the delivery, “I felt like something wasn’t as sanitary as I’d like it to be,” he says. “I asked, ‘Hey, can you switch those out? Can you change your gloves?’”

Lovell has a succinct but powerful message he regularly shares with clients’ families, and he shared it with attendees at last month’s event.

“Just to believe women,” he says. “I’ve worked with different couples, and sometimes I’m not really sure that there’s enough empathy from the men.”

That includes how women express pain.

“If a woman says, ‘my pain is at a nine,’ just because how you would express yourself at a nine is different than how she’s expressing herself at [that level] doesn’t mean you shouldn’t believe her,” he says.

Empathy, he says, can change outcomes far beyond the delivery room.

“We’ve got to believe women when they’re talking about their experiences and their feelings and their pain,” he says. “I think there’s a lot that we can prevent if we empathize better.”

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By CityHealth, an initiative of the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente, and the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)

While the evidence is clear that pre-K makes a meaningful difference for children in the short and long term, children need access to high-quality programs to experience these benefits. Access, however, remains unequal, particularly to programs that provide high-quality experiences.“An Updated Look at Pre-K in Large American Cities,” research findings include:

• Participation in high-quality pre-K has been found to have a positive, direct impact on children’s health through avenues such as access to nutritious meals and health screenings, and a positive, indirect impact through reducing parental stress and supporting mental health. For example, a study of New York City’s pre-K program found pre-K enrollment increased the probability that a child was diagnosed with asthma or vision problems, received treatment for hearing or vision issues, and had a screening or immunization during the pre-K year. In addition, a recent Tulsa, Oklahoma, study found that children who enroll in pre-K earlier than their peers (i.e., at age 3 instead of 4) are more likely to experience earlier identification of health problems such as eczema or vision concerns, which can lead to earlier treatment.

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• Enrollment in pre-K can help close long-standing opportunity gaps in education and academic achievement for historically marginalized groups. For example, research suggests that low-income children may be up to 12 months behind their more advantaged peers when they start kindergarten; however, a high-quality, universal pre-K program could reduce achievement gaps by 27% in math and 41% in reading.

• Dual language learnersBy CityHealth, an initiative of the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente, and National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)

While the evidence is clear that pre-K makes a meaningful difference for children in the short and long term, children need access to high-quality programs to experience these benefits. Access, however, remains unequal, particularly to programs that provide high-quality experiences.“An Updated Look at Pre-K in Large American Cities,” research findings include:

• Participation in high-quality pre-K has been found to have a positive, direct impact on children’s health through avenues such as access to nutritious meals and health screenings and a positive, indirect impact through reducing parental stress and supporting mental health. For example, a study of New York City’s pre-K program found pre-K  enrollment increased the probability a child was diagnosed with asthma or vision problems, received treatment for hearing or vision issues, and had a screening or immunization during the pre-K year. In addition, a recent Tulsa, Oklahoma, study found that children who enroll in pre-K earlier than their peers (i.e., at age 3 instead of 4) are more likely to experience earlier identification of health problems such as eczema or vision concerns, which can lead to earlier treatment.

• Enrollment in pre-K can help close long-standing opportunity gaps in education and academic achievement for historically marginalized groups. For example, research suggests that low-income children may be up to 12 months behind their more advantaged peers when they start kindergarten; however, a high-quality, universal pre-K program could reduce achievement gaps by 27% in math and 41% in reading.

• Dual language learners (DLLs) may uniquely benefit from pre-K attendance, particularly if they start early. For instance, one study of DLL children who enrolled in full-day pre-K before age 4 showed at least 90% of these children scored at least one level higher on an English proficiency test than their peers who did not enroll early.

• There are long-term benefits to pre-K participation, even if benefits may vary for different groups of children. Evidence from long-term studies of Head Start and intensive, small-scale interventions shows long-term benefits such as higher high school graduation rates and years of education completed, and lower rates of teenage pregnancy and crime.

•  Pre-K attendance has been shown to have a positive impact on children’s executive functioning skills, such that children who attend pre-K begin kindergarten with better executive functioning skills than children who did not attend kindergarten.

• Children who attend pre-K are less likely to be chronically absent in later school years and more likely to take more challenging coursework in high school. Not only were pre-K attenders less likely to be chronically absent, but they also had better attendance overall compared to non-attenders.

Decades of research show that high-quality early learning programs can positively impact children’s learning, development, and health. Therefore, we strongly believe that access to a high-quality early learning program is one of the best investments a city can make. With funding from the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente, CityHealth provides cities with evidence-based policy solutions and practical tools to improve the health and well-being of their residents. CityHealth provides a framework for advancing policies using a medal rating system to assess their progress and encourage improvement in public health outcomes. 

Since 2017, CityHealth has partnered with the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), a nonpartisan research center, to conduct research on prekindergarten (pre-K) efforts operated at the city level, to promote its High-Quality, Accessible Pre-K policy solution.

(DLLs) may uniquely benefit from pre-K attendance, particularly if they start early. For instance, one study of DLL children who enrolled in full-day pre-K before age 4 showed at least 90% of these children scored at least one level higher on an English proficiency test than their peers who did not enroll early.

• There are long-term benefits to pre-K participation, even if benefits may vary for different groups of children. Evidence from long-term studies of Head Start and intensive, small-scale interventions shows long-term benefits such as higher high school graduation rates and years of education completed, and lower rates of teenage pregnancy and crime.

•  Pre-K attendance has been shown to have a positive impact on children’s executive functioning skills, such that children who attend pre-K begin kindergarten with better executive functioning skills than children who did not attend kindergarten.

• Children who attend pre-K are less likely to be chronically absent in later school years and more likely to take more challenging coursework in high school. Not only were pre-K attenders less likely to be chronically absent, but they also had better attendance overall compared to non-attenders.

Decades of research show that high-quality early learning programs can positively impact children’s learning, development, and health. Therefore, we strongly believe that access to a high-quality early learning program is one of the best investments a city can make. With funding from the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente, CityHealth provides cities with evidence-based policy solutions and practical tools to improve the health and well-being of their residents. CityHealth provides a framework for advancing policies using a medal rating system to assess their progress and encourage improvement in public health outcomes. 

Since 2017, CityHealth has partnered with the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), a nonpartisan research center, to conduct research on prekindergarten (pre-K) efforts operated at the city level, to promote its High-Quality, Accessible Pre-K policy solution.

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