"One Way Ticket : Movement, Migrations and Liberty”

featuring Langston Hughes & Jacob Lawrence

June 19 - November 1, 2021

Hampton Art Lovers gallery at the Historic Ward Rooming House

Hampton Art Lovers Presents "One Way Ticket: Movement, Migrations and Liberty" featuring Langston Hughes and Jacob Lawrence. Curated with Special Selections from Ebony Broadsides of The Norwood Collection. This exhibition explores stories of freedom and liberty through the poetry of Langston Hughes and the featured artwork of Jacob Lawrence, with other works from Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, John Biggers, Charles Alston, David Driskell, Leroy Campbell, Anthony Reed II (Mojo) and Marvin Weeks.

Hampton Art Lovers explores the legacy of the African-American search for civil, political and economic freedom after the Middle Passage, Emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Modern Movement for Civil Rights. The essence of African-American History, is the perpetual and heroic struggle for liberty. This search for freedom resulted in the underground railroad (both north and south) which was a precursor for the 20th century mass exodus,"Great Migration" out of the Antebellum South. The largest peacetime migration in the history of the world. Some six million African-Americans from rural areas of the Southern states got a “one-way ticket” to mainly urban areas in the North, Midwest and Far West between 1916 and 1970. 

The centerpiece of the show is the Langston Hughes classic book of poetry, “One Way Ticket” published in 1949 and illustrated by Jacob Lawrence. This book of poems tells the story of a people seeking liberty with their feet, using the art of two masters in their respective mediums, Langston Hughes and Jacob Lawrence. Hughes (1902-1967) is arguably the most famous poet of the Harlem Renaissance and Lawrence (1917-2000) is among the most famous visual artists from this period. “One Way Ticket: Movement, Migration and Liberty” features Hughes poetry about the Great Migration and its rare original illustrations hand signed by Jacob Lawrence. Lawrence’ black and white ink drawings, in their pure simple forms, demonstrate his unique approach to cubism, a style in which he searched for the aesthetics of Harlem and African-American cultural roots. While at the same time limiting the direct influences of the French masters. Lawrence himself called this style the “dynamic cubism” – that way distinguishing it from the “classical” cubism developed by Braque and Picasso. The series of drawings in “One Way Ticket” contains the strong contrasting use of sharp angled black and white shapes pressed together in their lonely scramble to flee from the injustice of the South.

RSVP at: hamptonartlovers.eventbrite.com

One-Way Ticket

By Langston Hughes

I pick up my life

And take it with me

And I put it down in

Chicago, Detroit,

Buffalo, Scranton,

Any place that is North and East—

And not Dixie.

I pick up my life

And take it on the train

To Los Angeles, Bakersfield,

Seattle, Oakland, Salt Lake,

Any place that is

North and West—

And not South.

I am fed up

With Jim Crow laws,

People who are cruel

And afraid,

Who lynch and run,

Who are scared of me

And me of them.

I pick up my life

And take it away

On a one-way ticket—

Gone up North,

Gone out West,

Gone!

#langstonhughes #jacoblawrence #onewayticket #greatmigration #charleswhite #charlesalston #johnbiggers #elizabethcatlett #leroycampbell #experienceovertown #hamptonartlovers #historicwardroominghouse

Special Selections from Ebony Broadsides of The Norwood Collection