David R.
LightNews LightNews
davchards.bsky.social
David R.
@davchards.bsky.social
5 followers 4 following 14 posts
Posts Replies Media Videos
davchards.bsky.social
James Baldwin Anthony Barboza (born 1944) Reproduction of gelatin silver print from 1975 Courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; gift of the Loewentheil Family
February 7, 2025 at 6:41 PM
davchards.bsky.social
James Baldwin Beauford Delaney (1901-1979) Pastel on paper, 1963 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Notes by Bayard Rustin on civil rights and gay identity, c. 1986 Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), the close advisor, mentor, and principal strategist to Martin Luther King Jr. on issues of nonviolent protest, was also the architect and main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Despite his contributions to the civil rights movement, Rustin was marginalized in large part due to his sexuality. These handwritten musings outline Rustin's perspectives on the civil rights of gay people. An ally of Baldwin, Rustin believed homophobia limited democracy. The profound, outspoken thinker argued that basic human lighis alonity, athe "re hit of fole pression, the right to Bayard Rustin Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. James Baldwin (1924-1987) and Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) In this photograph from March 25, 1965, James Baldwin sits with Bayard Rustin on the speakers' platform in Montgomery, Alabama, on the final day of the Selma-to-Montgomery Civil Rights March, led by Martin Luther King Jr. Bayard Rustin's fingerprints, 1946 Being a queer man almost derailed Bayard Rustin's (1912-1987) career. This original set of fingerprints from October 25, 1946, shows that Rustin was arrested by the New York City Police Department for allegedly violating Section 722 of the Penal Code (offering to commit a lewd or indecent act). In 1953, he would be arrested again, in California, and sentenced to sixty days in jail on suspicion of "lewd vagrancy." Rustin's identity troubled some civil rights activists, who encouraged Martin Luther King Jr. to distance himself from his friend and ally. Despite being outcast, Rustin was instrumental in organizing the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
February 7, 2025 at 6:40 PM
davchards.bsky.social
Nina Simone's interview and performance of "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," live at Morehouse College, Atlanta, June 1969
February 7, 2025 at 6:36 PM
davchards.bsky.social
Nina Simone with James Baldwin Picket lines, school boycotts, they try to say it's a communist plot. All I want is equality for my sister, my brother, my people, and me. —Nina Simone The musician Nina Simone (1933-2003) met James Baldwin through their mutual friend Lorraine Hansberry. Following the success of her groundbreaking play A Raisin in the Sun 1959), Hansberry had committed herself to educating others she felt could contribute to raising awareness about the cause of equal rights. By introducing Simone to Baldwin and the poet Langston Hughes, Hansberry ensured her close friend would be embraced by other queer writers who understood something about difference. Simone would feel empowered to honestly express herself in the early 1960s, when she began penning and performing more political songs. The charged song "Mississippi Goddamn" (1964), with lyrics like those seen at the top of this label, grew out of Simone's despair and rage over the deaths of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers, and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombings in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. Baldwin and Simone shared a great bond: the desire to marry anger to lyricism while refusing to separate the personal from the political. Bernard Gotfryd (1924-2016) Gelatin silver prints, 1965 Left and right: National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution Center: Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations Nina Simone with James Baldwin Nina Simone with James Baldwin Nina Simone with James Baldwin
February 7, 2025 at 6:27 PM
davchards.bsky.social
Untitled
(Photographs of James Baldwin in and around Istanbul, Turkey)
In 1970, the Turkish-born photographer and filmmaker Sedat Pakay premiered a short black-and-white documentary about Baldwin, who spent a significant part of the 1960s in Istanbul. Titled James Baldwin: From Another Place
February 7, 2025 at 6:25 PM
davchards.bsky.social
Letters between James Baldwin and Orilla "Bill Miller" Winfield, 1982 As an elementary school student at Harlem's P.S. 24 (now Harlem Renaissance High School), James Baldwin was mentored by Orilla "Bill Miller" Winfield (1912- 1990), a young teacher and activist. Deeply encouraging of Baldwin's interest in all forms of writing, Miller loaned him books and took him to the theater-activities that were forbidden in Baldwin's strict Baptist household, particularly by his father, David, a lay minister in the church. Baldwin lost touch with Miller at age fourteen, when he began briefly serving as a preacher. But in 1955, while on a speaking tour in California, the two reunited. Their friendship continued uninterrupted thereafter until Baldwin's death. Reproductions courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University December 14, 1973 James Baldvin La Route de la Calle St. Paul D1 Vince 06 Prance Dear Jiany: I love the quote just as you vrote 1t. Perfect and unad-copyleh. It v111 help a lot and I en grateful. Nore than that, of course, is the fact that you read and liked Sale That was the point of mending it to you, My "publisber" antenna roBe when I was lietening to you on the telepbone. Also let me toll you that I am sorry about bosag Beele Street for very selfish reasoos. It 10 00 beautiful that I wanted to cover it, promote it, be kooledgeable about it--you koor become a, If Beele Street Could Talk, grouple. TI at 10 a 1a got a che cate a tet ot oa rebels area ciled, I en delighted. No one can aishandle that book; 1t'a 11ke trying to adahaodlo Mt. Vesuvius, As they say, everything'e goana'. de everything. I can't tell you how I love you for havily SOPhiesS ip?a *as STATIE momr‘现 Letter from Toni Morrison to James Baldwin, 1973 Writers Toni Morrison and James Baldwin at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for the 1986 Founder's Day celebration Hakim Mutlaq (born 1955) Reproduction of gelatin silver print from 1986 Courtesy of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division. The New York Public Library
February 7, 2025 at 6:14 PM
davchards.bsky.social
comics! MAUS MAUS TITI MY FATHER TORY AND HERE MY TROUBLES BEGAN Maus One of the best-known graphic novels of all time, Maus was published in 1986 by Art Spiegelman (b. 1948). A sophisticated example of the comics medium, Maus tells the shattering story of Spiegelman's father, who was an inmate at Auschwitz. The cartoonist's personal story of how being the child of survivors affected his own life is woven throughout the 2-volume narrative. Staying true to comics' use of caricature and metaphor, Spiegelman tells this powerful story by using characters who are humans hybridized with cats, mice, dogs, and pigs. This work was the first graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize, in 1992. BIRD M BIRD!" You MAUS SED TO TEIL ME BEDTIVE COUNTRY CANO TE ME D 4SHBACKSI THE OLDEST SHUL IN THE CAPITAL THE ORTHODOX JEWS ADAS ISRAEL ONGSEGATION TO LATER, FLASHBACKSE THE ADAS ISRAEL SINAGOGUE STOOD AT GT. & O STREETS FROM 197 TO NOY, DE THE NOSE SN800E CONGREGATION. BY 14G THE GROUND FLOOR HAT THE GROUND FLOOR, WAS GTRUCTURALLY SYNAGOQUE ON Y STAES W G a. Al That time
January 12, 2025 at 10:08 PM
davchards.bsky.social
SHPERMAN "Nazism was rising up and millions of innocent people were being killed.../ felt that the world desperately needed a crusader, if only a fictional one." —Jerry Siegel The first superhero, Superman, was the brainchild of two first-generation Jewish teenagers from Cleveland, Ohio, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Inspired by a range of influences, including the Jewish historical figure King David, Superman (AKA the Man of Steel or Champion of the Oppressed) took on bullies and tyrants-including Nazis— from his first appearance in 1938. In the real world the US government used Superman during World War Il with great success to promote military enlistment, blood donations, paper and metal drives, and war stamps and bonds sales. With American troops carrying his comics in their rucksacks and his image on their vehicles, Superman-and through him, Siegel and Shuster-were right there on the frontlines, fighting Nazis. Artists in the Army. Once the United States entered into World War II, many of the writers and artists were drafted into the Army. Stan Lee and Will Eisner were two of the many artists stationed in the marketing and advertising departments, using their skills in writing and illustration to create eye-catching safety posters. Stan Lee was tasked with a publicity campaign warning soldiers about venereal diseases while Will Eisner created his "Don't Be A Dope" series that provided soldiers with helpful mechanics safety and preventative maintenence. Left: "Don't Be A Dope" Posters created by Will Eisner for the United States Army, 1940s. On loan from Warren Bernard. Above: Stan Lee, 1940s. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. The Rise of X-Men The story of X-Men has often been seen as an allegory for the civil rights movement. The Jewish-ness of the series comes out in many of the themes, storylines, and characters, most notably Magneto and his twin children, Wanda Maximov, aka The Scarlet Witch, and Pietrov Maximov, aka Quicksilver. Magneto's origin story also resonated for many children of the 60s who grew up with a Holocaust survivor in their community or family. The aftermath effects of war can be felt in the villain's story arc as well as his children. 5. X-Men #4, 1963. Written by Stan Lee. Art by Jack Kirby. Reproduction TM & Copyright Marvel Comics. On loan from Lauren Hoffman. MARVEI X MEN Featuring: THE THE X-MEN RETURN OF THE COME FACE-TO-FACE WITH DREADED MAGNETO! EVIEUTANTS X-MEN. THE MOST UNUSUAL TEEN-AGERS OF ALL TIME!! M439 US MARVEL لاو 7 20886-59606 Brilliant THEATER Fictions Shattering Factst THEATER A 2011-2012 Theater J in Washington DC presented its 2011-2012 season in comic book form. The cover, previewing one of the upcoming plays, showed both Superman and his creator, Joe Shuster, fighting off Nazi troops. Superman, of course, had superhuman strength; Shuster used his pencil to fight off the Theater J pamphlet, 2011. Capital Jewish Museum Collection.
January 12, 2025 at 10:07 PM
davchards.bsky.social
NITIONS RKS SMASHING THRU, CAPTAIN AMERICA CAME FACE TO FACE WITH HITLER・・ also CAPTAIN BUGES AMERICA'S Comics Get Real While the American press downplayed the Holocaust, sending stories to the back sections of newspapers, the artists and writers behind Captain America understood the importance of putting the crisis up front. Here, a 1945 cover shows inmates marching at gunpoint to giant ovens, with human remains sticking out of the ashes in the sidelines and background. Captain America and his sidekick, Bucky Barnes, fight off the Nazi soldiers and stop them from putting an old man into the furnace. Captain America Comics #46, April 1945. Written by Stan Lee. Cover art by Alex Schomburg. TM & Copyright Timely Comics (Marvel). Captain America #1, March 1941. Written by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. Art by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. TM & Copyright Timely Comics (Marvel). AS SUPERMAN RACES INTO THE MASSED MARCHERS, THE TROOPS SCATTER IN CONFUSION! THAT'S RIGHT! CLEAR THE WAY! NEXT STOP - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND! LATER-SUPERMAN DROPS IN ON A MEETING OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS... YOU THE TWO POWER-MAD SCOUNDRELS RESPONSIBLE FOR EUROPE'S PRESENT WHAT IS YOUR JUDGEMENT? HISTORY'S GREATEST CRIME - UNPROVOKED AGGRESSION AGAINST DEFENSELESS COUNTRIES. tions profiteer into the trenches for a dose of his own medicine. On another occasion he plucked two opposing generals from their tents and told them to settle their differences with bare fists. They knew no "differences," shook hands and made peace. 17 No.13 SUPERMAN NOV. DEC. 109 30 Superman #13, 1943. Written by Jerry Siegel. Cover Art uncredited, possibly by Joe Shuster. DC Comics. On loan from Warren Bernard. "We were facing the Nazis, an apparently unstoppable force. And what better ways to deal with an anti-Jewish supervillain like Hitler than with a superhero?" —Will Eisner Punching Nazis was what superheroes were all about, at least at the beginning. With the start of World War II, creators poured their fear, fury, and faith into their characters: Superman lost his entire planet. Batman's parents were murdered before his eyes as a child. Spider-Man lost his Uncle Ben. These profound losses echoed the trauma that many Jews experienced in fleeing the "old country" for the United States or in learning about the murder of the relatives who stayed behind. Real-life war heroes and villains found their way into comic books: superheroes advocated for British rearmament, intervention, refugee asylum, racial tolerance, and the New Deal. FIGHTING FASCISM
January 12, 2025 at 10:06 PM
davchards.bsky.social
MARVEL COMICS In the 1930s, Moses "Martin" Goodman (1908-1992), a Jewish publisher of pulp magazines, saw the success of Superman and Batman and started a new line he called "Timely Comics." The first issue, published in 1939, featured the debuts of the characters Sub-Mariner, the mutant son of a sea captain and an undersea princess, and the Human Torch, who gained his powers when his spacecraft was attacked by cosmic rays. They would become mainstays of Goodman's company, known later as Marvel. In 1940, Hyman "Joe" Simon (1913-2011) and Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg, 1917-1994), hired their boss's cousin, 17-year-old Stanley Martin Lieber (1922-2018), to be their assistant. The son of Romanian-Jewish immigrants, Stanley changed his name to Stan Lee as a teenager, when he began writing. He was a co-creator of iconic characters such as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, and the Fantastic Four. MARVEL COMICS This. Month "THE HUMAN TOF "THE ANGEL "SUBMARINER' "MASKED RAIDE Jestaring KA-ZAR THE GREAT, 12 PAGES OF JUNGLE ADVENTURE! ACTION MYSTERY ADVENTUI ال ١٢٧٨٦٣ ٩٢ ١١٩١٢٥٢١٢٢٩١١٢ ٨٨ ١ Marve) enty Hit0 Te eglodeg speter conle book arce. Marvel Coreice 41, 1992, Cover at ty Frank R. Paul. TM & Gogyrigh wees we The Daily Worker and ad book, The Fluling Clawe antos he created for Th The Ruling Clawss, 1935. Art by A. Planeld. Put The Daily Worker. On loan from Warron Bemard Feeling No Pain: An Album of Cartoons by S 1944. Art by Syd Hoff. Published the Tribuno P company. On loan from Warren Bernard COMICI BOOk SECTION 下制的色品目 SUNDAY. JUNE. 22, 1911 mastery LOVENVURE OMIN GENER COMICI 2OON SECTION „The nce upon a time in a great country of Europe . cruel cictator （ mighty army With his of Emope S.ae he cohguered all in fact, lie was so the mere mention of his armbled n Sgat 3 Thus he boasted, / can lick any nation, on earth Now that was big talk? & and sounded pretty funny those who knew him when he was but a little corporal & But they were his stooges )gile and they just yessed him. the dictator told them So when one day he was going to America on a fact finding mission they just said yes ACTION COMICS Crested by Jerry Siegel and Jee Shuster, the character of Superman Action Comics 11, 1938, Wn ty Jery Stogel and Joe Shutter. Aft to DC COMICS In 1938, Superman crash landed on Earth in Action Comics #1, a comic book published by National (later DC) Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel (1914-1996) and artist Joe Shuster (1914-1992), the character was an immediate hit and established the superhero as a mainstay of popular culture. Today, many Jewish scholars note that Superman embodied the Jewish value of "tikkun olam" (repairing the world) in his constant effort to better the lives of everyday people. In Superman #17s "The World's Smartest Man," for example, villain Lex Luthor threatened to turn back evolution and Superman had to leap in and save the day. MICS TAIN RICA CAPTAIN AMERICA "World events gave us the perfect comic-book villain, Adolf Hitler, with his ranting, goose-stepping and ridiculous moustache. So, we decided to create the perfect hero who would be his foil." —Joe Simon The greatest Nazi-smasher of all, Captain America, was created by two young first-generation American Jews, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Published by the nascent Timely Comics-Marvel today-the hero punched Hitler right on the cover of his first issue, distributed on December 20, 1940. This was a year before Pearl Harbor, when 93% of Americans still opposed entering the war. The German American Bund inundated Simon and Kirby with hate mail and calls, threatening to hang them from lampposts in Times Square. When Bund gangs lurked outside the Timely offices, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia intervened and assigned a police guard to the lobby.
January 12, 2025 at 10:05 PM