BETTYE FOSTER BAKER

508-696-9983

(bdrbaker@comcast.net)

For many years, the Vineyard has been the summer place for many extraordinary thinkers, writers, artists, jurists, and entertainers — it still is — and Oak Bluffs has been that quintessential place where the gifted, particularly artists have come to rejuvenate, create, and give us a sense of the possibilities of looking at our world through a different set of lenses.

It just so happens that in the early years, many of those who came to Oak Bluffs just happened to be African American because this was their place, the only place on the Island where they were welcome.  Some have remarkable historical ties to the community going back to the mid-1880s.

Their work, informed by their unique educational backgrounds and culture, as is all art, did not pale in comparison with their white contemporaries, nor was it diminished by those who might assign their creations to a narrow compartment of black art. It stood up admirably to the best and was and continues to receive world-wide recognition.  

Case in point: Lois Mailou Jones, 1905-1998, a painter, scholar, and Howard University professor emeritus, whose early textiles, never before exhibited, (40 in all) will be on exhibit at Featherstone Center for the Arts, in Oak Bluffs, dually sponsored by Featherstone and the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society in Edgartown.

The historical exhibit opening and reception will be on Sunday, August 17 from 4 to 6 p.m. The exhibit will remain in the gallery until Sept. 3. Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. daily.

There will be two lectures on the work later in the month. On August 20 at 7 p.m., Barry Gaither, president of the African American Museum in Boston, will speak. That will be followed by a lecture on August 26 at 7 p.m. by Dr. Cheryl F. Findley, assistant professor of art at Cornell University.

This week I had the opportunity to speak with Jones’s nephew, Robert W. Jones, a man who has been coming to the Island for 79 years, whose great-grandmother, Phoebe Adams Mosley (Lois Mailou Jones’s grandmother), came here in the 1880s and purchased land in Edgartown from money earned as a domestic on the Island. She built a house on Pacific avenue in Oak Bluffs. And though I knew something of Robert Jones’s aunt, Lois Mailou Jones — a giant of the Harlem Renaissance who found professional recognition in Paris where she studied on a one-year scholarship in 1937 at the Academie Julian in Paris — there was much more to learn about her life and relationship with Oak Bluffs and her place in the world of art.

Robert explained that the textiles which will be on exhibit at Featherstone were created by Jones when she was between the ages of 18 and 23, some prior and after she completed graduate school on scholarship at the Designers Art School of Boston in 1928. Some of her exquisite designs were purchased by major manufacturers in Boston and New York, who refused to give her credit for these designs which appeared on curtains, upholstered furniture and fabrics. It was the anonymity of this field that Jones found discouraging as well as the racism that prevented her from landing a teaching position in Boston. She was told to go South.

As a result, it was Charlotte Hawkins Brown, headmaster of Palmer Memorial Institute, a finishing school for African American women in Sedalia, N.C., who offered Jones her first teaching position. In addition to art, she even coached the women’s basketball team! How ironic it was for me to hear about this school after so many years. My great-aunt had a friend, Daisy Coles, who visited her in Louisville, Ky. Daisy often talked about her time as a dormitory supervisor at Palmer Memorial Institute.

My conversation became more meaningful with Robert Jones as I realized Lois Mailou Jones had taught David Driskell, noted artist, art historian and retired distinguished university professor of art at the University of Maryland. Driskell is a personal friend whom my husband and I visited in April and May of this year at his home in Maryland. Bill Baker and David Driskell both recalled that each was the first person they met on the way to register at  Howard University (on the streetcar of all places.)

David had introduced my husband Bill to Lois Mailou Jones in the 1950s at Howard, where she had established design and watercolor painting courses and taught for 47 years. It was at his home where we were privileged to see Lois Mailou Jones’s paintings in his collection and where we learned more of the struggle of many African American artists to obtain recognition as he discussed the plight and success of these artists over time.

Today that conversation takes on even greater meaning after listening to Robert Jones describe changes in her work after visiting Africa in the seventies and later Haiti with her Haitian husband, Louis Vergniaud Pierre-Noel. It was then that Lois Mailou Jones shifted from the impressionism style to a more vibrant two-dimensional style as expressed in Haitian and African culture which she saw as connected. What an extraordinary talent, woman, artist and Islander who influenced and inspired generations of artists. I look forward to both the exhibit and lectures.

The All Island Art Show at the Tabernacle’s Junior Art Show division was a wonderful experience. The children’s art was spectacular and beautifully displayed. Children lined up to receive their prizes and I am proud to say three winners were my grandchildren — Julianne Frances Walker and Andrew Bryant Walker won third-place ribbons, and Wesley Baker Walker won a first-place ribbon in the mixed media competition.

The family of the late Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Pressley, a revered and longtime summer resident of Oak Bluffs since 1962, will have a memorial service in his honor at Union Chapel on Monday, August 11 at 10 a.m. Dr. Pressley was an ordained clergyman in the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodists Church and through the years held various positions of leadership. He was a former president, (Grand Sire Archon) of the Boule. The Boule‚ founded more than a century ago, is the oldest African American fraternity in the country.

Longtime summer resident Katherine Bell Banks died on July 26 in West Orange, N.J. Katherine and her family were personal friends of W.E.B. Du Bois and she authored a memoir several years ago containing letters exchanged with her family over the years. Ms. Banks’s family is in the process of planning a memorial service to be held at the Newark Museum in New Jersey the end of August or early September.

On Sunday, August 17 from 2 to 4 p.m., the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Performing Arts Center will be the site of the Martha’s Vineyard Chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s 7th annual Summer Event. Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, will be the keynote speaker. Professor Gates, a renowned scholar, author, award winning host and producer of the PBS series, African American Lives, will focus on an illustrated presentation of his project on W.E.B. Du Bois and the Encyclopedia Africana. Dr. Gates also summers on the Island.

Summer residents Claire and Raymond Walker and Roger Mitchell have left the Vineyard for three weeks for the opening events of the summer Olympics in Beijing, China. One other traveling companion will be joining them.This will be their first trip to this part of the world. After four days in Beijing, they will take a cruise on the Yangtze River; then on to Xian to see the terra-cotta warriors. They will spend their final four days in Hong Kong, returning to the Vineyard on August 24, when they will host guests Joe and Priscilla Pierre from West Palm Beach, and Peter and Peggy Perry of New Jersey.

Sandy and Charlie Slater celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on the Vineyard this summer. Friends and family came from Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut, and Florida to join the celebration. The Rev. Harry Bury, who officiated at their wedding in 1968, visited from Cleveland, Ohio.

Sandy and Charlie first came to the Vineyard in 1982. After they moved from the East Coast to Texas and later California, they continued to be drawn to the magic of the Vineyard. This is where their daughter, Hannah, learned to ride a bike, set up a lemonade stand, and grab for the brass ring at the Carousel. In her college years, she worked at Mad Martha’s and later went to work full-time at what was formerly Compass Bank. She now works for Rood Research in New York city.

Sandy and Charlie’s ambition is to come to the community sing at the Camp Ground 50 years in a row.

On Saturday, August 9, Cousen Rose Gallery, 71 Circuit avenue, OakBluffs will exhibit the works of James Denmark and Janice Fram dolls. The Gallery also offers art classes for children who have completed first grade. Call 508-693-6656.

On Saturday, August 9, the Oak Bluffs Arts District Gallery Stroll will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. For more information, call Dragonfly Gallery at 508-693-8877.

On Saturday, August 9, the 25th Annual Craft Show will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.at the Tabernacle, Oak Bluffs, rain or shine. Handcrafted items of all kinds — jams and jellies, wampum jewelry, ornaments — will be sold.

Saturday, August 9, will be the last day for the Run and Shoot African American Film Festival, 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Mansion House and Katharine Cornell Theatre, Vineyard Haven.

Saturday, August 9, Jessica B. Harris and Deborah Brenner will appear at the Divas Uncorked Wine and Food Tasting from noon to 5 p.m. at Outerland. Wines will be showcased from all over the world along with cooking demonstrations. Some proceeds go to the Island Grown Initiative. Call 617-267-2244.

On Thursday, August 14 from 5 to 7 p.m., PFLAG (Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) will be hosting a Picnic at Eastville Beach, Oak  Bluffs. Bring your own picnic. The rain date is August 17.

On Tuesday, August 19 at 6:30 p.m. the Oak Bluffs Public Library will feature a book talk and signing by Phyllis Meras and Betsy Corsiglia, who will discuss their latest book, Martha’s Vineyard: Quiet Pleasures, a collection of evocative essays blended with breathtaking photography. Call 508-693-9433 for information.

Bettie Eubanks, an impressionist artist, and Paulette Wexler, a photographer, have teamed up as the Dynamic-Duo to present their latest work in a two-day Garden Gallery Exhibit and reception from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, August 22 and Sunday, August 23 at 106 County Road, Oak Bluffs. Bettie captures her visions in color and texture with her brush; Paulette captures light and beauty with her eye through the lens of the camera.

Planning a wedding, anniversary, family reunion, special tribute? Have guests coming? Let me know. This column shares memories, coming events and all that’s new and exciting in Oak Bluffs. And by the way, don’t forget to open your gifts.