Ashes to Ashes: A Homecoming Celebration for the Unburied
Ashes to Ashes commemorates a selection of six recorded lynchings in America, and from paper to bindings to etchings was made entirely by hand. In addition to being a writer, Dr. Whitaker is also a physician. “Any time I want to help a patient, the first thing I get is a history,” said Jackson. “[It’s] important for us to get that in order to orchestrate some form of healing.” She said she felt the book Ashes to Ashes: A Homecoming Celebration for the Unburied was another way of remembering history, a way to help the world learn from its past.
Ashes to Ashes: Hardcover Roy. 8vo, 11 x 7.5 ins., half-title, title, introduction, color print, funeral service text over color print, half-page print with text, obituary 2 leaves printed on one side, 6 portraits with letterpress, blind-stamped coffin with text, colophon.
Ashe to Ashes Inspiration
Ashes to Ashes funeral service to remember lynched African American was held April 29, 2016 at St. Johns Congregational Church in Springfield, Massachusetts. Two days after the service, Michael Kuch, noted artist in printmaking and etchings, recommended that there was another way besides film to possibly commemorate this event. That was to create a book of etchings centered around the six examples of lynching presented by actors doing the home going service. For each of the presentations, an etched portrait was done which made the center piece of the book. Using this art form, it was possible to capture the pain and despair expressed from the horrors of lynching.
Find Ashes to Ashes
Copies of Ashes to Ashes can be found in the library; Washington University, Duke University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Miami, University of Virginia, Getty Research Institute, The Claremont Colleges, University of Delaware, Lafayette College, Smith College, Boston Athenaeum, Wellesley College, and the list continues to grow. • Getty Research Institute • Washington University in St. Louis • Duke University Libraries • Pennsylvania State University Libraries • University of Miami • University of Virginia Limited edition of 50 copies; signed by the author. Broadside consists of a list of names of victims of lynching. Broadside housed in gray paper sleeve, with text: As long as you speak my name I will live forever. Broadside and volume issued in gray cloth clamshell box. Includes "Obituary : an overdue tribute to the unburied & terrorized" by Marisha Clinton & Dr. Shirley Whitaker.
Ashes to Ashes: Limited Edition Cover Copies one through seven have covers with a leather painting by artist Winfred Rembert, a lynching survivor. Enclosed in a grey folding box with label. Winfred Rembert is an African-American artist who hand-tools and paints on leather canvases. The documentary, Ashes to Ashes, honoring victims of lynchings in the south, featured Rembert, the "only known survivor of a lynching." Ashes to Ashes premiered at the Mountainfilm Festival on May 24, 2019
Ashes to Ashes: Logo The gray paper was made by Katie MacGregor in Whiting, Maine. Mark Tomlinson has bound the edition of fifty in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
Ashes to Ashes: The book of etchings Ashes to Ashes features the eulogy together with separate obituaries and engraved portraits of six individuals. One of the six featured here is of the Soldier along with his obituary – documented lynchings were dramatized to represent thousands of souls that were lost to lynching in the United States of America.
Shirley Ann Whitaker is the art protege of one of American's leading artists, the late Leonard Baskin (American, 1922–2000), an American artist working in a range of media. Though Baskin primarily considered himself a sculptor, he remains best known for his expressive works on paper. Many of his prints and drawings served as preparatory studies. Baskin also produced-large scale commissioned sculptures such as the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C. and the Holocaust Memorial in Ann Arbor, MI. He is especially appreciated for his unique line quality and inventive woodcut techniques which he often used to illustrate collaborative book projects.
Ashes to Ashes: Broadside Shirley Ann Whitaker with printer, reviewing the Ashes to Ashes broadside (single sheet 28 x 7 ins.) printed with the names of lynched African Americans. A broadside is a large sheet of paper printed on one side only. Historically, broadsides were used as posters, announcing events or proclamations, commentary in the form of ballads, or simply advertisements.
Summarization
Ashes to Ashes: A Homecoming Celebration for the Unburied records the order of service and the eulogy along with separate obituaries and etched portraits of six African Americans. The book pays homage to the nearly 4000 African Americans murdered by lynching between 1882-1981 and denied their last rites in the United States of America.
Originally Published
2018
Publisher
SAW Press
Author
Shirley Ann Whitaker, MD, MPH.
Genres
Non Fiction, American History
Language
English
Contributors
Michael Kuch, SAW Press, Arthur Larson (Printer), Boxcar Press, Double Elephant Press