This is the eleventh post in the April A-Z Challenge.  I am posting a painting that I did in kindergarten. The newspaper I painted on is dated Sunday, September 30, 1951.  It is a want ad page from the Detroit News. A page full of bungalows for sale, not in my neighborhood, but further out in the suburbs.

There are two things that I remember clearly about kindergarten.  I remember walking, as a class, down the block to the playground and playing in the sandbox with several other children. I remember painting on the easel on newspapers every chance I had.  The teacher spoke to my mother about it because she was concerned that I didn’t try other things. My mother told her that I could do everything else they had in the classroom at home.

You can read about my life as a kindergartener in the post A is for Atkinson, from the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge.

This is my sixth post for the April A-Z Challenge. I am going to post about my fiercely creative family members.  After I wrote about the medical people in the family, I started thinking about the writers, musicians, singers, dancers and other creative people that we have in the family.

The problem began as I pulled photos. With doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists it is straight forward – they study and then they practice. This is usually their work for life.  With creative people it’s not so easy.  People may study for years and then practice their craft for some years before moving into another area. Or they might write and sing.  They may never have a job in their chosen field or get paid for doing it.  And what about those who are creative in areas that aren’t usually thought of as “Art”?  The seamstresses and the chefs, should I include them?  And how about those creative thinkers?  And gardeners? As I continued with this line of thinking I began to be overwhelmed.  I had to draw the line somewhere!  Here is what I came up with.

Starting first row, upper left:

• Syruz Ahmad Grizm who raps and writes and does collages.
• His wife Lady Syruz who also raps.
• A 45 cut by Hubert Averette in the 1970’s.
• Jacqui Vincent who danced.
• Jacqui’s son, Vincent Bingham, tap dancing with Gregory Hines
• I think this is John Mullins playing the saxophone.
• Tony Shoemaker playing the drums.
• Below is his father, Floyd Shoemaker, playing the bongos.
• Next to him (going from r to l) is Annabelle McCall Martin with husband Edward and their children.  Florida in the 1920s.
• Jan Evans Peterson leaping through the air during her dance career.
• Zaron Burnett’s book “The Carthaginian Honor Society.” (Pearl Cleage’s husband.)
• Dee Dee McNeil jazz chanteuse and writer.
• Dee Dee’s daughter Maricea during her singing career with the “Sophisticated Ladies”.  She is the one on the far left in the photo.
• Going back towards the right, we have Dee Dee’s son William Chappell who raps.
• My daughter, Ayanna’s chapter in the homeschooling classic “Real Lives”.
• Edward McCall, poet and publisher.
• Henry W. Cleage playing the cello.  He also was one of the most creative thinkers.
• A drawing of me back in  1968 by my aunt (next line).
•  Gladys Cleage Evans – visual artist and art teacher.
• Below Gladys we have her granddaughter, Shashu who sings, paints and does fantastic things with hair.
• My daughter, Ife Williams sculpting. She is a sculptor and is now moving into pottery.
• Below Ife is the heading for Henry W. Cleages chapbook “The Status Theory.”
• Louis Cleage playing the organ.  He also wrote “Smoke Rings” for the Illustrated News in the early 1960s and was also a creative thinker.  Often in offbeat ways.
• Below Louis you find me, Kristin Cleage, working on something. Blogger, printmaker, poet and sometime quilter.
• A chapbook by my daughter Tulani.
• “Smoke Rings” heading. Written by Louis Cleage.
• Cousin Dale Evans in his Actor photo. He acted on TV and in movies.
• My daughter Jilo in a play during her college years.
• My grandmother, Pearl Reed, singing in concert in Indianapolis,1908.
• a chapbook of my organizing poet son, James Williams.
• Book by my father Albert B. Cleage, JR “The Black Messiah”.  Another creative thinker.
• Book by my sister Pearl Cleage “Mad at Miles”.  Author and playwrite.
• Sadya, pastry chef.
• Beulah Allen Pope – seamstress
• Mary Allen McCall – seamstress
• Jennie Allen Turner – seamstress
• Eliza Williams Allen – seamstress and mother of the three sisters above.

This is my fifth post for the April A-Z Challenge. Every day in April I am using the letters of the alphabet as prompts for my blog posts. Today I am going to write about the Emancipation of slaves in the United States.

After publishing my blog about Samuel Cleage and his trip down the Wilderness Road to Tennessee, I got a question about Northerners moving South and taking up slavery. I began wondering when the states in the North, like Pennsylvania, outlawed slavery.  I knew that slavery had been practiced in all of the original colonies, but I didn’t know when it ended.

There are varying emancipation dates given for some states. For instance, Pennsylvania passed a law against slavery in 1790 but it was to be accomplished in gradual steps. Those already enslaved would remain so. Children born to enslaved women would become indentured servants until they reached 28. The number of slaves declined until by 1845 there were no known slaves in the state.  I used the later date.

In all of the Northern states, the numbers of slaves had fallen into the hundreds or below by the time of the dates on the map above. Using a map of the US, I  found the dates for each state by spending today looking on the internet. I often got side tracked reading about the Civil War and slavery and arguments over slavery. I am learning a lot doing this series. Below are two sites I found interesting.

• Slavery in the North
• Encyclopedia of Virgina:Slavery During the Civil War

While researching today, I found something I looked for when doing the Cleage’s Bricks post – a photograph or painting of black people with a Conestoga Wagon. Today I found two, as well as some discussion about the 2nd photograph, on this site: A Profound and ubiquitous image

Booker T. Washington was a nine year old boy in Virginia when Freedom came to his plantation.  This is how he remembered it in his autobiography:  Up from Slavery – pg 20

 As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom. True, they had sung those same verses before, but they had been careful to explain that the “freedom” in these songs referred to the next world, and had no connection with life in this world. Now they gradually threw off the mask, and were not afraid to let it be known that the “freedom” in their songs meant freedom of the body in this world. The night before the eventful day, word was sent to the slave quarters to the effect that something unusual was going to take place at the “big house” the next morning. There was little, if any, sleep that night. All was excitement and expectancy. Early the next morning word was sent to all the slaves, old and young, to gather at the house. In company with my mother, brother, and sister, and a large number of other slaves, I went to the master’s house. All of our master’s family were either standing or seated on the veranda of the house, where they could see what was to take place and hear what was said. There was a feeling of deep interest, or perhaps sadness, on their faces, but not bitterness. As I now recall the impression they made upon me, they did not at the moment seem to be sad because of the loss of property, but rather because of parting with those whom they had reared and who were in many ways very close to them. The most distinct thing that I now recall in connection with the scene was that some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper—the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see.

This is my fourth post for the April A-Z Challenge. I am blogging every day in April using the letters of the alphabet as prompts. Today I am going to write the medical people in my extended family, past and present.

I have included the Eliza and Dock Allen Descendents towards the left and the Cleages and Reeds towards the right. Things get a little messy in the middle.

I decided to do this collage when I realized there were quite a few medical people in the family.  If I forgot anyone, forgive me.  There are several people that married into the family here, usually shown with their spouse. From left to right, starting with the top row we have:

• Ubert Vincent (1889-1938) in the operating room as a student. Ubert was married to Naomi Tulane, Eliza and Dock’s granddaughter.
• Next we have Pat, who is a nurse and descends from the Mullins line of the Reed family.
• Then my grandfather, Albert B. Cleage, Sr., (1883-1957) sitting on the steps with other doctors on the staff at Dunbar Hospital in Detroit.
• Last in the top row is my Aunt Gladys Cleage’s husband, Edward Warren Evans giving a shot to Malcolm X after his house was bombed and he came to Detroit to speak.

2nd row:

• Ubert Vincent again standing outside of the hospital in New York City that he founded.
• Next is Dr. Joseph Howard (1880-1941), husband of Otilla McCall Howard who is from Mary Allen McCall’s line from Eliza.
• A tiny photo of Angie, who is a nurse and married William Chapell, in the Jennie Allen Turner line of Eliza and Dock Allen.
• Next is a photo of Angie we can actually see without enlarging.
• Hubert Conrad Vincent (Ubert’s son) who was also a doctor. I have no adult photo of him, yet.
• Dr. Maria Shreve Benaim who is the daughter of Winslow and Anna Cleage Shreve, both pharmacists. Winslow Shreve is next to his daughter.
• Skipping past my grandfather Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr enlarged on the stairs we have his son, Dr. Louis Cleage giving a polio shot.

3rd row:

• Starts with Ubert and Naomi Vincent’s daughters – Sylvia and Jacqui who were both nurses.
• And moves right along to dentist Robert Bingham who is Jacqui’s son and Ubert’s grandson.
• Going up to the next photo we have another dentist, Robert McEwen who married Jeanette McCall, again from Mary Allen McCall’s line, which goes back to Eliza.
• Next is Edward McCall who studied to be a doctor but went blind and became a poet and a publisher instead. Another of Mary McCall’s children.
• Now we drop down to the bottom to finish out this row.
• Under Jeanette and Robert we have another dentist, Dr. Charles Pope. He was the son of Eliza and Dock’s youngest daughter, Beaulah Allen Pope. His twin sister, Anne’s husband, Ludie Gilmer was also a dentist but I have no photograph of him.
• Next we have nurse Maricea who comes through Jennie Allen Turner’s line from Eliza and Dock Allen.
• Moving back to the Cleage/Reeds we have Dr. Janine Bergerac Fromm who is from Hugh Reed Averette’s line.  She is a psychiatrist.
• Next her is pharmacist Anna Cleage Shreve working in her brother Louis’s pharmacy.
• Next is Dr. Susan Thrasher-Martin.  She is married to Dr. Ernest Martin who is from the Albert B. Cleage and Pearl Reed line. He is a psychiatrist.
• There is a little tomb stone tucked right above Susan’s head. I have no photo of Dr. Beauford Avritt but wanted to get him in here.

Hope this wasn’t too confusing.  There are also quite a few teachers and artists/musician/writers in the family. All deserving of a collage at some point.