Robert Delli Company Savannah College of Art and Design

The posters for the Savannah Black Heritage Festival are more than a marketing tool. They are art that gives a visual perspective of each festival'south theme, this year beingness "Reflect. Reform. Rejoice."

Those 3 words correspond the history of African Americans as they marched from enslavement to freedom to being contributors, according to Robert Louis Stevenson, retired Savannah Country University professor. "Since this trek has been long and arduous, what has been achieved embodies reformation, that upon reflection is cause to rejoice!" he wrote.

"The affiche graphics may give some insight of the meaning of our theme this year," according to festival coordinator Shirley James of this yr's poster. "We hope the connections are axiomatic that tin be made with" the people reflected in the fine art. This includes:

• Reflect: Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968, serving seven terms from 1969-1983 (making a comparison today with Kamala Harris, the first Black vice president and commencement adult female vice president),

• Reform: Rev. Raphael Warnock, Savannah native, Savannah Country University graduate; commencement Blackness U.Due south. Senator from Georgia, and

• Rejoice: Teddy Adams, representing African-American music and the arts.

The festival is in it's 32nd year. For the past 22 years, Cynthia Collins has been creating or working with the creators of the posters representing the Savannah Blackness Heritage Festival either through her visitor Lead Dog Productions or herself. She was a Black Heritage Festival honoree in 2019.

More:Savannah Black Heritage Festival goes virtual to reflect, reform and rejoice

She started working on the posters in 2000 with well-known Savannah artist Amiri Farris, who has contributed on a number of poster designs since. This year, the artist was her son Josh Collins, a senior in graphic design at Georgia Southern University.

"He literally drew the people. He picked George Washington Carver. Shirley (James) said, 'Tin we change him to Shirley Chisolm (for Reflect). My son picked Warnock (for Reform) and Teddy Adams (for Rejoice).

"Teddy and Josh go way back," Cynthia Collins said. "If you can prototype being office of the Black Heritage festival, I was with the Littoral Jazz Association, so my son was drug to all these jazz festivals. Joshua became a real proficient friend with James Mood (jazz saxophonist, composer, band leader), Quentin Baxter (drummer) and Teddy Adams (jazz legend). He'll put on a suit as a xx-twelvemonth-old and he'll go run into Teddy play. He has such a passion for Teddy'south music. When Teddy plays, he constantly teaches nigh the history of jazz. Josh felt strongly to represent that for him and Teddy Adams."

More than:Amiri Farris' art helps change Savannah landscape

Josh Collins drew outlines, illustrated their faces to get as real equally he could, she said, adding that instead of coloring them, he used 2-dimensional painting to make full in. "He would take one painting and alter the hues. He was using photographs of painting textures. That's how he painted them. Shirley Chisolm has these beautiful loops in her hair."

Colour ways something, she said. "Color evokes feelings. Majestic existence royalty, cherry passion, yellow being courage. He'southward pulling from all the meanings in his piece of work. Texture was important as well. How did y'all pull texture into a digital image? He did this all digitally."

More:Beach Institute instructor-student art reflects importance of Black and brown lives

Cynthia Collins said, with her business, she works for banks, hospitals, Savannah Country University. "With the Savannah Black Heritage Festival, I feel I'm cut off the leash. The one fourth dimension I become to practise art. There are only so many annual reports, ads about interest rates, an advert virtually articulatio genus surgery. This is one fourth dimension I can requite back to this community."

In 2000, Cynthia Collins earned her Master of Fine Arts from Savannah Higher of Art and Design, then started her company. She as well started with the festival in 2000 when Ike Carter was the festival coordinator who was followed later by James.

The recent posters include a small image of the Monkey Wrench design, she said, a symbol reflecting how quilts were used for communications for the Surreptitious Railroad.

She did her enquiry in Beaufort, South Carolina, at the Gullah Festival. She read the book "Hidden in Plain View" on how quilts were used to evidence which homes were safe, how to get to the next safety dwelling. "These quilts meant something," she said. "It was a visual language."

She provided groundwork on the following posters:

• 2000: past Amiri Farris with Cynthia Collins. Her SCAD thesis was on mask and masking. "We were reacting to the internet and the speed of the internet and communication and loss of identity and how it'south getting blended together. Nosotros didn't desire to lose what'south beautiful in all these cultures. The i thing that ties all of us together, no matter going back to beginning of time, from brute skins or a tattoo, is the form of masking. Like a second pare. We want to change how we are perceived."

• 2003: past Amiri Farris with Cynthia Collins. "Nosotros were actually into the language of Adinkra patterns and symbols. We nevertheless are. We pulled them into our piece of work. Amiri would do the black illustrations and then I would build the poster.

• 2015: by Wendell Smith and Cynthia Collins. The 4-x vi-foot painting was donated to Savannah State University.

• 2016: by T.J. Williams with Cynthia Collins. Collins found TJ standing in line to get a affiche printed at a business supply store in Statesboro. "I could see from across the room that he had vast amounts of talent. I gave him my concern card and asked him to come intern with my company." He was a graphic pattern junior at Georgia Southern.

• 2017: by Cynthia Collins. "As a graphic designer working for banks, and hospitals in branding and design, this is the one fourth dimension that I am gear up free. Still pulling the Adinkra symbols into my piece of work. The Sankofa symbol is the bird, which went with the theme 'Acknowledging the Echoes from the Past.'"

• 2019: Collection of posters. This is the 30th ceremony poster for the festival.

• 2020: past Amiri Farris with Cynthia Collins. "Hither is a reunion of the two of usa once more. Note the masks and symbols yet in his work. At that place is and then much more going on in the groundwork…mark my give-and-take…he is talking to us all using these symbols, colors and textures."

Andria Segedy is the news submissions coordinator for Savannah Morning News. Contact her at asegedy@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @andria_segedy

On the web

To view all the mentioned posters get online to meet a gallery of the photos with this commodity at SavannahNow.com/Lifestyle.

• 32nd annual Savannah Black Heritage Festival, a virtual event from through Feb. 21, found online at savannahblackheritagefestival.org. Some events can as well be viewed on Facebook, YouTube and on a local television station.

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Source: https://www.savannahnow.com/story/lifestyle/2021/02/09/savannah-black-heritage-festival-themes-come-life-poster-art/4439547001/

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