CURVE & FLOW

A portrait of an African American architect who “curved his creativity around the stone wall of racism.”

The title reflects the course of Williams’ career more than his characteristic rectilinear style, but the creators of Take a Picture of Me, James Vanderzee! (2017) again pair a narrative alive with rhythm and rich imagery to equally vibrant pictures to celebrate both the achievements and the character of a (this time) literally groundbreaking Black figure. Writing in present tense for immediacy, Loney gives her subject youthful dreams of building a home that lead him to bend around naysayers and racial prejudice to establish himself as an architect—learning to sketch ideas upside down on the fly to impress White clients across the table, to create structures with a Southern California flair “from paper to pine to paint job,” and then “flow[ing] in a different direction” to help found a bank that would lend to Black communities in South LA. Mallett follows Williams from childhood to dignified maturity, catching the overall motif with curving lines, restrained lighting, and slightly softened focus while portraying him here bent over blueprints with glimpses of his work visible over his shoulder, there standing proud with his family before the house he did at last design and build, and, in a final scene, posing with a racially diverse group of smiling Angelenos. Along with a timeline and a select list of sources, the backmatter includes photos of several of the thousands of structures with which he is associated. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An inspiring tribute to a determined dreamer and doer constructed with admirable verve.