AUGUSTA SAVAGE

A renowned poet brings a Harlem Renaissance artist’s story to life.

Nelson focuses her poetic skills on Black sculptor and teacher Augusta Savage in this biography for budding historians, artists, and poetry lovers alike. Savage’s life makes for great material—she was born in Florida in 1892, a middle child with 13 siblings, into a world of racial discrimination. She was thrice married, the first time at only 15, and in 1921 moved to New York City in search of better opportunities. Savage created a number of stunning sculptures that captured elements and figures of contemporary Black life. Nelson’s arresting poetry, which is accompanied by photographs of Savage’s work, dazzles as it experiments with form and supplies elegant lines about the artist’s many triumphs and struggles. In one concrete poem, Nelson writes: “At eighteen, Gussie was widowed, with a / toddler older than her youngest siblings. / The family’s hand opened and closed / in welcome. But fingers remember.” The poems follow Savage’s life in chronological order, beginning with her birth and ending with a meditation on her striking 1959 sculpture, Bas Relief of a Female Dancer. At times the enticing verses beg for more biographical context to add weight; readers will benefit from starting with the informative afterword by Tammi Lawson, curator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

A lyrical biography from a master of the craft.