Traveling Exhibition
We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
Original Paintings by Kadir Nelson
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Contents: Thirty-three paintings, thirteen sketches and educational materials from the book, We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, by Kadir Nelson
The New York Times named Kadir Nelson's book, "WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball," one of the Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2008. Kadir was named the 2009 Coretta Scott King Book Award Recipient. You can visit www.kadirnelson.com.htm for more information on his book.
"We are the ship; all else the sea."
Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League
Award-winning artist and author Kadir Nelson spent seven years researching, writing and creating handsome paintings to be included in the brilliantly illustrated book, “WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” which is dedicated to the preservation of the history of Negro Leagues. During the process of creating the paintings and the book, Nelson interviewed former Negro League players, traveled to museums around the country, poured over old photographs, firsthand testimonies and documentaries, collected baseball memorabilia, sports equipment and uniforms, then posed and photographed himself in them, all with the intention of putting himself in the shoes of a former Negro League player to recreate an authentic depiction of life in the Negro Leagues. This exhibition is the story of Negro Leagues-the story of gifted athletes and determined owners; of racial discrimination and international sportsmanship; of fortunes won and lost; of triumphs and defeats on and off the field. It is a perfect mirror for the social and political history of black America in the first half of the twentieth century. But most of all, the story of the Negro Leagues is about hundreds of unsung heroes who overcame segregation, hatred, terrible conditions, and low pay to do the one thing they loved more than anything else in the world: play ball.
