Dave the Potter - Artist, Poet, Slave
Written by: Laban Carrick Hill
Illustrated by: Bryan Collier
A narrative biography mixed with a bit of prose with a dash of history on the side. In Dave the Potter, readers learn about the South Carolina slave who lived nearly 200 years ago and developed a skill as a potter. Not much is known regarding how he learned pottery but over his life he made approximately forty thousand pots. On many he signed and dated his name along with inscribing a short poem. It is in this way that his pottery pieces stand out among others during that time period. It's as if, with each pot he created and poem he inscribed he left a bit of his legacy for the world to learn from years later.
While this biography doesn't tell Dave's full life story, it does provide us with a glimpse into the remarkable artistic life of a slave and his creation process while making his many pots. The figurative language abounds throughout the story with phrases such as, "Like a magician, pulling a rabbit out of hat, Dave's hands, buried in the mounded mud, pulled out the shape of a jar" and "Dave kicked his potter's wheel until it spun as fast as a carnival's wheel of fortune." African-American Illustrator Bryan Collier used his traditional collage technique to depict Dave as he envisioned he may have looked so many years ago. You may recognize his illustrations from other popular books including Martin's Big Words, Rosa and Uptown. Dave the Potter received both a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King book award.
This would be a wonderful story to coincide with a pottery unit in art class. Students could model their pots after that of Dave the Potter by engraving them with their own unique poems before adding their signature and date. Generate even more excitement by digging into the history of pottery in the Carolinas and have students research more about the life of Dave. Engage in a discussion with students about why they think he wrote poems on the sides of his pots and share some of them with the students. Can powerful message be communicated in few words? Have them try and do the same and see what creativity can be derived.
To learn more about Bryan Collier, the illustrator in this book check out the videos below - a great interview with a talented man.
No comments:
Post a Comment