Book-A-Day 5: Magic Trash - A Story of Tyree Guyton and His Art

Magic Trash - A Story of Tyree Guyton and His Art

Written by: J.H. Shapiro

Illustrated by: Vanessa Brantley-Newton

What is art?  Can trash also be treasure?  Can creativity abound from heaps of trash and junk that others toss away?  For Tyree Guyton, other people's junk became his treasure from an early age. Growing up on the east side of Detroit with little to call his own in a family of ten children, Tyree developed a creative imagination from the most ordinary items.  When others thought he was dumb, his grandfather saw the artist that others could not and encouraged Tyree to pursue his passion.  

  

As Tyree grows into adulthood he ventures away from Detroit but returns to see his former neighborhood in shambles.  Deserted homes, lurking troublemakers and trash-filled streets push Tyree to pick up his paintbrush and set to work.  Plastering brightly colored dots on hollowed houses, turning old bikes, old shoes and other odds and ends into eclectic art, he helped turn abandoned streets into his own artistic canvas.  Others tried to stop the creative movement exclaiming it was all trash, but Tyree persevered with the community behind him and continued to turn trash into treasure along his boyhood streets.  

I loved this story and immediately wanted to learn more about Tyree Guyton and see images of his artwork.  This story sparked that kind of intense curiosity and "need to know" that we often want our students to develop to drive their own inquiry.  This would be a great book to use to introduce a unit on sustainability and creating art with everyday objects.  How can we take discarded items around our school and transform them into art?  How can we then use these objects to create a difference in our school community?  How can Tyree inspire our Northside community to turn trash into treasure in our own creative way? 

Magic Trash is a biography that resonates with persistence and the goals that can be accomplished should one set their mind to something and stay the course! It highlights how community can come together to create change and how someone with so little to call their own can go on to spread wealth in new and colorful ways. 

** You can learn more about Tyree Guyton and his work here and by watching the video clip above. Click here to see a time-lapse video of some Detroit street art using shoes.  

** African-American illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton's pictures helped capture the essence of the story in a unique and creative way.  She lives in Charlotte, NC and you can read more about her here.