GBN’s Daily Drop: Quote from Contemporary Artist Betye Saar, 95, on Art, Beauty and Activism (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Saturday, March 5 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 that features a quote from contemporary artist and Black Arts Movement figure Betye Saar on her goals as an artist and activist:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, March 5th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

It’s a quote from contemporary artist and member of the Black Arts Movement Betye Saar, best known for her assemblage style and her 1972 work titled The Liberation of Aunt Jemima. Here’s the quote:

“It is my goal as an artist to create works that expose injustice and reveal beauty. The rainbow is literally a spectrum of color while spiritually a symbol of hope and promise.”

To learn more about 95 year-old Southern California native Betye Saar and her work, check out the Museum of Modern Art aka MoMA website, the 2019 book Betye Saar: Black Girl’s Window edited by Christopher Cherix, the upcoming 2022 release Betye Saar: Serious Moonlight edited by Stephanie Seidel, and the CBS Good Morning feature on her from 2020.

Links to all of these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

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For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

• https://www.moma.org/artists/5102
• https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/momas-heady-introduction-to-betye-saar-the-conscience-of-the-art-world
• https://hammer.ucla.edu/now-dig-this/artists/betye-saar
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Betye-Saar
• https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/23/betye-saar-the-brilliant-artist-who-reversed-and-radicalised-racist-stereotypes
• https://youtu.be/T7CFz9xzhIM

(paid links)