In these tough times, the arts can support resistance, endurance, and vitality. Yet Friends were firmly opposed to the arts for 200 years. That era is over, but in many Quaker spaces, the arts are still the object of what has been called “uneasy tolerance.”
George Moses Horton: A Biographical Sketch & several poems; from local sources George Moses Horton George Moses Horton (1797-1893) could rightly be called North Carolina’s first professional poet. Born enslaved by Chatham County yeoman farmer William Horton, young George Moses Horton loved the rhyming sounds of hymns, and yearned to be able to … Continue reading More Juneteenth: A Remarkable, Neglected Black Carolina Poet
Late one spring morning in 1986, I was creeping along the edge of Ox Road, Virginia route 123, driving with one hand, and shoving mail into the boxes on posts with the other. I was a substitute rural mail carrier, working a route just south of the seemingly nonexistent town of Fairfax Station. Beyond the … Continue reading Henry Taylor: A Quaker Poet Departs — A Holiday Read
Can art help us get through (and bear witness in) hard times? The Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts (aka FQA) thinks so. A new example is the just-published issue of FQA’s journal, Types & Shadows, (aka T&S) online right now, right here. T&S was launched in 1996, the new issue is #101, for Autumn … Continue reading New Issue of a Quaker Arts Journal — Now Online
Washington Post — archive THE REALITIES (& Speculations) BEHIND THE RHYMES By Jennifer Howard — June 11, 1997 Humpty Dumpty. Jack Horner. Miss Muffet. You knew them as a child, and if you have youngsters of your own, chances are they know them, too. Mother Goose and her nursery rhymes are old friends. Seems as … Continue reading Dog Days Diversions — Nursery Rhymes: A Scholarly Sampler