WBAI-FM Upcoming Program
Cat Radio Cafe

Mon, Apr 19, 2021 12:00 AM

"BILL TRAYLOR: CHASING GHOSTS" - FILM ON THE ARTIST

On this show we’ll preview “Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts,” a documentary film about the great self-taught artist. Bill Traylor was born into slavery on a cotton plantation in rural Alabama in 1853, spent six decades after the Civil War working the land, until moving to the segregated section of Montgomery at 70, taking odd jobs. He did not start painting until his late 80’s when homeless, he began drawing and painting – devising his own visual language to produce over 1000 works colorful, jazzy, folkloric and mystical images drawn from nature and memories of his long life on the plantation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, The Great Migration, and scenes from the changing urban culture.

We’ll be joined by the producer of the film, Samuel Pollard (Eyes on the Prize- MLK/FBI) and the director and co-producer Jeffrey Wolf, who have assembled archival photographs, music, dramatic excerpts, interviews with family members, artists and art historians, and a plethora of Bill Traylor’s brilliant and haunting renditions of the African-American experience as he lived it.

Hosted by Janet Coleman and David Dozer

headline photo
Bill Traylor at Work on the Street

 

 


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