Poet Cyrus Cassells who overlapped briefly with David Bethuel Jamieson in Provincetown

  "Proincetown Poet"
by David Bethuel Jamieson
1986

Peter Stebbins of the Studio House at Walbridge in Washington, DC, posted an announcement on facebook that poet Cyrus Cassells had just won a Simon Guggehheim Fellowship. He noted with pride that his partner David Bethuel Jamieson (1963-1992) had painted his portrait many years ago, when they overlapped in Provincetown.  

I'm not sure if the seriousness of this portrait represents the poet or the artist, but the intersection of these two is what the Studio House at Walbridge was proud to share.  They were both young men when they met in Provincetown. I don't know how close they were, but what gay poet or artists could claim any authenticity without making a pilgrimmage to that special place?

Cyrus Cassells? Never heard of him.I messaged my poet friend and master English teacher Alice Jacobs Twombly in New Jersey to see if she had ever heard of him. She knows all the poets. She didn't know Cassells. I decided to look him up. She was going to as well. 

A more recent photo. 

What an interesting poet we've been missing. It's like discovering the art of David Jamieson and Earle Montrose Pilgrim in some ways. In general, throughout history, the poetry and writings of people of color and women, like their art and also their music, have been hidden from public view.  It has taken a lot of hard work over time to overcome the cultural hegemony of the Western canon.

Elizabeth Eckfort trying to enter Central
High School in Little Rock, 1957. She was
one of the Little Rock Nine who changed
history.  What courage it took to confront
such hate (shown in the face of that
 white woman),&  all too familiar today.

Cyrus Cassells, as Alice and I learned, was born in Dover Delaware in 1957. He grew up in the Mojave desert near Los Angeles, CA and got a BA from Stanford, where he started writing in earnest and never stopped. Cassells, who knows many languages and also works as a translator, film critic, and actor, teaches in the MFA program at Texas State University-San Marcos.  He lives in Austin.

He's won lots of awards.  A National Poetry Series Award for The Mud Actor (1982); a Pulitzer nomination for Soul Make a Path through Shouting,1994; winner of the William Carlos William award and a Lambda Literary Award for Beautiful Signor (1997); a Balcones Poetry Award for The Crossed-Out Swastika in 2012. His latest work, The Gospel according to Wild Indigo, rooted in Gullah culture, is a finalist for the 2019 NAACP Image Award in Poetry and the Texas Institute of Letters Helen C. Smith Poetry Award. 

According to the Poetry Foundation, Cassells' poetry, which embraces a wide range of subjects and themes,"examines personal encounters with history, love and eroticism, suffering and violence." Dan Shewan, a reviewer of Crossed-Out Swastika, said that  “Cassells approaches his subject with diligence, often choosing to craft poems inspired by the struggles and experiences of real people....The sense of pace is beautifully sustained throughout the collection, alternating between frantic moments of panic to somber reflections on the nature of suffering.” 

I started reading some of these poems and found them fascinating. The range of subjects reveals a Renaissance man of diverse interests, a discoverer and adventurer in the realm of thought. I was fascinated that Cassells wrote about Auschwitz and the horrors of World War II, as well as the struggle for civil rights here at home. According to Shewan, Cassells shows us in Crossed-Out Swastika, that "even in its darkest hour, the will and tenacity of the human spirit endures."  

Auschwitz, All Hallows  by Cyrus Cassells 

Look, we have made

a counterpoint 

of white chrysanthemums,

a dauntless path of death-will-not-part-us petals

and revering light; 

even here,

even here 

before the once-wolfish ovens,

the desecrating wall 

where you were shot,

the shrike-stern cells 

where you were bruised

and emptied of your time-bound beauty— 

you of the confiscated shoes

and swift-shorn hair, 

you who left,

as sobering testament, the scuffed 

luggage of utter hope

and harrowing deception.

Come back, teach us.

From these fearsome barracks 

and inglorious fields

flecked with human ash, 

in the russet-billowing hours

of All Hallows, 

let the pianissimo

of your truest whispering 

(vivid as the crunched frost

of a forced march) 

become a slowly blossoming,

ever-voluble hearth 

revealing to us

(the baffled, the irresolute, 

the war torn, the living)

more of the fire 

and attar of what it means

to be human.

Cyrus Cassells, "Auschwitz, All Hallows" from The Crossed-Out Swastika.  Copyright © 2012 by Cyrus Cassells.  Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyon 

NOTE: Cassells spreads out the lines of his poetry in couplets, sometimes 2, 3 and more  spaces between lines. I found them easier to read when I brought the lines together. 

Cassells most recent book, The Gospel according to Wild Indigo, fascinates me because it explores the culture of the Gullah people of Charleston and the South Carolina Sea Islands. According to review, it celebrates the rice-and indigo-working slaves and their descendants, who have forged a unique Africa-inspired language and culture.  I'm going to the Library to look for it. 

Sources: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/cyrus-cassells

https://therumpus.net/2012/10/the-crossed-out-swastika-by-cyrus-cassells/

Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957, by Cyrus Cassells

Thick at the schoolgate are the ones
Rage has twisted
Into minotaurs, harpies
Relentlessly swift;
So you must walk past the pincers,
The swaying horns,
Sister, sister,
Straight through the gusts
Of fear and fury,
Straight through;
Where are you going?

I’m just going to school.

Here we go to meet
The hydra-headed day,
Here we go to meet
The maelstrom –

Can my voice be an angel-on-the-spot,
An Amen corner?
Can my voice take you there,
Gallant girl with a notebook,
Up, up from the shadows of gallows trees
To the other shore:
A globe bathed in light,
A chalkboard blooming with equations –

I have never seen the likes of you,
Pioneer in dark glasses:
You won’t show the mob your eyes,
But I know your gaze,
Steady-on-the-North-Star, burning –

With their jerry-rigged faith,
Their spear of the American flag,
How could they dare to believe
You’re someone sacred?:
Nigger, burr-headed girl,
Where are you going?

I’m just going to school.

From Soul Make a Path through Shouting

Into the Light: African-American Artist David Bethuel Jamieson and The Studio House at Walbridge

 David Bethuel Jamieson (1963-1992)

"Broadly, we have more institutions recognizing gaps in their collections due to the decisions made to exclude women and people of color by past directors, and they are designating funds to collect from these marginalized groups. They’re hiring curators of color to further these actions. This is progress. There is still plenty more to do, but considering the way things were, I’m excited for this direction, and I cannot wait for more change." Karen Jenkins-Johnson, Art historian 

"The biggest story in the art market for 2018, perhaps the biggest story in the broader art world, was the breakthrough of African-American artists."  Chadd Scott, Forbes, 1/10/2019

 “What is wonderful about today’s art market is that African-American artists are being given the long overdue recognition for their contributions to the art historical canon. These highly talented, visionary, and authentic artists are now being showcased in the marketplace alongside their peers from America and around the world.” Arnold Lehman, director emeritus, Brooklyn Museum of Art 

The growing contemporary attention to and recognition of the art of African Americans, like that of women and people of color, honors a hidden global legacy of enormous creativity. It's about time this legacy was brought to light. It has taken years of groundbreaking work to make it happen. 

"There's been major momentum gaining ground for African-American artist over the past 25 years through many important museum exhibitions... as well as through the commitment of thoughtful collectors and galleries," noted Arnold Lehman, director emeritus at the Brooklyn Museum.

“The activity we saw in 2018 was the result of change that started to happen little by little, year by year, over the last several decades.” (Chadd Scott, Forbes magazine) 

Among these pioneers is Peter Stebbins, curator of the Studio House at Walbridge in Washington, D.C. Peter is conserving, cataloguing and bringing to public view the works of his late partner, David Bethuel Jamieson (1963-1992). Peter has also recently taken on the fabulous ouevre of Earle Montrose Pilgrim (1923-1976). My guess is that few people recognize these creative geniuses now but they will soon.

The changes necessary to recognize and bring African-American art to public view starts with dedicated and thoughtful curators, cultural historians, and art lovers who recognize their value and are moved to care for them, little by little, year by year. 

These pioneers are the catalysts for the discovery of contemporary artists of color, as well as art that's long existed but has been hidden, not included in art museums, works left out of the historical Western canon that most of us grew up with.  My discovery of these works of art, which started when I lived in DC, has enriched my life. That's why I'm so grateful for conservers like Peter.

Efforts to bring this "hidden legacy of enormous creativity" to light has to be intentional, deliberate, persistent. It has to change minds and hearts.  It has to open consciousness of what art is, who makes art, who decides. 

That is what the Studio House at Walbridge is all about. It was the last art studio of David Bethuel Jamieson (1963-1992). Since David's untimely death, at the height of his creative power, Peter has worked to ensure his art is cared for, curated, and appreciated. He is bringing it out of the shadows and into the light. 

David Bethual Jamieson  

Peter says “part of my work curating this private studio-based collection, made possible by a private trust, involves identifying and developing community connections to the artist and his oeuvre, documenting significant events and relationships in the artist’s lifetime, compiling a catalogue raisonee, and overseeing the public placement of his art." 

It is such important work. One day, thanks to Peter, David's art may be exhibited in a variety of museums like the National Museum of Art or the Chicago Art Museum or the Toledo Museum of Art, or a museum near you. It might fetch thousands of dollars at sales and art auctions like that held at Sotheby's in November 2018, where a Jacob Lawrence painting,"The Businessmen" (1947), sold for $5.2 million.

“It's great to see undervalued and underappreciated artists really hit the international scene,” Morgan Long of Southby's said after the auction. He was thrilled to note that it was one of the most avid and lively bidding Southby's has seen in a long time.  

Increasingly, museums around the world are adding these artists' works, both historic and modern, to their collections for all the world to see. Enlightened directors and board members are paying attention. As art historian Karen Jenkins-Johnson noted, more institutions are "recognizing gaps in their collections due to the decisions made to exclude women and people of color by past directors, and they are designating funds to collect from these marginalized groups." 

The Toledo Museum of Art is starting to embrace this trend. It recently exhibited Kehinde's Wiley's "New Republic," a travelling exhibit curated by the bold and pioneering Brooklyn Museum. The exhibit, and others like it, are bringing larger and more diverse audiences to our museum. It's a beginning. The TMA also needs to add African-American artists to its collection, now dominated by works from the Western canon like most art museums here and elsewhere. It's a commitment. It's a slow process.

Peter has recently taken on another critical project, one that hits close to home. He is conserving, authenticating, and promoting the art of African-American artist Earle Montrose Pilgrim (1933-1976).  Earle was the husband of my DC friend Lily Pilgrim. How well I remember Lily's apartment on N Street, NW, the walls covered with Earle's art, stunning, breathtaking. It felt like a secret archive of a fantastic artist.  Every time I viewed those paintings I would ask her, in awe, "What will you do with Earle's paintings?" She'd answer, "I don't know but I'm thinking about it."   

She was thinking about it when I left DC for Florida in 1999. Thankfully, soon after that, Lily became friends with Peter, who also became her caretaker for several years until her death in 2018. It was a perfect match up. Both Peter and Lily had partners who were talented artists whose works needed curating and attention. Both Earle and David had spent time in Provincetown, Earle in the 50s, where he had a small gallery, and David in the 1980s. Provincetown was known for it's fabulous art and culture scene, an incubator for new art, and as a haven for gay and lesbian artists of all colors and backgrounds.  There were so many ties-that-bind uniting Peter and Lily. Out of their friendship came the Lily and Earle M. Pilgrim Foundation, a start-up private trust that Peter is nurturing through many challenges and untold potential.  

It's a huge responsibility, having the legacies of two artists in your hands. But Peter is the right caretaker. I'm almost certain that David and Earle are painting to their heart's content wherever they now reside, and that they are happy their earthly creations are in such good hands.   

Sources: http://davidbethueljamieson.com/?page_id=8&fbclid=IwAR1C-fzzBzJOUWhTkI0MMUE4PrmwbT7PtKwoSzK6_zCPpWwYg8TFYc1lfBc. This catalogue was put together by Anne Rothwell, artist friend of Peter Stebbins. Wonderful to have it. David is working on expanding it.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/african-american-artists-sweep-sotheby-s-contemporary-evening-sale-in-new-york --"At its contemporary art evening sale in New York last night, 14 November, Sotheby’s rebounded after a patchy Impressionist and Modern sale earlier in the week when several top lots went unsold. Boasting a 97% sell-through rate and a total of $362.6m (with fees)...the sale yielded several unexpectedly strong prices for artists who have been relative market underdogs until now. Of the night's four records, all were achieved by women or artists of colour." 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chaddscott/2019/01/10/phillips-capitalizing-on-surging-african-american-art-market-with-latest-selling-exhibition/#70c1c02a2f7b  -- "The biggest story in the art market for 2018, perhaps the biggest story in the broader art world, was the breakthrough of African-American artists. A quarter of all the money spent at auction for black artists in the past 10 years was spent in the first six months of 2018 according to Artnet. That total was fueled by Sean “Diddy” Combs’ $21.1 million purchase of Kerry James Marshall’s Past Times in May."

https://www.culturetype.com/2017/11/01/culture-talk-arnold-lehman-on-curating-american-african-american-a-selling-exhibition-at-phillips-london/ Interesting talk on collecting and exhibiting African-American art with Arnold Lehman, former director of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

https://www.toledomuseum.org/about/news/kehinde-wiley-new-republic%E2%80%94toledo-museum-art-examines-work-contemporary-artist

https://rhinohornartists.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/pioneers-from-provincetown-the-roots-of-figurative-expressionism/  "German born Wolf Kahn was a close friend of Müller, Brodie, and Johnson, and was Hofmann’s studio assistant in Provincetown. He exhibited with John Grillo (b.1917) at the Pilgrim Gallery, a tiny 25 x 16 foot space on Commercial Street (run by artist and jeweler Earle Montrose Pilgrim) that would later become the innovative Sun Gallery (see below). Kahn’s unique pairing of figuration and abstract Color Field painting set him apart from many of his contemporaries of the New York and Provincetown schools."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earle_M._Pilgrim "Earle Montrose Pilgrim (1933–1976)  was an African American artist whose work is within the stylistic milieu of Abstract Expressionism and Figurative Expressionism. Working in the early 1950s until the mid 1970s, Pilgrim's style is characterized by figuration informed by abstraction. The artist fluctuated between epic, large-scale compositions and intimate canvases and worked with a variety of media from painting to experimental film. Pilgrim's oeuvre reflects the artist's various interests from avant-garde portraiture to the notion of the occult, which were all figured through a Modernist interest in coloration, abstraction, and expression."

http://provincetownartistregistry.com/history/SunGallery.html  This is a fabulous interview with Yvonne Anderson. "From 1955 to 1959 the artist Yvonne Anderson and her late husband, the poet Dominic Falcone, operated the legendary Sun Gallery in Provincetown. ....They displayed works by about 100 artists, a selection of whom formed the nucleus of the figurative expressionist movement. This summer the Provincetown Art Association and Museum will focus on these artists in Pioneers of Provincetown curated by Adam Zucker. (link to Provincetown Art Association here...) The Sun Gallery took over a small space that had previously been the gallery and jewelry shop of Earle Pilgrim. In a previous PAAM show I included him in Kind of Blue: Four African American Artists in Provincetown; Benny Andrews, Emilio Cruz, Earle Pilgrim and Bob Thompson."

http://www.newnownext.com/a-home-at-the-end-of-the-world-provincetown-and-the-aids-crisis/04/2019/ This is a heartwarming story.