You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce!: The Storied Life of Folk Artist Elijah Pierce
by Chiquita Mullins Lee (Author) Jennifer Mack-Watkins (Illustrator)
A picture book biography about the barber shop of woodcarver Elijah Pierce, recipient of the highest folk art honor in the United States.
"Creeeeak!" goes the screen door to self-taught artist Elijah Pierce's barbershop art studio. A young boy walks in for an ordinary haircut and walks out having discovered a lifetime of art.
Mr. Pierce's wood carvings are in every corner of the small studio. There are animals, scenes from his life, and those detailing the socio-political world around him. It's this collection of work that will eventually win Elijah the National Heritage Fellowship in 1982 just two years before his death. But the young boy visiting the shop in the 1970s doesn't know that yet. All he knows is: "You gotta meet Mr. Pierce!"
Based on the true story of Elijah Pierce and his community barber shop in Columbus, Ohio, this picture book includes cleverly collaged museum-sourced photos of his art and informative backmatter about his life. With engaging text by Pierce to the Soul! playwright Chiquita Mullins-Lee and Christopher Award-winning author Carmella Van Vleet, it's illustrated with striking Japanese woodblock by Jennifer Mack-Watkins. A new addition to vital Black art history!
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Publishers Weekly
In a fictionalized story centering wood carver and folk artist Elijah Pierce (1892-1984), a narrating child and their father head into Pierce's barbershop. "You gotta meet Mr. Pierce," Dad says as they enter the shop, where "Wood carvings. They're everywhere! And laughter. Razors and roaring laughter. Scissors and stories. Tonics and tunes on the radio." As the child receives a haircut and connects with Pierce over an uncertainty about what to draw, Mullins Lee and Van Vleet use the duo's conversation to relay Pierce's early experiences carving "anything I could think of" after receiving a pocketknife as a boy. Next, Pierce shows father and child his carvings--animal figures, personal scenes that reveal biographical details, and the only wooden Bible storybook of its kind--before giving the child a carved elephant figurine, and some inspiration. Action words ("DRAPE /SNAP," "SAND/DUST") evoke movement and expertise throughout, while Mack-Watkins's use of woodcut textures brings the subject's medium to the fore. Back matter includes creators' notes and further material. Ages 4-8. (Jan.)
Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
Jennifer Mack-Watkins is a printmaker whose work investigates power through the complexities of themes like womanhood, beauty, body image, and gender roles. Her solo exhibition "Children of the Sun" at Brattleboro Museum has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, and Essence Magazine. Read more about her work at mackjennifer.com.
JNF018010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | People & Places | United States - African-American
JNF006040 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Art | History
