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“When I did this series, I didn’t know who would ever see it. I didn’t know if it would ever be seen. I just did it. And I would like for people to look — feel, look — This is me. This is mankind, or womankind, obviously. And I would like it to be a universal statement as well.” —Jacob Lawrence
The extraordinary Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) has inspired viewers and fellow-artists alike for generations. The entire sequence of 60 paintings was completed in 1940-41, when Lawrence was a mere 23 years old, as a commission by the Works Progress Administration.
In 2015, the Museum of Modern Art mounted a unique exhibition of the Migration Series, entitled One Way Ticket, curated by Leah Dickerman, in cooperation with the Phillips Collection (also owner of the series) that included a variety of historical and contemporary materials from photographs to poetry, that related to the Great Migration, and further illuminated the series. Additionally, African-American poets selected by poet Elizabeth Alexander responded to the series with their own works. In this video, PBS Newshour visited the exhibition and spoke with Dickerman and some of the poets that responded to Lawrence’s work.
