WS Chronicle

By Felecia Piggott-Long, Ph.D. 

When Grace Humphreys Rockafellow, 86,  was invited to participate in a reading of African American Literature, Renee Andrews, known as “The Story Lady,” asked Rockafellow to display her collection of African American art. Fitness instructor Emma Love, 48, came to the same reading to participate as a performer, and she decided to present her art along with her original poem, “My Skin Screams.”  

Rockafellow presented prints and lithographs of men and women who were first in their fields. Love’s portraits are called “No Faces No Names,” because her silhouettes do not portray any person in particular. 

Dr. Elwanda Ingram was impressed with Rockafellow’s portraits and the silhouettes of Emma Love. Love is Dr. Ingram’s aerobics instructor, and Rockafellow is in Ingram’s yoga class. 

“Both of them are honoring African American men and women, although one artist is African American and the other is Caucasian. People are visual, and they like to see pictures to help them to visualize what these leaders look like,” said Ingram. “It is interesting to observe Black women trailblazers. Their work reaffirms the idea that literacy and freedom go together. Unless a person learns to read, he or she tends not to become free.” 

While Rockafellow portrayed such leaders in her art exhibit as Nina Simone, Alex Haley, Barbara Jordan, Althea Gibson, Paul R. Williams, Septima Poinsette Clark, Hattie McDaniel, Robert Smalls, Frederick Douglass, Philip Simmons, Madame C. J. Walker, and Dr. James McCune Smith (the first African American doctor), Dr. Ingram will be presenting on Black female trailblazers this month, such as Althea Gibson, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ella Baker, Lucy Terry, Dr. Mae Jemison, Claudette Colvin, Phillis Wheatley, Ida B. Wells Barnette, Harriett Jacobs, Toni Morrison, Lorraine Hansberry, Velma Hopkins, Mazie Woodruff, Dr. Virginia Newell, and D. D Adams. 

Rockafellow grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, and graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in 1962 and a BA degree in education. 

“I always liked drawing as a child. I loved to draw faces. When I was teaching, I would do sketches of the children,” Rockafellow said. She taught at Salem College, Salem Academy, and Summit School during the 1980s and the 1990s. She also taught at James Simmons Elementary School and the Academic Magnet High School and the Morehead Montessori School for five years and at the Charleston, South Carolina, Public Schools. She taught as an art instructor for 23 years.  

When she started creating her Black History exhibit, she wanted to add to it each year. “My focus was on gathering images of African Americans who were first in a field. Hattie McDaniel was the first African American who won an Oscar. When I first started my collection, I drew Pilip Simmon, a man who did all of the beautiful gates and fences in Charleston. He was an amazing craftsman,” Rockafellow said.  

“Robert Smalls was also a story from Charleston, He was the African American who stole a confederate boat and sailed out to the Union forces. He was an enslaved person, but he and his family escaped from slavery on that boat. He gave the boat to the Union forces. He ended up fighting for the Union for the rest of the Civil War.  

“Septima Clark started the Freedom Schools after she was fired from her job in Charleston. It was not fair, but she excelled in spite of her mistreatment,” Rockafellow said. 

Emma Love grew up in Winston-Salem and she has been a fitness instructor at the Gateway YWCA since 2017. She teaches 12 classes per week such as strength training, interval training, bootcamp style, dance class that is like line dance, aerobic style classes, and transition from the floor to standing. 

“I was unemployed at that time, but I had made character cakes, honeybun cakes, and creative cupcakes for my three children. Soon people started asking me to make items for them, and I made money using my creativity, but my job as a fitness trainer is what I was born to do,” Love said.  

“I love my job! I would not want to do anything else! I didn’t think that I had a calling, but I do. I started out as a member in a program, but a supervisor called me and offered me a job because my instructors, Ted Robinson and Beverly Robinson, had continued to watch the surveys that customers completed,” Love said. “The customers made many requests and asked the YWCA to hire me. My supervisor named Constance invited me to apply for the position of fitness instructor. I was extremely shy and did not think I could do it. But I caught on quickly, and I do not quit. When I set my mind, no matter how long it takes, I will do it!” 

Love’s art pursuit came about in a similar way. She went to examine the new craft store in town and when she looked up on the wall, she saw so many items that she believed she could make herself. When she made her first silhouette, she used an upside-down wooden pineapple, a canvas, and she created a person’s face with vinyl and her hair with paper cut out like hearts. She also used multi-colored vinyl to make lines of emotions down her face and red lips. The face had no eyes, and no name. She sold it for $40. Today she would charge more because of the time she has to put into making the item.  

“I call this item “Lady Feelings.” I have made and sold about 12 of these silhouettes. I call them ‘No Faces, No Names.’ The man in the shadow box is ‘The Man with No Face , No Name.’ My latest woman is wearing a headwrap, and she has locks. Her neck is adorned, and her face is blue. Some people might laugh at that, but I think dark skin is beautiful,” Love said. 

”My art is a celebration of dark skin. I never knew that our skin was a problem until I watched the Maurie show. I saw a Black girl who was using skin lighteners because she thought her skin was too dark. I could not believe that she did not like the color of her skin. All of my sisters and I are of different shades. Colorism has never been a problem in my home,” Love said.  

“I recently dyed my hair blue; it is fun and so funny. I usually keep my hair blue. Creativity is my calling.” 

If anyone is interested in purchasing the art or seeing the exhibit, call 336-692-0258.