WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Friends of African & African-American Art, an affiliate membership group of the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County, brought a national exhibition to our community from March 25, 2011, to April 16, 2011.

The exhibit, WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball, featured work by award-winning artist and author Kadir Nelson. He spent seven years researching, writing and creating realistic paintings to be included in the brilliantly illustrated book, WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball. The exhibition included 33 original paintings, 13 sketches and educational materials, all of which are dedicated to the preservation of the history of Negro Leagues. The exhibit is the story of gifted athletes and determined owners, racial discrimination and international sportsmanship, fortunes won and lost, and triumphs and defeats on and off the field. It is a perfect mirror for the social and political history of black America in the first half of the 20th century. But most of all, the story of the Negro Leagues is about hundreds of unsung heroes who overcame segregation, hatred, terrible conditions, and low pay to do the one thing they loved more than anything else in the world: play ball. To hear a radio interview of Kadir Nelson on WFSS, click here.

The New York Times named Kadir Nelson’s book, WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball, one of the Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2008. Kadir was named the 2009 Coretta Scott King Book Award Recipient.

What made this exhibition so outstanding were the dozens of oil paintings – breathtaking in their perspectives, rich in their emotion, and created with the understanding and affection for those lost heroes of our national game. It is a tour de force for baseball lovers of all ages.

A series of lectures by Fayetteville State University staff members led up to the opening of WE ARE THE SHIP:

The missions of the Arts Council and Friends of African & African American Art include an emphasis on educational opportunities. Here is a study guide and additional resource links:

WE ARE THE SHIP Study Guide (for grades 9-12)
http://www.nlbm.com/s/resource.cfm

Learn about these former Negro League players:
-Carl Long of Kinston, NC
-Clifford Layton of Dunn, NC
-Sam Allen of Virginia, who played in this area while he was in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg

Lead Sponsors:

  NCAC is a division of the Department of Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts

Premiere Sponsors:

Supporting Sponsors:

Gerald & Naoma Ellison

Rick & Lise Glazier

Senator Eric & Donna Mansfield

Washington & Pitts, PLLC

Eugene & Kathy Wright

Tour management of this exhibit by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services, Kansas City, Missouri.