Baseball Was America's Pastime, But Only Whites Could Play
Jennifer M. Brown, Curriculum Connections -- School Library Journal, 2/14/2008
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Kadir Nelson says that as a child he preferred playing baseball to watching it. He first became aware of the Negro Leagues while studying art at Pratt Institute, when he was commissioned to do a painting on the subject. At that same time [1994], Ken Burns’s documentary Baseball aired on PBS. It was then, Nelson states, that he “got hooked on the history” of the game.
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball (Hyperion, 2008) is the first book that Nelson has both written and illustrated. The title comes from a quote by Negro National League founder Rube Foster: “We are the ship; all else the sea.” Here Nelson talks about why he wrote We Are the Ship, and why he told this story from the perspective of a ballplayer who took to the field when the Negro Leagues were in full swing.
How did you discover the narrator’s distinctive voice?
In doing my research, a number of the books I read were firsthand accounts, and in my own interviews with the players, that collective voice was always there. It felt right to tell the history in that way–it’s more intimate.
Did any of the people you interviewed serve as models for the narrator?
Two subjects I interviewed made the biggest impact on me. The first was Buck O’Neil, who was a player and manager with the Kansas City Monarchs and the ambassador for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The second was Walt McCoy, who lives in San Diego and who I met through the Padres. He’s very sharp and has a wealth of knowledge about the Negro Leagues. I’m tremendously indebted to both of them.
[Buck O’Neil] was the first person I heard recount the story of the Negro Leagues. America fell in love with him while watching Ken Burns’s documentary, and so did I. He had such a sweet way of telling the history. I wanted the book to have a similar tone as if a child were watching TV and the grandfather came in and said, “You like baseball? Let me tell you a story…”
You have a way of getting under the players’ skin and inside their personalities. One example that leaps to mind is the contrast between the image of Rube Foster on a baseball card and his portrait when you introduce him into the narrative on the next page, and he’s suddenly this three-dimensional, larger-than-life character.
Rube Foster reminds me of my grandfather. He has the pot belly, the same skin tone. I don’t think my grandfather smoked a pipe, but I could imagine him doing so. I have [visual images] of people in my past, certain postures or positions; this book offered a perfect outlet to use those great memories.
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We Are the Ship (Nelson) © 2008 by Kadir Nelson. |
Did you base some of these paintings on actual photographs—the spread of Rube Foster with his Chicago American Giants in front of the Pullman car, for instance?
What I wanted to do was to show images of Negro Leaguers that had never been seen before. There are three or four that are based closely on photos. That image of the Pullman car was based on a description. The quote was, “It was really something to see, a group of big Negroes stepping off of the train.” These are professional athletes, and they look very different from you and me.
Your artwork has a unique vantage point; if you were a cameraman, it would be as if you were crouching down and then aiming the camera up.
I think of all of my books as small movies. I remember watching an interview with Steven Spielberg, one of my heroes. [Spielberg spoke about] trying to arrange a meeting with an older director when he was a young director. [The older man] told Spielberg, “Great art either has a high or low horizon line. Now get out.” What I’ve loved about Spielberg’s work is that he portrays figures in a way that seems epic or larger than life.
I often have a high or low horizon line, so you’re either looking down on the scene as if from the heavens, or looking up as if from a worm’s-eye view. When you’re looking up, it’s as if you’re a child, and I think that’s what gives you a feeling of reverence…admiration… even if you don’t realize why you’re feeling that way.
In your narrative, you do not shy away from the obstacles these men faced, the prejudice both on and off the field, but you also talk about how baseball helped “change a few minds.” What do you hope young people will take away from your book?
I want young people to be impressed by the story of the Negro Leagues because it’s a story of perseverance. Even though these men faced segregation and discrimination, they were able to achieve their dreams [because of] their love of the sport, the excellence they strived for, their creativity, and their persistence.
One of my favorite quotes is from Ntozake Shange, who wrote the poem “Ellington Was Not a Street”; “Beauty denies negativity.” When confronted with something ugly, these ballplayers turned it into something beautiful. I think that children and adults alike can take something from that lesson and apply it to their own lives.
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