STORY PAINTER The Life of Jacob Lawrence

Recounting the compelling life of Jacob Lawrence, narrator Myra Taylor wisely lets his story take center stage. She’s the unobtrusive narrator who steadily moves the story along. Listeners are free to marvel at the myriad aspects of the African-American painter’s development: his early interest in art at an after-school center in Harlem where his interest in painting was awakened, his experiences with the Coast Guard and the officer who encouraged him to paint murals of shipboard life, and, later, his navigation of the changing racial climate. At key junctures, Taylor emphatically underscores Lawrence’s belief that “it’s the little things that are big.” As the biography progresses, Taylor’s narration mirrors Lawrence’s own comfort with his status as “a great artist, period.” Listeners will relish the life of this artist and this production. A.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2013]