During my time as a graduate student, Professor Harris would, between classes and in side conversations, offer observations and mention art exhibits. In our wide-ranging conversations about African American literary art, Amiri Baraka, and Black Arts literature over the last two decades, he'd weave in names like Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and many others.
He'd ask me what I thought about various paintings. He'd ask if I read this or that article in the New York Times about an exhibit. He shared his habit of sketching out artwork that he viewed at different shows.
Although far from an expert, I began sharing tidbits of information about visual art with students, similar to how Harris shared information about art with me.
When I received shelf and storage space in the Eugene B. Redmond Center at Lovejoy Library, I began to bring in some of the art books I had collected. Whereas I had begun coordinating poetry browsing sessions years ago, I transformed those into artbook browsing sessions. One day, it seemed I had just a few books, but then somehow the collection jes grew.
Where did these artbooks featuring works by Jacob Lawrence, Kerry James Marshall, Amy Sherald, Kehinde Wiley, and others come from? Among other places, in a roundabout way, they arrived via countless conversations with William J. Harris.
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