Shange, Ntozake. Ellington was not a street. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004. ISBN: 0-689-82884-5
Author Website: http://www.ntozakeshange.org/home.html
Illustrator Website: http://www.kadirnelson.com/
Media: Oil Paint.
Use of Rhythm: (entire book) “it hasn’t always been this way / ellington was not a street / Robeson no mere memory . . . “
Use of Simile: (p. 20) “politics as necessary as collards.” (p. 24) “our doors opened like our daddy’s arms.”
Special Notations: Poem
Curricular Connection: California Standards for Visual and Performing Arts, Grade Six, Standard 3.0: Understanding the historical contributions and cultural dimensions of music.
Annotation: Poet author Shange recounts her memories of eight famous African-American musicians, politicians and writers who socialized with her father and frequently visited her childhood home. Shange laments that these men may have been forgotten.
Personal Reaction: Kadir Nelson’s oil portraits in Ellington Was Not a Street bring this picture book for older readers alive. The illustrator so accurately captures the faces of the eight famous African American men described by poet Shange in her poem Mood Indigo that the illustrations resemble photographs. Nelson uses light and shadow and a broad palette of warm tones to depict the faces in this story; readers will notice the finely drawn cheekbones, expressive eyes, details such as a slight gap between two front teeth and be transported back to the times of Shange’s childhood. Nelson’s paintings made me want to learn more about these men whom Shange had been fortunate enough to meet. Shange can be seen as a young child, always in a sky blue dress, on each page as she narrates the comings and goings of Renaissance man Robeson, writer Dubois, Percussionist Baretto, singer Tilghman, jazz musician Gillespie, politician Nkrumah, musician Ellington, boxer Akins and vocal group, The Clovers. The poem explains that the author’s father was a friend of these perhaps now forgotten African-American movers and shakers. Today, Ellington is a name on a street sign, but that street was named after a man known as the Duke of Jazz who won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Shange reminds readers. A brief biography of Ellington and the others is provided at the back of this picture book that is clearly intended for older readers learning about African American culture and its contributions. Readers can look for Nelson’s depiction of Shange as a grown woman in illustrations of the actual street named after Ellington (pages 5 and 13). Ellington Was Not a Street would be an excellent book for introducing a lesson on music history or for generating a discussion about family heritage and influence.
