Gr 6 Up—A master poet breathes life and color into this portrait of influential sculptor Savage, who often worked with
humble materials and brought out the beauty and depth of her subjects with her attention to detail and creative
vision. Nelson does the same in poetry to give shape and dimension to Savage's remarkable life and work.

A biography written in verse with some concrete, free verse programs. Tells the life of Augusta Savage a preeminent artist of the Harlem Renaissance. She broke barriers as a Black woman who strove to mentor others and give spaces for creation. Follows her from birth through the end of her life when she retired to country living in upstate New York. ( )

I'm not sure I've ever read a book set up quite this way! This is a biography told in a mixture of poetry and prose, exploring Augusta Savage's personal life as well as her professional life, including both her relationship to her craft and her identity as a Black woman at various points of the twentieth century. She was born in 1892, the daughter of freed slaves, and later left the south as part of "The Great Migration. She arrived in New York City in 1921, settling in Harlem at the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. She went on to study art in Paris and to exhibit her work there and around the United States. What an inspiration! The poems and afterword explore Augusta Savage's journey as a single woman who worked as an artist and teacher for decades, at one point supporting her extended family of nine people! This was a spontaneous read; I spotted it on a list of highlighted books for Women's History Month.