Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 231

Price Realized: $ 1,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(ENTERTAINMENT--THEATER.) Poster for the Black Arts Movement play "To Raise the Dead and Foretell the Future." Color poster, 22 x 17 inches; two folds, minimal wear. New York, 28 August [1970]
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Additional Details

The New Lafayette Theatre was a New York focal point of the Black Arts Movement. Ed Bullins (1935-2021) was the playwright in residence, working with the theater's director and founder Robert Macbeth. The art for this poster is unsigned, but attributed to Weusi Artist Collective member Bill Howell (1942-1975).

A fellow artist was recently asked about Howell's work, and replied: "I don't know if you're familiar with Bill's New Lafayette posters, but they're really worth looking into. If you go to the Schomburg Center, the posters are among my career papers. Bill designed To Raise the Dead and Foretell the Future . . . and others— all wonderful designs. Bill founded the first Black gallery, Pamoja Gallery, right there in the middle of Greenwich Village, maybe in 1969 or 1970." (Nathaniel G. Nesmith, "Doing It His Way: Ademola Olugebefola's Long and Varied Career in the Arts," New England Review 42:3, April 2021).