Legacy Keepers: Interview with Georgette Seabrooke Powell

Object Details

Scope and Contents: Through an oral history interview, artist Georgette Seabrooke Powell talks about her extended family, who owned businesses in Charleston, South Carolina, where she was born in 1916. Her family moved to New York City when Powell was six; she describes living in a tenement building, her time as a student at Washington Irving High School and later Cooper Union, and her experiences during the Harlem Renaissance. Powell talks about a few of her paintings, particularly her early work, and the WPA's Federal Art Project, including the mural "Recreation in Harlem." After moving to Washington, D.C., Powell becomes an art therapist and obtains a degree from Howard University. Powell also talks about Operation Heritage, Art in the Park, and P.S. 6. She describes her encounters with racism as a child and then later with her artwork; and explains her greatest accomplishment - raising her family.; Interview. Part of the National Visionary Leadership Project 2003. Dated 20030604.

Type: Archival materials; Video recordings; Oral histories (document genres); Interviews

Occupation: Artists
Topic: African Americans; African American families; African American artists; Harlem Renaissance; Civic leaders; Racism

Citation: Legacy Keepers: Interview of Georgette Seabrooke Powell, National Visionary Leadership Project 2003, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

General: Title transcribed from cover page of the video recording's transcript.