Augusta Savage (1892-1962) was a celebrated artist of the Harlem Renaissance. She was an artist against so many odds. Her father was a severely pious Methodist minister. He was abusive and discouraged Augusta’s pursuit of art even as a child. He believed her little figures made of clay from their yard to be graven images and against God. She shared that he nearly whipped all of the art out of her. Later poverty held her back from attending the school she was qualified to attend and racism caused her scholarship to the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts near Paris to be rescinded when it was discovered she was Black. It was felt her presence might make students from the American South uncomfortable. In her life she was replaced as a teacher at the Harlem Community Art Center while on leave. She started two galleries that failed. She was married three times – widowed twice and divorced once. She was so seriously threatened by a stalker that she had to leave New York City until the culprit died. And she persevered.

Lift Every Voice and Sing was her last major work. This large, finished plaster sculpture was commissioned for the New York World’s Fair in 1939.  She named it after the recently composed hymn that we now know as the Black National Anthem. The name was changed by those running the fair to the less controversial title, The Harp.

This work is a marvelous composition. Here we see a large hand, the hand of God, holding a noble and robed choir of various heights singing for a person that seems weighted down and reverently listening. Augusta’s placement of a few singers looking over their shoulders calls us to deeper awareness and questions. The smallest singers appear as children resting in a palm. The layers of meaning represented here are like the notes on the page of a hymn. These are seen and heard by those with eyes to see context and with ears to hear imagined music. It seems Augusta Savage created a choir to sing for her and to all of us in turn.

This sculpture was destroyed at the end of the fair. Augusta Savage did not have enough money to have it moved or cast.

Augusta Savage is known as one of the most influential artists of the 20^th century. Her legacy stands on her gifts as an artist and as a master teacher. She taught and mentored many artists whose names you would recognize and worked for equal rights for African Americans in the arts. The New York Times shared that she “crafted a life she was told she couldn’t have.”

May we pray for all those who persevere through poverty, prejudice, injustice and cruelty to share their gifts. May we give thanks for their creations, long lived or soon gone, remembering that nothing of love and spirit is ever truly lost. Thank you to Augusta Savage and to our God who held her all along and holds her still. Amen.

In gratitude, faith and hope,

Sandy Prouty
Minister of Children and Families
Montview Church