Who is art?  Who…is…art?

Art is decorative, visual, creative, essential.

Art is music, theater, film, dance.

Art is performance, literature, interaction.

Art is who we feel, who we see,

Art is expression.

 

Art is skill and mastery

Of crafts and sciences.

Art is who we hear

When noise becomes deafening.

Art is the rhythm that beats

Through pain.

 

Who is art?

What’s his name?

 

Oh they call him…Duke.

Duke Ellington.

With music as his mistress,

This master of the big band

Elevated jazz

To what he called a

“liberating principle,”

Renaissancing Harlem.

 

Who is art?

Well she sounds like sonnets and voices,

Rhyme and powerful prose,

She owns the verse of a nation

With a tone that soothes.

She goes by the name

Ms. Maya Angelou.

 

Who is art?

Well they call him “Master Show Business”

‘Cause when he put on a show,

Honey, he gave ‘em the business.

Victories over racism

Through tap, song, drama and humor,

Art looks like Mr. Sammy Davis Jr.

 

Who is art?

This Creole beauty

Brought style to ballet

With essence, grace and sensuality.

One of Met Opera’s earliest

African-American prima ballerinas,

Art feels like

The multi-talented

Carmen de Lavallade.

 

Who is art?

As a pioneer for brown dancers

In the classical ballet arena,

Arthur Mitchell

Reshaped history, reformed minds,

Showed the world,

With his superb

Dance Theatre of Harlem,

That talent can be extracted

From all kinds.

 

Who is art?

A symbol of movement

In assorted art forms,

She inspires fame, dazzling audiences

With diversity in dance,

From Flamenco to African,

Art is Debbie Allen.

 

Art is Judith Jameison,

Alvin Ailey,

Musical celebrations.

Art is souls blooming.

 

Who is art?

 

Art…is…human.