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Hi, Jim.
To artists who have already committed to participating in the 2024 poster series, thank you. We've enjoyed your responses to our questionnaire, and we look forward to sharing poems with you in October.
To others: we mailed our call for artists by postal mail on Aug. 29, inviting artists to participate in our 23rd annual civic art poster series--"Famous Faces of Syracuse." If the postal mail missed you, here's your chance to sign-up.
New for the 2024 series, we're challenging writers to write poems related to a series of historic Syracuse characters (and one fictional character from the future!) We will then allot poems to participating artists, who will each select a poem to illustrate.
With guidance from the Onondaga Historical Association, we've come up with these 13 characters as basis for 10 eventual posters:
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Gustav Stickley, father of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
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Alf Jacques, Onondaga culture keeper, handcrafter of lacrosse sticks.
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Elizabeth Cotten, black folk singer best known for the song, “Freight Train.”
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Adelaide Robineau, ceramist.
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L. Frank Baum, author and creator of the Wizard of Oz series.
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Eric Carle, illustrator of popular children's books "The Hungry Caterpillar" and "Brown Bear."
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Moses Walker, first black man to play Major League Baseball.
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Dolph and Danny Schayes, father and son pro basketball players.
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William Henry (Jerry), enslaved man who was aided by abolitionist leaders in Syracuse who objected to the Fugitive Slave Act.
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Karen DeCrow, attorney, author and feminist, president of the National Organization of Women, 1974-77.
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Jermain and Sarah Loguen, father and daughter, black abolitionists, Sarah a pioneering female doctor.
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Jean Daugherty, the "Play Lady"—matriarch of the popular local children's television show—"The Magic Toy Shop."
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Henry Keck, stained glass artist.
Nine of the 10 posters will continue the tradition of poets submitting poems, followed by artists illustrating those poems. For the 10th poster, we commissioned a “reverse process” poster by James P. McCampbell, featuring the historic stained-glass artist, Henry Keck. McCampbell, who also illustrated a poster for the 2021 series, specializes in posters for music and film fans.
As for the fictional character, we're inviting poets to imagine a future Syracusan achieving fame. What will he or she be famous for? What current reality might someone in the future respond to that will make them a legend?
(Naomi Masingale, our graphic design and outreach worker, created this email's banner--a place-holder representing a character from the future. The actual poster awaits the creativity of our poets and artists.)
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