Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins

Summary of Book

There were signs all throughout town telling eight-year-old Connie where she could and could not go. But when Connie sees four young men take a stand for equal rights at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, she realizes that things may soon change. This event sparks a movement throughout her town and region. And while Connie is too young to march or give a speech, she helps her brother and sister make signs for the cause. Changes are coming to Connie’s town, but Connie just wants to sit at the lunch counter and eat a banana split like everyone else.

Author Biography

Carole Boston Weatherford is the author of several acclaimed poetry collections and poetic biographies, including Sugar Hill and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, winner of a Caldecott Honor, the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration, and the NAACP Image Award. She teaches at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.

Illustrator Biography

Jerome Lagarrigue was born in 1973 to a French father and an American mother, and was raised in Paris. He moved to the United states in 1992 and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (class of 1996).

He has since received several awards for his work, including the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award as well as the Ezra Jack Keats Award (2002).

He taught a drawing and painting class at the Parsons School of Design in New York from 1997 to 2005.

A documentary, Jerome Lagarrigue: portrait of an artist, directed by Richatd Mothes and Anne-Laurence Bizeau, was selected for the sixth International Documentary Competition at the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, 1998).

In 2005, he was on of the recipients of the grant and residency program at Villa Medici in Rome. At the end of his stay, he held a solo exhibition in the villa’s main gallery, entitled “Paesaggio delViso” (Landscapes of the Face).

In 2007 he collaborated with celebrated African-American poet Maya Angelou, for the illustrations of her book Poetry for young people.

In 2009, Jerome Lagarrigue was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to paint Tosca. The painting was part of the opera’s set design (season 2009–2010 opening, directed by Luc Bondy, set design by Richard Peduzzi).

In 2010 Jerome was one of a hundred artists to have been personally selected by Georges Lucas to participate on an exclusive project commemorating the original Star Wars trilogy. Georges Lucas subsequently purchased the original art for his personal collection.

In 2012 Jerome Lagarrigue is featured in a full length documentary entitled HEAVYWEIGHTPAINT about four Brooklyn-based figurative painters: Jerome Lagarrigue, Joseph Adolphe, Tim Okamura and Taha Clayton. A planned group exhibition is scheduled for December 2012.

In 2010 Jerome was commissioned by Georges Lucas to produce a painting commemorating the Starwars trilogy for “Starwars Vision”. Georges Lucas purchased the painting for his private collection.

He also created Round Zero, a video project commemorating Rumble in the Jungle, the historic fight held in Kinshasa (Zaire) in 1974 between Mohammad Ali and Georges Foreman.

In 2013 Jerome was commissioned by Richard Parsons and AlexanderSmalls to paint a 14 ft wide portrait for the prestigious Cecil restaurant in Harlem NY.

In 2014, Jerome Lagarrigue’s solo exhibit at Driscoll Babcock gallery in Cheslea NY entitled “Visible Man” focusing on Alibno Model Shaun Ross was reviewed by Artsy.com as a must see exhibit of the month. The exhibit received major press attention.

In 2015, Jerome was asked to participate in “Manifest Justice” in Los Angeles. The exhibited curated by Yosi Sargant (National Endowement for the Arts) featured the controversial works of 149 artists, such as Eric Fishl. The exhibit was a major success and was reviewed in the LA Times.

Collectors include: Blake Byrne, Swizz Beats, Alicia Keys, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, Carmelo Anthony, Peter Berg, Reginald Lewis to name a few.

The artist resides and works in Brooklyn. Jerome is represented by Galerie Olivier Waltman (Paris/Miami) and Dolby Chadwick gallery in San Francisco.