Reviews

Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor's Life by Marilyn Nelson

kiperoo's review against another edition

5.0

Beautiful poetry--really informative about Augusta and her life!

annebennett1957's review against another edition

5.0

Astonishingly good poetry about this almost forgotten artist from the Harlem Renaissance. I am so-o glad I read this book and hope you will, too. Make sure your public library gets a copy of it and tell all your friends to read it!

My review of this and three other books which I recommend to increase your understanding of Black Lives Matter: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2022/11/reviews-of-three-books-you-should-place.html

afro8921's review against another edition

5.0

Augusta Savage was an artist before her time. She crafted so many pieces that I have admired but didn't know she created. I enjoyed learning about her journey.

library_kb's review

informative medium-paced

3.0

This was an interesting nonfiction novel in verse about an artist I had not a lot of familiarity with. I liked that photos of her artwork were included with the text, and that the poems often connected to the images. Because I didn't have a lot of background knowledge on the subject, I sometimes struggled to understand what was going on, and certain poems set up an issue in Savage's life, which I then wished was explored further, rather than just moving on. For example, I would have loved more exploration in Section 1 about the beginning of her life and first marriage. However, the author's bio is super helpful (and might be worth starting with if the reader is unfamiliar with the artist as I was). Recommend for upper middle school and high school--bonus, this is a short book which can be hard to find for this age category!

celeste072's review against another edition

informative inspiring slow-paced

3.75

missprint_'s review against another edition

4.0

This was good. I liked that I could tell which sculptures were being described after a quick online search just from how the book talked about them. I don’t understand why her stalker/harasser Joe Gould got so much page time. Like sure it was snappy verse but it totally de-centered Augusta for large parts of the story which seemed to be working at cross purposes with the book.

In general I find verse biographies to be a strange thing as poetry isn’t a form that lends itself naturally to nonfiction. Despite several recent titles in this vein I do also still wonder who exactly a verse biography is actually for. Overall good but all of the pop out poems from the voice of people like Joe Gould and sculpture subjects felt weird and disjointed.

kalynharris's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

librarian_tori's review against another edition

4.0

A book of moving and thoughtfully-constructed poetry. Truthfully, I did not know about Augusta Savage before reading this book, so this book was not only entertaining but also educational and edifying. I appreciate the photographs of Savage and her artwork throughout the story. It was lovely to hear all of the ways that she inspired other artists, who carried on her teachings in their own works; this is at least a little solace for her own fade from collective memory. I think the book presents some interesting insights into what a Black female artist of this time would have experienced and thought; however, in many places the author uses colorful language or espouses controversial thoughts about religion, family, success, and defeatism that makes me wonder if it's a realistic reflection of the subject or the author's own thoughts. My favorite poem is "Awake," which is only three lines: "Suddenly I woke in the midst of life/ aware suddenly of the misseds of life/ who disappeared into the mists of life" (p. 94). Simply beautiful.

thtblklibrarian's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

First Impression: First time reading a bio in poems like this

I studied fine art & art history for 5 years and I’ve never heard of Augusta Savage. So the story goes for countless Black women throughout history. This was a beautiful biography in prose; sometimes painful & hard to read but very honest. I’m so grateful we are filling in the gaps for these important figures. We learn about how she applied and was accepted for a summer art program in France. However upon finding out that she was Black, the US selection committee rescinded the acceptance, because they thought the white Americans would be uncomfortable working with a Black woman. We learned about this insane man Gould who harassed her so much that it seemingly forced her into seclusion outside of Harlem where she was renowned for her artwork. Due to her not being able to afford Bronze a lot of her work wasn’t cast and was lost. The work we still have shows a natural talent of someone who desperately wanted to see herself and her community in something more permanent than flesh.

This book is important as it expresses what life was like for a Black Woman artist during this time period. How so many anonymous and unknown artists were women who someone decided didn’t matter so their stories are somewhat lost.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Stalking, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Gaslighting and Sexual harassment