Winthrop Artwork
Winthrop Artwork
Working closely with Anna Guevarra and Gayatri Reddy, and based on interviews conducted by them, artist-interns produced original artwork to capture memories, moments of joy and celebration, and the resilience of the Winthrop Family. This is a brief glimpse into some of the artwork produced by these brilliant students/artist-interns.
Anandita Vidyarthi
GO[LD] DOWN WINTHROP AVENUE
Go[ld] down Winthrop Avenue is an ode to joy. The illustrations are based on the endearing narratives of Winthrop’s multigenerational residents in interviews conducted by Anna Guevarra and Gayatri Reddy. The stories expressed by these individuals were full of moments of peace, belonging, and love, despite living in a deeply segregated time. Vidyarthi rendered flashbacks of community role models, activism, playful streets, quirky individuals, and a lost chicken. The medium of collage intertwines moments in the same way the lives of Winthrop’s first families came to be. The gold painting of the streets replicates the Japanese art of “kintsukuroi” which is used in pottery to fill cracks and beautify them. The tradition sees the crack as a piece of the art itself rather than shunning it, in the same way, that members of Winthrop Ave. were able to create beauty within a difficult world.
Mama Sophie (Sophie Brien Shute) and her daughters Aunt “Sookie” (Mary Frances) and Aunt “Lee” (Olivia McKeever)
Gabrielle Angeles
warriors of Winthrop
Drawing on existing photographs generously shared by members of the Winthrop Family, and stories about the fierce, loving, and tireless women - the matriarchs or warriors of these families on Winthrop Avenue - Gabrielle Angeles made them come to life with vivid colors and a few liberties of artistic license. What these images capture is humor, laughter, and the sense of community among members of the Winthrop Family. “You were never without love on Winthrop,” stated many of the descendants interviewed by Anna Guevarra and Gayatri Reddy. And this loving community, this sense of warmth, comfort and safety was what was intentionally fostered by many of these women. Here we find Mama Sophie and her daughters, Ma Johnson and Aunt “Sookie” playing at getting drunk on Jack Daniel whiskey, Grandma Mallie and Aunt “Ruthie” presiding over three generations of their family at Thanksgiving, Aunt Earline participating in a fashion show at one of the family reunions, Cousin Edye steppin’ on the block, and many, many more. Collectively, these women are some of the unsung heroines of the Winthrop Family… and Uptown.
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