Artwork
Images and poems drawn from a brotherhood of peace shared by Czech American poet Shann Ray and Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho ledger artist James Black.
BY James Black
Ar-no-ho-wok (Medicine Woman Later or Medicine Woman Hereafter), 3rd wife of Chief Black Kettle by James Black, 2021. Colored pencil and ink on antique ledger paper, 11 x 17 inches. Published by permission of James Black.
is the curved ribcage of a beautiful death,
the elk’s arched bones visible in the morning…
Courtship by James Black, 2020. Colored pencil on antique ledger paper, 11 x 17 inches. Published by permission of James Black.
seated at a table for two inside Caffè Florian Venice
in the room of illustrious men
what are we but…
Buffalo Calf Road Woman a Week Before the Battle of Little Big Horn by James Black, 2020. Colored pencil on antique ledger paper, 11 x 17 inches. Published by permission of James Black.
This grouping of three images and two sequences of poems draws from a brotherhood of peace shared by Czech American poet Shann Ray and Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho ledger artist James Black. As collaborating artists on a work in progress called “Brother My Brother,” Black and Ray take as their project the reconciliation of people and nations.
James Black is a Southern Cheyenne/Arapaho and Oglala ledger artist, Sundance priest, and a direct descendent of Chief Black Kettle, the renowned Cheyenne peace chief.