What if you had a vision for your life, but absolutely everyone around you told you it was impossible? Edmonia Lewis lived a life so improbable, that if we didn’t have the actual evidence that she really existed, we’d never believe it! The orphaned daughter of a Native American mother and Caribbean father in mid 19th century America, she set out on the most unlikely path: to become a famed classical sculptor in Rome, all while people of her race were literally enslaved in her homeland. Her journey to gain the education that was denied her, to buy her own boat fare, and make her impossible way in the world, defied the expectations of everyone, and still does.

Guest Dr Charmaine Nelson is the author of The Color of Stone and Professor of Art History at McGill University in Montreal. Her ground-breaking scholarship, and her website Black Canadian Studies, examine Canadian, American, European, and Caribbean art and visual culture. She has made enormous contributions to the fields of the Visual Culture of Slavery, Race and Representation, and African Canadian Art History, and is the author of seven books. 

Music featured in this episode includes: “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” performed by Julia Griffin, Johnny Mae Medlock and Clifford Reed at Raiford Penitentiary, selected songs from Songs For Paris by Dana Boulé, and “My Country Tis of Thee” performed by Arthur Middleton and His Orchestra.

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