One of the highlights of attending U.Mass is having the opportunity of seeing diversified programs that feature scholars who come to share their passion of study. One such person who was presented by the American Studies Program is Patricia Hills, professor of American Art at Boston University who discussed her latest Book, “Painting Harlem Modern” a celebration of the African American artist, Jacob Lawrence, who for over fifty years focused his paintings on the struggles and challenges of African Americans.Professor Hills takes us on a “journey” of the artistic life of Lawrence that covers over four decades of work. She also had the privilege of meeting this painter as well as his wife, famed artist Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence. Professor Hills was able to reflect on a personal level of her knowing such a gifted man and by conducting in- depth interviews was able to learn so much more about the complexity and his passion for painting.In Painting Harlem Modern, Professor Hills celebrates the life of this very influential painter in a historical and artistic account. From her beautifully illustrated book she gives us a visual and literal education of the commitment of Lawrence’s painting that explains the horrors and struggles of the African American while struggling with emotional problems of his own.Jacob Lawrence spent most of his life in Harlem where he began his training as a painter and focused a lot of his work on stories of the “Great Migration”, the African American migration- the journey from the South to promising freedom and opportunities of the North.Some of the paintings that Professor Hills had shown us were of General Toussaint of Haiti, race riots, mourners that lost men from lynching and busses with segregation; tributes to Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas and a series of paintings depicting slavery and segregation.Although I am not an expert on art, for the purposes of this piece, my first impression ofJacob Lawrence is the emotion and feelings that one can draw from his paintings and who had a gift of being able to convey his feelings to the observer which make one think and understand what was really going on in that particular historical period.In his painting of a drinking establishment for example, it was the period of segregation where there were obvious divisions in public establishments. Here, the whites where on one side of the bar and the blacks on the other. The white people had a cooling ceiling fan above their heads, the blacks had nothing. Another painting depicted a courtroom where the judge in his oversized desk seemed to be looking down at the African Americans below him who were just trying to get a fair trial but the outcome seemed that it would not be in their favor.Lawrence’s work is also parallel to African American poets like Langston Hughes who also reflected on similar events as Lawrence like the Great Migration. One of his most memorable poems, “A Dream Deferred” echoes in African American history and its words are as powerful as Lawrence strokes.I am very grateful to have seen this presentation and have the utmost respect for Professor Hill who has taken the time to research and know Jacob Lawrence and his amazing contribution to African American history.