Beauford and James Weldon Johnson

Growing up in Knoxville, Beauford learned about James Weldon Johnson and grew to greatly admire him.

James Weldon Johnson by Carl Van Vechten
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,
Carl Van Vechten Collection
Public domain

He heard many stories about Johnson, who used to visit the home of Beauford's high school principal, Charles Cansler.

Cansler was well connected in Boston and provided Beauford with letters of introduction to influential people in the city when he learned that Beauford planned to move there in 1923.

Three years later, Beauford had the chance to meet Johnson in that city.

The encounter took place at Boston's Old City Hall, where a performance of Johnson's poem "Creation" was staged on the evening of November 27, 1926.

Old Boston City Hall
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, MA-860
Public domain

Biographer David Leeming describes the event as follows:

"... Johnson's African-American dramatic musical version of the Creation was presented by Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra to enthusiastic audiences in New York and Boston. Beauford was at a Boston performance and he introduced himself to Johnson afterward."

The New York Times published an extensive account of the performance. It reported that

"An old-time negro "folk-sermon," as embodied in James Weldon Johnson's poem "The Creation," with music by Louis Gruenberg, will be performed by the League of Composers on the evening of Nov. 27 in Town Hall, with Serge Koussevitzky of the Boston Symphony Orchestra as conductor.

Read the full-length NYT article HERE.

Of the numerous contemporary renditions of "The Creation" available for viewing/listening online, I have selected three that I particularly enjoyed.

Find them below.

Beauford Immortalized in Sculpture in Knoxville

A full-body likeness of Beauford now graces the landscape of his hometown of Knoxville, TN.

On April 16, 2026, four new bronze sculptures honoring historic Black figures from Knoxville were unveiled at Covenant Health Park, the city's new multi-purpose sports stadium.

Beauford's was one of them.

Beauford Delaney statue
Image courtesy of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center

Beck Cultural Exchange Center President and City of Knoxville Historian of African American History Rev. Reneé Kesler played an integral role in the creation and placement of the works. She graciously granted Les Amis an exclusive interview to discuss the project.

Rev. Kesler explained that she commissioned these statues and seven additional ones that honor Knoxville's Negro Baseball team, the Giants, as a means of acknowledging and honoring the history of the area.

The new stadium is located a couple of miles from the park where the Giants played from 1920-1932. Situated within the Magnolia Avenue Warehouse District, just east of Knoxville's Old City, it was built on land that was formerly home to a vibrant Black community and essentially razed in the name of urban renewal.

Working with sculptor Brian Hanlon and various stakeholders over the past 5-6 years, Rev. Kesler determined who would be represented in the statues, how they would be represented, and where the finished works would be placed. She elected to have Beauford represented with a likeness of one of his more iconic portraits of his mentee, James Baldwin.

Beauford Delaney statue - detail of Baldwin portrait
Image courtesy of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center

James Baldwin
(c. 1945-1950) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Though all were commissioned at the same time, the first seven sculptures were unveiled when the stadium opened last April. Last week's unveiling was timed to coincide with the opening of the Delaney Building, an exclusive, mostly residential complex.

The sculptures that commemorate Black baseball history at Covenant Health Park represent Jerry Benjamin, William M. Brooks, Claude “Steel Arm” Dickey, Forrest “One Wing” Maddox, William Nathaniel “Nat” Rogers, “Big Jim” Tugerson, and Payne Avenue Little League.

The four figures honored by the works unveiled last week are painter Ruth Cobb Brice, singer and “Queen of the Blues” Ida P. Cox, writer and poet Nikki Giovanni, and Beauford.

At the base of each statues is a QR code that allows you to learn more about the individuals represented in the works.

Rev. Kesler said that the Beck Cultural Exchange Center worked in close collaboration with Randy Boyd, the Boyd Family Foundation, Boyd Sports, and the Knoxville Smokies baseball team to move the sculpture project forward. She explained that ever since the renovation of the area began, Beck came in as a partner with the responsibility to hold onto and reclaim names and spaces to preserve its history.

(L to R) sculptor Brian Hanlon,
Rev. Reneé Kesler, Derek Spratley, court-appointed administrator
of the Beauford Delaney estate, and Jenny and Randy Boyd
with Beauford Delaney statue 
Image courtesy of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center

Covenant Health Park serves as the home park for the Smokies as well as the city's Division III soccer team, One Knoxville SC. It opened on April 15, 2025.

The new Delaney building overlooks the stadium.

Beauford Delaney statue and entrance to the Delaney Building
Image courtesy of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center

Click on the links below to read previous Les Amis articles about the Delaney Building:

Two Buildings for Beauford

Beauford Delaney Building to Be Constructed in Knoxville

The Calypso

Run by Trinidad-native Connie Williams, the Calypso is described by biographer David Leeming as "a small restaurant across from the Provincetown Playhouse on MacDougal Street" in Greenwich Village.

Provincetown Playhouse, 133 MacDougal Street, Manhattan
29 December 1936
Berenice Abbott for Works Progress Administration
Image in public domain

A photograph of its façade, published by Trinidad & Tobago Newsday, shows a modest, basement-level storefront with a worn street number and tropical decor on either side of the entrance (view image HERE).

Find images of Connie Williams inside the Calypso by Berenice Abbott (circa 1948) HERE ...

... and HERE (Williams is wearing a patterned dress).

Leeming devotes a single paragraph to the restaurant (which he calls a "café) in Amazing Grace, his biography of Beauford. He devotes almost two entire pages to the establishment in James Baldwin, his biography of Baldwin.

Beauford introduced Baldwin to Williams in 1943 after Baldwin's stepfather died and Baldwin moved from Harlem to Greenwich Village. Williams hired Baldwin as a waiter, and Leeming indicates that she became a surrogate mother to him.  He says that Baldwin, Beauford, and a young Black writer named Smith Oliver "held court" at the Calypso after hours.

Beauford produced at least three portraits of Baldwin during this period.

Portrait of James Baldwin
(1944) Pastel on paper
Knoxville Museum of Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY 

Portrait of James Baldwin
(1945) Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

James Baldwin
(1945) Pastel on paper
Photo credit: Ben Conant
Courtesy of Macdowell
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

In Amazing Grace, Leeming describes Beauford's fondness for the Calypso due to the multiple races of people with various sexual proclivities who made up its clientele. He provides a "laundry list" of intellectuals and celebrities who frequented the place, including C. L. R. James, Claude McKay, Alain Locke, Malcolm X, and Henry Miller. Even Beauford's brother, Joseph, was an occasional customer, though the two did not socialize when they were both present.

Leeming also describes costume parties that Williams organized and that Beauford loved to attend. He says that Beauford often played the guitar and sang at these events.

In Baldwin: A Love Story, Nicholas Boggs states that Beauford and Williams threw Baldwin a goodbye party at the Calypso before he left for France in November 1948.

Beauford in Six Minutes or Less

Last week, I came across a well crafted, 4:19-minute video about Beauford in a recently launched series about art history. Catherine, the creator of the series, chose to feature Beauford in her first episode.

Artist Series Ep.1 - Beauford Delaney

Viewing this video inspired me to look for others that grasped the essence of Beauford's life and/or work in a relatively short period of time.

Below are links to videos that do so in six minutes or less.

Some talk about Beauford biographically and some feature specific works of art.

Beauford Delaney: The Artist's Artist

A Modern Icon: Beauford Delaney's Marian Anderson

Going My Way: Episode 19 Beauford Delaney

Beauford Delaney, Can Fire in the Park, 1946

Gathering Light

The video short called BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2026! Daily Drawing Day Eight Beauford Delaney depicts an artist sketching a portrait of an older Beauford, which I believe was inspired by Errol Sawyer's 1973 photo portrait.

Beauford Delaney
Rue Guilleminot
France 1973
© Errol Sawyer

Click HERE to view it.