Summer Visit to Thiais Cemetery

The single yellow rose that I saw several days ago when I visited La Maison de Santé, the psychiatric clinic in Nogent-sur-Marne where Beauford underwent treatment after his 1961 suicide attempt, inspired me to visit Beauford's gravesite and place yellow roses on his tombstone.

So, I made my way to Thiais Cemetery to do just that.

I took the metro and the tram to the cemetery on Tuesday, August 22. It was hot, the sky was clear, and the cemetery was peaceful.

The flowers in the beds in front of the conservation office were a bit faded, but they still offered a spray of color near the cemetery's entrance.

Conservation office
© Entrée to Black Paris

I took an indirect route to the tombstone, wanting to approach the grave from a different direction so I could see a bit more of the cemetery.

I visited the tomb of several airline employees who died in a plane crash on a flight between Brazzaville, Congo and Paris in May 1961.

Paris Brazzaville tomb
© Entrée to Black Paris

I then walked down the cemetery's Central Avenue to reach the upper border of Division 86, where Beauford is buried.

The neighboring division to the north, Division 87, was so filled with foliage that I decided to stop there first.

It looked like the perfect set for a graveyard scene in a horror movie. I have never seen tombs so overgrown before.

Signage for Division 87
© Entrée to Black Paris 

Division 87 - Overgrown tombstones 1
© Entrée to Black Paris

Division 87 - Overgrown tombstones 2
© Entrée to Black Paris 

Division 87 - Overgrown tombstones 3
© Entrée to Black Paris 

Division 87 - Overgrown tombstones 4
© Entrée to Black Paris

One of the paths between rows of stones was physically blocked by blackberry bushes!

Division 87 - Path blocked by blackberry bushes
© Entrée to Black Paris 

Division 87 - Blackberries
© Entrée to Black Paris

Division 86 was overgrown as well, but not to the same extent.

Division 86 - View from northwest corner
© Entrée to Black Paris  

Division 86 - View from southwest corner
© Entrée to Black Paris 

Division 86 - Path to Beauford's grave from southwest corner
© Entrée to Black Paris

I found Beauford's tombstone in pristine condition, lying in partial sun, almost like a beacon amidst the crumbling stones nearby.

Beauford's tombstone
© Entrée to Black Paris

I cleared away the weeds that I found next to the base of the tomb and laid five yellow roses there.

Roses on Beauford's tombstone
© Entrée to Black Paris

Over the years, the sun has bleached the coloring in the inscription on the stone beneath Beauford's photo, so it is now difficult to read.

Tombstone inscription
© Entrée to Black Paris

I will investigate how this can be corrected.

Before leaving the cemetery, I went "next door" to Division 94 to see the Jardin du Souvenir to pay my respects to Beauford's friends, Larry Potter and Leroy Hayes.  Their ashes were disbursed in this division years ago.

Division 94 - Jardin du Souvenir
© Entrée to Black Paris

On my way back to the entrance, I saw signs posted at two divisions that announced the reclamation of tombs for which concessions had not been paid.

Division 93 - List of tombs to be reclaimed
© Entrée to Black Paris

It was a tangible reminder of why I founded Les Amis de Beauford Delaney - to prevent Beauford's exhumation.

View of Beauford's tombstone from southeast corner of Division 86
© Entrée to Black Paris

La Maison de Santé in Nogent

Beauford spent the Christmas holidays of 1961 and twenty (20) days in May 1962 at the private psychiatric institution called La Maison de Santé de Nogent-sur-Marne.

In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David Leeming recounts that:

On December 20 Solange du Closel and her husband drove Beauford to the Nogent clinic where he was placed under the care of the well-known psychiatrist Dr. Ferdière, whose specialty was depression.

La Maison de Santé — the "Health House" — can still be found on the quiet rue de Plaisance in the eastern Paris suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne.

Street sign
© Entrée to Black Paris

It is a much smaller facility than the Hôpital Sainte-Anne, where Beauford spent the last four years of his life. (I recently learned that Dr. Ferdière worked at Sainte-Anne's for several years during the 1930s, long before Beauford arrived in Paris.)

Last week I visited the clinic for the first time and took photos of the campus.

The entrance is nondescript overall, with the only distinguishing feature being the heavy green door that faces the street.

Entrance to La Maison de Santé
© Entrée to Black Paris

La Maison de Santé - signage
© Entrée to Black Paris

A gate that serves as an ambulance entrance also faces rue de Plaisance.

 Ambulance entrance
© Entrée to Black Paris

Upon entering the facility, you walk past reception into a vast green space that is bordered by buildings on the left. You could easily get the impression that you're in a park and that the treatment facilities are "incidental."

View of buildings adjacent to the lawn
© Entrée to Black Paris

Unfortunately, I have no information about where Beauford's room(s) might have been located.

In-patient buildings
© Entrée to Black Paris

 A gazebo provides a covered space where patients and visitors can smoke.

Gazebo
© Entrée to Black Paris A net was set up for badminton.

Badminton net
© Entrée to Black Paris

Benches in a dense grove at the rear of the property provide space to relax while looking out onto private homes on rue de Coulmiers.

Grove at rear of property
© Entrée to Black Paris  

 Houses on rue de Coulmiers
© Entrée to Black Paris

A garden arbor was mostly bare of foliage, let alone flowers. I wished that I had visited in the spring so I could have seen it at its best.

 

  Garden arbor - side view
© Entrée to Black Paris

One magnificent yellow rose remained. It reminded me of the rose that Silver Wainhouse placed on Beauford's tombstone when she visited Thiais Cemetery and was inspired to write the play Amazing Grace Is Yellow.

Yellow rose
© Entrée to Black Paris  Because Beauford loved yellow roses, seeing this flower made me feel that my visit was complete.

Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black - Part 2

Dr. Arlene Keizer is Professor and Former Chairperson of the Department of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute in NYC. She is a scholar in the fields of literary and cultural studies who writes about the literature, lived experience, theory, and visual art of the African Diaspora.

Dr. Keizer graciously granted Les Amis this interview as a prelude to the release of Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black, her book of poems inspired by Beauford's life and work. In Part 2 of this blog post, she discusses several of Beauford's works that inspired her poetry.

Fraternal Light book cover
Cover art by Nell Painter

Les Amis:  In the panel discussion called “Red Summer Remembered: Cultural Trauma and Commemorative Art Practices” that you organized in 2019, you discussed three Beauford Delaney paintings in relation to the 1919 Knoxville Race Riot that took place during Red Summer.  In your Speaking of Marvels interview, you identify two Beauford Delaney paintings that inspired the poem “Terror in the Heart of Freedom.”  Please share a list of the paintings that inspired the poems in Fraternal Light and other areas of your work focused on Beauford.

AK:  Here is the list:

Untitled (Knoxville Landscape), 1922, watercolor on paper

Untitled (Knoxville Landscape)
(1922) Gouache on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Knoxville Landscape, 1969, mixed media on paper

Harlem Blue, exhibited February 1949 (This is likely the same painting sold by Swann Auction Galleries as Untitled (Village Street Scene) in 2018.)

Dark Rapture (James Baldwin), 1941, oil on Masonite

Abstraction #12, 1963, oil on canvas

Moving Sunlight, 1965, oil on canvas

Moving Sunlight
(1965) Oil on canvas
Knoxville Museum of Art, 2018 acquisition
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Marian Anderson, 1965, oil on canvas

Portrait of a Young Musician, n.d., acrylic on canvas (The Studio Museum in Harlem owns this painting.)

Untitled, circa 1958, oil on canvas (This painting was acquired in 2022 by the Cleveland Museum of Art.)

Jean Genet, 1972, oil on canvas

Portrait of Walter Anderson, n.d., oil on canvas

 Beauford Delaney
Portrait of Walter Anderson
Date unknown
Oil, 130 x 97 cm.
 Photographer unknown.
Page 50 from Richard A. Long, Mary Schmidt Campbell,
James Baldwin, and Joseph Delaney,
Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective
(New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1978).
Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title,
organized by and presented at the Studio Museum in Harlem,
April 9—July 2, 1978
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Head of a Poet, 1944, pastel on paper

Grèce, 1967, oil on canvas

Self-Portrait in a Paris Bath House, 1971, oil on canvas

Additionally, I've been inspired by many Delaney self-portraits and portraits of James Baldwin, many paintings with variations on the title “Portrait of a Man,” and portraits of Ahmed Bioud.

Colin Gravois (aka Portrait of a Man in Green)
31 7/8" x 25 1/2" / 81.0 x 64.8 cm
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

 Les Amis:  Have you seen these works in person, or were you working solely from photographic images of them?

AK:  I’ve been lucky to see many of Delaney’s works in person because of recent shows, especially those at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery and the David Zwirner Gallery.  Some paintings I’ve seen only in printed or online reproductions. Seeing Untitled (c. 1958), Dark Rapture, and Rehearsal in a David Zwirner Gallery show curated by Hilton Als was crucial to the development of Fraternal Light.

Les Amis:  Are images of Beauford’s works included in Fraternal Light?

AK:  Instead of including Delaney’s works in Fraternal Light, I opted to feature works inspired by him.  I remain fascinated by the number of writers, visual artists, and musicians who drew inspiration from Delaney and his work, adding myself to their company.  Nell Painter, the renowned historian-turned-artist, allowed me to use one of her Delaney-inspired drawings on the cover of Fraternal Light, and I’m profoundly grateful.

Les Amis:  In the Speaking of Marvels interview, you state that after writing “Mandala,” the final poem of Fraternal Light, you felt that I had traveled as far you could “in the company of Delaney’s extraordinary body of work.”  Does this mean that you will no longer pursue scholarly research on him?

AK:  I would be delighted to continue contributing to projects related to Delaney, but my original research on his life and work has (mostly) come to an end.  It’s possible that I’ll write an essay about the process of researching his life/art and developing a poetry manuscript out of archival work, since I’ve been giving talks about this.  When the embargo on the letters between Delaney and Baldwin is lifted, I will return to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem to read every one of them!

Les Amis:  Is anyone “following in your footsteps” regarding researching Beauford?  Do you have or know of any graduate students who would like to extend or build upon your work?

AK:  At present, I’m not working with any graduate students who focus on African American art or poetry.

Les Amis:  Do the poems in Fraternal Light lend themselves to spoken word performance?

AK:  Yes! I’ve read some of the poems while giving talks on my research at Smith College and at the Schomburg, where I was a Scholar-in-Residence during the 2021-22 academic year.  I plan to read from Fraternal Light wherever I might be invited to do so.

Professor Arlene Keizer at the Schomburg Center
Image courtesy of Dr. Keizer

 Fraternal Light is scheduled for release on August 29, 2023.  It is currently available for pre-order HERE.

Read Part 1 of this post HERE.