Summary Of Joe Overstreet's New Jemima

New Jemima Joe Overstreet created a piece titled New Jemima in 1964. This example of pop art was created in America during the Black Arts Movement. New Jemima is a free standing piece of plywood that is eight and a half feet long by five and a half feet wide by a foot and one fourth in depth. The plywood is covered with fabric that has acrylic paint on it of Aunt Jemima firing a machine gun at the word with pancakes falling down. There is also a glass syrup bottle similar to the looks of a grenade in the corner. This example of pop art was created in America during the Black Arts Movement. Based on cultural movements of the time, Joe Overstreet displays black defiance both socially against stereotyping and white dominance as well as politically against government resistance through New Jemima. New Jemima is a key example of the type of work Overstreet creates. “For 35 years Overstreet has organized exhibitions for mid-career and emerging artists, and retrospectives for those left out of mainstream history,” (Gordon). Joe Overstreet started studying art in 1951 at Contra Costa College …show more content…
Board of Education of Topeka, Kanas took place ruling unanimously against segregation of schools. “Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white person, triggering a successful, year-long African American boycott of the bus system,” (Young Wilson). Joe Overstreet created New Jemima just one year after the largest civil rights demonstration ever when Martin Luther Kind Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech and 200,000 people march on Washington D.C. There were also several violent acts happening around the creating of this pop art. “[In 1963] Four African American girls are killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama,” (Young Wilson). Because this piece was created in the mist of such a big cultural movement there is a clear original function for New