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Melvin Edwards
Dear Friend,

This week, we’re bringing back a 1995 story about sculptor Melvin Edwards. The video begins with a close-up of the artist welding in his Plainfield, New Jersey studio, set to “Money Jungle” by Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. Mel often compares his own artistic process to the jazz improvisation he loves. The story covers a wide range of his work, including a visit to his 30-year retrospective at the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, New York.
Melvin Edwards, Sekuru Knows from the Lynch Fragment series, 1988
Born in 1937 in the segregated South, Mel studied art at the University of Southern California, which he attended on a football scholarship. He eventually moved East, and in 1970 was one of the first Black artists to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. 1970 was also the year Mel and his wife, the late poet Jayne Cortez, first visited Africa. He has returned there often since, primarily to Senegal.  

Mel creates art steeped in African and African American history, from his series of small Lynch Fragments to his massive public artworks. It’s a history of trauma, yet Mel’s work, like the artist himself, is curious, playful, and ultimately hopeful. 
Melvin Edwards at work
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