{"id":4802,"date":"2023-03-13T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu\/?p=2824"},"modified":"2024-02-01T16:21:46","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T21:21:46","slug":"joy-and-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2023\/joy-and-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy and Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes Dare Coulter \u201915 needed a break. The artist was trying to figure out how to illustrate a new picture book by an acclaimed writer of children\u2019s fiction, but the topic was dark\u2009\u2014\u2009the impact and trauma of slavery. Coulter\u2019s journey took her to its horrors\u2009\u2014\u2009harrowing stories of Africans\u2019 cross-Atlantic journeys and despair as families were ripped apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was heavy work. The images and stories triggered nightmares. But her goal was to give life to the book\u2019s words and create imagery that makes the trauma of slavery tangible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dare Coulter \u201915 with some of the head and hand sculptures she created to tell the story. Photograph by Joshua Steadman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For an artist like Coulter, who has focused on portraying Black joy in massive public art pieces throughout North Carolina, An American Story<\/em> might seem like an unlikely project. The story \u201cstarts in Africa and ends in horror,\u201d as its author, Kwame Alexander, writes to begin the book. But the joy Coulter is known for belongs in An American Story<\/em> too, she says: \u201cThe joy shows what\u2019s possible, but the pain is there as a reminder.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an award-winning and best-selling author like Alexander attached, the book is poised to make waves in the children\u2019s book world. And when Alexander saw the first page of Coulter\u2019s art for An American Story<\/em>, he was blown away. \u201cShe did something I was not expecting with this book. She made it hers,\u201d he told School Library Journal<\/em>. \u201cShe created art for this book that I\u2019ve never seen in a children\u2019s book. I think I wrote a pretty good poem that told a pretty good story, but her art, hands down, is majestic, magical. Magnificent. It\u2019s a masterful piece of work. That\u2019s what I think of Dare Coulter\u2019s illustrations. Boom.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The cover of An American Story.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe did something I was not expecting with this book. She made it hers.\u201d
\u2013 Kwame Alexander<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Coulter is eager to see An American Story, <\/em>released in January, in the hands of children. But she\u2019s also aware that the book touches on topics that have lit up school board meetings in the past year amid efforts to downplay the role of slavery and racism in U.S. history. Alexander, who won the Newbery Medal\u2009\u2014\u2009the Academy Award equivalent in children\u2019s publishing\u2009\u2014\u2009for The Crossover<\/em>, a book in verse about middle school basketball players that is being serialized by Disney Plus, has had books on banned book lists before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, it was a \u201cracially charged incident\u201d in the fourth-grade classroom of Alexander\u2019s daughter that prompted him to write An American Story.<\/em> He realized many schools weren\u2019t preparing students to \u201cfully understand the truth about slavery,\u201d he wrote in the book\u2019s endnotes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coulter, 29, considers herself lucky to have had teachers who taught slavery in a fair and balanced way. She expects Alexander\u2019s words and her images won\u2019t be welcome by all, but she also believes the story needs to be told, so society can do better. \u201cThere\u2019s this pessimism almost that says the intention is to forget about it so that people don\u2019t know, so that it can be repeated,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s scary.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In just a few years, Coulter\u2019s artistic career has been on an upward trajectory with commissions from the likes of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Smiling, proud and powerful faces grace her sprawling murals of a quiet, peaceful Black girl along the West Ellerbee Creek Trail in Durham, protesters in downtown Raleigh and Black cowboys in Greensboro. In late summer, she was busy opening a laser cutting business called DareSay Signs and Gifts near Raleigh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Coulter spent roughly two years creating the sculptures, charcoal drawings and paintings that illustrate An American Story.<\/em> Her pin-up, above, shows some early drawings. Below, Dare sculpts one of the figures out of clay while three heads of historical figures \u2014 Robert Smalls, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman \u2014 are being painted. Photographs courtesy of Dare Coulter \u201915.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Illustrating a book by Alexander is a potentially career-transforming opportunity for Coulter\u2009\u2014\u2009and she took a unique, but risky and possibly more costly approach to the illustrations, which required buy-in from the publisher, says her agent, Rubin Pfeffer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of turning in oil or acrylic paintings, as originally envisioned, Coulter incorporated charcoal drawings, acrylic and spray paint paintings and 3D sculptures. She spent about two years creating the pieces, almost entirely from her home near Raleigh, sometimes scrapping work as she fine-tuned how best to tell the story through art. The final illustrations include photographs of her sculptures paired with her paintings or placed on sets built for each scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Coulter\u2019s colorful studio is filled with paintings, drawings and sculptures from her many projects. Photograph by Joshua Steadman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The design moves the reader between a present-day classroom, depicted in charcoal, where a teacher and students grapple with questions of slavery, and past settings in Africa and the United States, portrayed in sculpture and vivid acrylics. That visual language was intentional. The sculptures bring the historical figures\u2009\u2014\u2009a joyful father, with whip marks, holding his babies, and a weeping mother, crying out for her son, for example\u2009\u2014\u2009to life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"
Two assistants work to place the sculptures in front of one of Coulter\u2019s painting to create the final illustration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A close up of Dare\u2019s sculpture before the background painting is added. Photographs courtesy of Dare Coulter \u201915.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this humaneness that happens in 3D,\u201d Coulter says. \u201cPart of the dismissal of the existence and pain of these people is considering them as just a thought. . . . Like a grain of rice in a bag of rice, and they don\u2019t matter individually. But putting a person in clay, it puts them in the 3D realm. . . It makes them real.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"\"
Four pages from An American Story<\/em>. Coulter used three mediums \u2014 clay, charcoal and paint for her illustrations. Book pages: Text by Kwame Alexander, art by Dare Coulter \u201915.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPutting a person in clay, it puts them in the 3D realm . . . It makes them real.\u201d
\u2013 Dare Coulter \u201915<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Coulter has more in store, including two additional books, Pfeffer says. One publisher even agreed to postpone the release of another project she was working on so that her debut could be attached to Alexander because of his status. \u201cShe\u2019s starting with a very high bar, but there\u2019s something about Dare. It\u2019s fitting,\u201d Pfeffer says. \u201cShe takes big challenges and gets there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Coulter with one of her favorite sculptures she created for An American Story<\/em>. Photograph by Joshua Steadman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With An American Story\u2019s<\/em> release, her focus will shift to the kids who will pick it up. She\u2019s hopeful it will lead to discussion and understanding. \u201cThis is not the full conversation about people being enslaved,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is not the full conversation about abuses of people and their rights and their bodies. It\u2019s an intro to, \u2018It\u2019s OK to feel sad about this. It\u2019s OK to feel bad about it. It\u2019s OK to have difficulty talking about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not OK to not talk about it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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A post shared by NC State Alumni Association (@ncstatealumni)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes Dare Coulter \u201915 needed a break. The artist was trying to figure out how to illustrate a new picture book by an acclaimed writer of children\u2019s fiction, but the topic was dark\u2009\u2014\u2009the impact and trauma of slavery. Coulter\u2019s journey took her to its horrors\u2009\u2014\u2009harrowing stories of Africans\u2019 cross-Atlantic journeys and despair as families were ripped apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was heavy work. The images and stories triggered nightmares. But her goal was to give life to the book\u2019s words and create imagery that makes the trauma of slavery tangible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dare Coulter \u201915 with some of the head and hand sculptures she created to tell the story. Photograph by Joshua Steadman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For an artist like Coulter, who has focused on portraying Black joy in massive public art pieces throughout North Carolina, An American Story<\/em> might seem like an unlikely project. The story \u201cstarts in Africa and ends in horror,\u201d as its author, Kwame Alexander, writes to begin the book. But the joy Coulter is known for belongs in An American Story<\/em> too, she says: \u201cThe joy shows what\u2019s possible, but the pain is there as a reminder.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an award-winning and best-selling author like Alexander attached, the book is poised to make waves in the children\u2019s book world. And when Alexander saw the first page of Coulter\u2019s art for An American Story<\/em>, he was blown away. \u201cShe did something I was not expecting with this book. She made it hers,\u201d he told School Library Journal<\/em>. \u201cShe created art for this book that I\u2019ve never seen in a children\u2019s book. I think I wrote a pretty good poem that told a pretty good story, but her art, hands down, is majestic, magical. Magnificent. It\u2019s a masterful piece of work. That\u2019s what I think of Dare Coulter\u2019s illustrations. Boom.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The cover of An American Story.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe did something I was not expecting with this book. She made it hers.\u201d
\u2013 Kwame Alexander<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Coulter is eager to see An American Story, <\/em>released in January, in the hands of children. But she\u2019s also aware that the book touches on topics that have lit up school board meetings in the past year amid efforts to downplay the role of slavery and racism in U.S. history. Alexander, who won the Newbery Medal\u2009\u2014\u2009the Academy Award equivalent in children\u2019s publishing\u2009\u2014\u2009for The Crossover<\/em>, a book in verse about middle school basketball players that is being serialized by Disney Plus, has had books on banned book lists before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, it was a \u201cracially charged incident\u201d in the fourth-grade classroom of Alexander\u2019s daughter that prompted him to write An American Story.<\/em> He realized many schools weren\u2019t preparing students to \u201cfully understand the truth about slavery,\u201d he wrote in the book\u2019s endnotes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coulter, 29, considers herself lucky to have had teachers who taught slavery in a fair and balanced way. She expects Alexander\u2019s words and her images won\u2019t be welcome by all, but she also believes the story needs to be told, so society can do better. \u201cThere\u2019s this pessimism almost that says the intention is to forget about it so that people don\u2019t know, so that it can be repeated,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s scary.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In just a few years, Coulter\u2019s artistic career has been on an upward trajectory with commissions from the likes of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Smiling, proud and powerful faces grace her sprawling murals of a quiet, peaceful Black girl along the West Ellerbee Creek Trail in Durham, protesters in downtown Raleigh and Black cowboys in Greensboro. In late summer, she was busy opening a laser cutting business called DareSay Signs and Gifts near Raleigh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Coulter spent roughly two years creating the sculptures, charcoal drawings and paintings that illustrate An American Story.<\/em> Her pin-up, above, shows some early drawings. Below, Dare sculpts one of the figures out of clay while three heads of historical figures \u2014 Robert Smalls, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman \u2014 are being painted. Photographs courtesy of Dare Coulter \u201915.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Illustrating a book by Alexander is a potentially career-transforming opportunity for Coulter\u2009\u2014\u2009and she took a unique, but risky and possibly more costly approach to the illustrations, which required buy-in from the publisher, says her agent, Rubin Pfeffer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of turning in oil or acrylic paintings, as originally envisioned, Coulter incorporated charcoal drawings, acrylic and spray paint paintings and 3D sculptures. She spent about two years creating the pieces, almost entirely from her home near Raleigh, sometimes scrapping work as she fine-tuned how best to tell the story through art. The final illustrations include photographs of her sculptures paired with her paintings or placed on sets built for each scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Coulter\u2019s colorful studio is filled with paintings, drawings and sculptures from her many projects. Photograph by Joshua Steadman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The design moves the reader between a present-day classroom, depicted in charcoal, where a teacher and students grapple with questions of slavery, and past settings in Africa and the United States, portrayed in sculpture and vivid acrylics. That visual language was intentional. The sculptures bring the historical figures\u2009\u2014\u2009a joyful father, with whip marks, holding his babies, and a weeping mother, crying out for her son, for example\u2009\u2014\u2009to life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"
Two assistants work to place the sculptures in front of one of Coulter\u2019s painting to create the final illustration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A close up of Dare\u2019s sculpture before the background painting is added. Photographs courtesy of Dare Coulter \u201915.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this humaneness that happens in 3D,\u201d Coulter says. \u201cPart of the dismissal of the existence and pain of these people is considering them as just a thought. . . . Like a grain of rice in a bag of rice, and they don\u2019t matter individually. But putting a person in clay, it puts them in the 3D realm. . . It makes them real.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"\"
Four pages from An American Story<\/em>. Coulter used three mediums \u2014 clay, charcoal and paint for her illustrations. Book pages: Text by Kwame Alexander, art by Dare Coulter \u201915.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPutting a person in clay, it puts them in the 3D realm . . . It makes them real.\u201d
\u2013 Dare Coulter \u201915<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Coulter has more in store, including two additional books, Pfeffer says. One publisher even agreed to postpone the release of another project she was working on so that her debut could be attached to Alexander because of his status. \u201cShe\u2019s starting with a very high bar, but there\u2019s something about Dare. It\u2019s fitting,\u201d Pfeffer says. \u201cShe takes big challenges and gets there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Coulter with one of her favorite sculptures she created for An American Story<\/em>. Photograph by Joshua Steadman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With An American Story\u2019s<\/em> release, her focus will shift to the kids who will pick it up. She\u2019s hopeful it will lead to discussion and understanding. \u201cThis is not the full conversation about people being enslaved,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is not the full conversation about abuses of people and their rights and their bodies. It\u2019s an intro to, \u2018It\u2019s OK to feel sad about this. It\u2019s OK to feel bad about it. It\u2019s OK to have difficulty talking about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not OK to not talk about it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by NC State Alumni Association (@ncstatealumni)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote> \n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artist Dare Coulter \u201915 depicts both in a new picture book about the trauma of slavery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"backgroundColor\":\"indigo_400\",\"subtitle\":\"Artist Dare Coulter \u201915 depicts both in a new
picture book about the trauma of slavery.\",\"caption\":\"\",\"displayCategoryID\":5}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,9],"tags":[75,240,306,543,665,1055,1074],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":39,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4999,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4802\/revisions\/4999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4802"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=4802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}