Porgy

For his skill in lithographs such as this, Richard Beatty was hired as an instructor when Karamu formed a graphic arts program around 1933. While teaching himself lithography at night, Beatty portrayed theater and cabaret scenes using dense, expressive lines from a waxy crayon. He described Porgy (1927) as his favorite print and was inspired after seeing a play by the same name at the Ohio Theatre. Elongated and slumping figures convey the narrative’s emotional climax, about a man’s attempts to rescue his love from her violent partner. The performance featured an entirely Black cast—unusual for the time—and opened to great acclaim in Cleveland in 1929.