This week the Into America team has been hitting the road and collecting stories for a

new Black History series we're releasing next month called Reconstructed.

Over four episodes will delve into the legacy of Reconstruction and how those years continue

to influence our path toward freedom today.

So as the team is hard to work on what you'll hear next month, we're bringing back one

of our favorite shows from last year.

The first episode from our 2021 Black History series Harlem on my mind.

This episode was originally released on February 4th 2021.

Let's go.

There are just a few artists whose work I recognize immediately.

One of them is Jacob Lawrence.

His color palette, reds and blues and yellows, the geometry in his brush strokes, but mostly

it's a subject matter.

Lawrence captures Black people and Black life in a way that just feels so familiar, pushing

a stroller, talking to a neighbor, riding the bus.

He's not gazing down on us from up high.

He's right there with us, whether it's back in the deep south or in the streets of Harlem

that raised him, Lawrence sees us.

I'm a novice collector of books in ephemera and art that speaks to and about the Black

experience.

And I'd always dreamed of a day that I get my hands on an original piece of Lawrence's

work.

...