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 his 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'd get my hands on an original piece of Lawrence's

work.

And that day finally came y'all.

A couple months back I stumbled onto an online auction and there it was, with that palette

in those strokes that I know so well.

It was a signed and numbered print, number 181 out of 200, of Lawrence's 1986 Schomburg

Library.

I'd seen this image dozens of times.

It shows an ordinary day at the Fane Schomburg Library in Manhattan.

Over the years I've spent many hours in that same library doing research for stories,

catching book readings, talks and performances.

It's a really special place.

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