Resources
Short Stories, Benny Andrews, and Langston Hughes
Students will write short stories inspired by Benny Andrew’s paintings.
Helpful Links:
Educators
Tennessee Social Studies Standards
Tennessee English Language Arts Standards
About
Biography
Born on November 13, 1930 in Plainview Georgia, Benny Andrews spent his earliest years helping his
parents harvest cotton in the small sharecropping community they dwelt. His parent’s emphasis on
education helped drive Andrews to be the first member of his family to graduate high school and attend
college. After attending Fort Valley College for a few semesters, Andrews left school in 1950 to enlist in
the U.S. Air Force. He’d serve for the entirety of the Korean War, gaining the rank of staff Sergeant
before receiving an honorable discharge in 1954. With help from the G.I. Bill, Andrews was able to
attend the Art Institue of Chicago, graduating in 1958 with his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts. Andrews would
later go on to teach at the New School for Social Research in NYC, the Jewish Community Center in
Bayonne, New York, and Queens College before helping form the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition
(BECC). Working alongside his fellow BECC members, Andrews would help start an arts program at
Manhattan Detention Complex that would serve as a national model for prison arts intiatives. Andrews
would spend the last few decades of his life illustration children’s book about John Lewis, Langston
Hughes, and Joseph Carol Smith. In 2006, Andrews passed away at the age of 75 from cancer.
Vocabulary
Short Story – a brief work of fiction
• Fiction – any story about imaginary events and people
• Characters – any person or animal in a story
• Setting – the place a story happens
• Plot – the events of a story
• Dialogue – any exchange of words between characters in a story
• Illustration – an image thats help explain or clarify a text
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I wonder... Does this look familiar to you?
Many of George Washington’s portraits and profiles look the same. Take a look at a selection of George Washington’s portraits at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Washington Everywhere | National Portrait Gallery
Why do you think so may artists would use the same image over and over again? How did this contribute to new Americans learning about the founding of the United States?
Think of other portraits you have seen and look at other images below—what does each one tell us about the person featured? What has the artist shared with us about the subject of the painting?
SSP.01 Gather information from a variety of sources
SSP.05 Develop historical awareness by: Sequencing past, present, and future in chronological order and Understanding that things change over time
SS.4.08 Determine the importance of different groups to the American Revolution
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Describe the person in this painting. What are they doing? How do you think they feel? What
might they be doing?
• Describe the setting of the painting. How does this place make you feel? How would you
describe this place? Does it remind you of any place you’ve seen?
• How would you describe the colors of this painting? How do the colors make you feel?
• What might the person in this painting say in this moment?
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Located in Gallery 1
Not on view
Something to consider: STEM Connection
Artists were key players in documenting conflicts both to share with the public and to create a record of events. Do some research about the methods used in the artworks from the Hunter Museum. How would an etching or lithograph reach a different group of people than a painting? How would these inventions (and others like photography and film) affect the ways in which Americans learned about and responded to conflict?
SSP.01 Gather information from a variety of sources, including media and technology sources
Read and discuss Langston Hughes short story “Thank You, Ma’am, before having students write a short
story based on Benny Andrews’ From the Mountain Top.
Materials
• Print out of Langston Hughes “Thank You, Ma’am”
• Print out of After Reading Worksheet
• Pencils
• Notebook Paper
Procedure
1. Have students read “Short story facts for kids” from https://kids.kiddle.co/Short_story and
Langston Hughes “Thank you, Ma’am."
2. Students should take notes as they read the text. Encourage them to underline or highlight
important information from the text, such the names of characters and dialogue that stood out
to them.
3. Then, have the students complete the After Reading Worksheet, before discussing their answers
as a group.
4. Introduce students to Benny Andrew’s From the Mountain Top. Use the discussion questions to
encourage close looking. Inform the students, that Benny Andrews spent the last few years of
his life illustrating children’s books, including one about Langston Hughes, the author of “Thank
You, Ma’am.” If possible, show the students illustrations Andrews completed for Langston
Hughes’s Poetry for Young People.
5. Have students write a short story about the figure in From the Mountain Top. Tell them to
imagine that they are writing a story that will go alongside the Benny Andrew’s artwork.
6. If time permits, let students read each others’ short stories and offer suggestions on how they
can improve it.
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Art can be an expression of identity and culture. Some communities have had these important personal representations threatened because they were different or were in opposition to new ideas being brought by expanding frontiers.
Look at the following 3 artworks that respond to the impact on the people and the land during the Westward Expansion of the United States.
Consider: what emotions do you see represented? Can you find examples of how it felt to lose something very important? Can you also find examples of resilience? What symbols, colors, and details did the artist use to share these emotions?
SS.3.22 Examine how American Indian cultures changed as a result of contact with European cultures, including: decreased population, spread of disease (smallpox), increased conflict, loss of territory, and increase in trade.
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Cities also expanded rapidly during the mid 19th century. People came to the United States from all over the world! In cities like New York, many diverse groups of people lived very close together. Trains, trolleys, and streets showcased the many ways lives overlapped.
Look at the images below: Find people who are working, resting, excited, nervous, and confident. What are they doing? Where do you think they are going?
SSP.03 Organize data from a variety of sources in order to: Compare and contrast multiple sources, Recognize differences between multiple accounts, and Frame appropriate questions for further investigation
R.1. Cornerstone Read closely to determine what a text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
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Listen to the song Poor Old Joe by Paul Robeson, a renowned singer during the early 1900s and the Harlem Renaissance. During the Great Migration, many African Americans travelled to cities in the North in search of new opportunities and equality while others remained and worked in agriculture in the South. How do the lyrics connect to the artwork?*
*This is an artwork about migration by someone who was an immigrant (rather than a migrant) but has overlapping themes for both experiences as discussed above
Left: Hung Liu (1948-2021), I Hear Their Gentle Voice Calling, 2017, mixed media, multi-layer resin, 82 x 82 in. Toledo Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey.
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Activity: What Were They Thinking?
Immerse yourself in the world of Reginald Marsh's Subway - 14th Street and consider the variety of intersecting lives featured in the painting. Using the attached guide, write what do you think these New York City subway-goers were thinking at that moment in time.
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Immigrants have been crucial in shaping American history and culture. Many of America’s most celebrated artists were immigrants or the children of immigrants who chose to build their lives in the U.S.
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Look at the artworks above and at left: Think about how these two artists combine images from American culture with historical Japanese and Korean art to create something new.
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Activity: Celebration Flag
Mimi Herbert left half of the work Celebration Flag blank, suggesting an opportunity for viewers to add their own ideas to complete the flag. Flags are used to identify a place using colors and symbols—The United States flag uses 50 stars for the 50 states, 13 stripes for the 13 original colonies, blue for justice, red for valor and bravery, and white for purity and innocence. Use the blank space provided in the activity below to share how you would complete Mimi’s flag.
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Contemporary art continues to address themes of identity, conflict, movement and our changing world. Contemporary can be defined as “right now.” All artwork is contemporary at the time it is made and reflects the social, political and personal impacts of the artist’s environment. Look at the works below. How do these artworks reflect on history as well as the “right now”?
Not on view
Not on view
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