Speaking of Malcolm X: Florian Jenkins’ “The Temple Murals” at Dartmouth
February 21, 2023 marked 58 years since the death of Malcolm X. For decades I have kept and schlepped and couldn’t part with a small collection of books I read in college. A well-worn copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X is one of those. I think I am not alone.
The Upper Valley has connections to Malcolm X that I had not known of until recently, including the fact that he spoke at Dartmouth College just weeks before his assassination in 1965. But there is also relevant art—a series of original paintings by artist Florian Jenkins known as The Temple Murals: The Life of Malcolm X that are installed on the walls of a student living space on the Dartmouth College campus. Due to its residential nature, the building is not open to the public.
Recently the Hood Museum created a 3D virtual tour of the murals. The tour, along with a link to an excellent brochure with photos and more information about the art and artist, can be found here.
In an interview in 2014 commemorating the 42nd anniversary of the beginning of The Temple Murals, Jenkins allowed that he had drawn inspiration from the famous José Clemente Orozco murals at Dartmouth’s Baker Library, citing the strength of Orozco’s figures. He also said “ I was inspired by the idea of putting something black in an environment that was very white.” Students interacting with the artist often ended up serving as models.
Although Jenkins went on to produce other works, he was called to the ministry, and credits his experience of working on the murals at Dartmouth as the beginning of his life in the church: “When I was working on the last panel, on the door to the main room, the Lord came to the room. I actually had to get off the ladder, I didn’t know what was going on. I went outside for a while and when I came back in, the room had a brilliance to it that I couldn’t describe. But something had changed and it changed my life.”
A note to Artful subscribers and readers: Artful and I are taking a long-anticipated break, so postings may be fewer than usual (or not) for the next few weeks.
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.