Julia Weber
Staff Writer
A selection of fine artist and illustrator Charly Palmer’s illustrations from Kwame Alexander’s new children’s book How Sweet the Sound: A Soundtrack for America will be on view in an exhibition starting today and closing Aug. 15 at the School of Art Gallery in the Arts Quad.
From 3 to 5 p.m. today, the School of Art will host an opening reception and artist talk for the exhibition with an opportunity for a book signing. The exhibition is supported by the African American Heritage House and Friends of Chautauqua Visual Arts.
Alexander, Chautauqua’s Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Inaugural Writer-in-Residence, said he thinks the book is “beautiful” and Palmer’s vibrant colors are “amazing.”
“I feel like he just did something really unique and highly original,” Alexander said.
For Palmer, the collaboration was a long time in the making. After meeting Alexander at the American Library Association conference years ago, the chance to work together manifested when Alexander sought an illustrator for How Sweet the Sound.
“It was one of those things that I think was destined to happen, and this was the right project,” Palmer said. “When I followed the subject, read the manuscript, I was totally over-the-moon excited about what I could contribute to these amazing words.”
For Alexander, the creative decisions were within Palmer’s jurisdiction once the illustration process began.
“Once we decided Charly would be the illustrator, we let him do his thing,” Alexander said.
Palmer collaborated with Alexander — who Palmer deemed “a legend in the children’s book and book industry” — to bring the text to life through colorful, vibrant, joyous illustrations depicting the musicians Alexander writes about.
“I had my experience with the words, and I let him have his experience with the words. At some point I saw the sketches, and I may have made a few suggestions for a couple of the spreads, but generally, I trusted him to do his thing,” Alexander said. “And he did his thing.”
For Palmer, trusting artistic collaborations like this one are key to making genuine and impactful art.
“Right now in the society that we’re currently living in, finding great collaborations and working together are going to make the difference. But always come from a place of opening your heart and being expressive, vulnerable — being real,” he said. “That’s how I try to live my life these days.”
Palmer said this book was particularly meaningful to him because it uplifts so many of the musicians he grew up listening to. Now, he enjoys being able to bring these important figures and their stories to the next generation.
“We do need things like children’s books to remind people who came before you,” he said. “The freedom, how you exist today, has a lot to do with the influences and decisions that they made — sometimes sacrifices that they made.”
To Alexander, Palmer’s illustrations perfectly encapsulate the rhythm and movement of the music he writes about in the book.
“Music is rhythmic. Rhythms and sounds and leaps and bounds,” Alexander said. “I think his illustrations jump off the page. Like, you feel and see the movement. And it requires a lot of talent to be able to do that.”
Alexander admitted he says this about every book he writes, but “this may be my favorite book of all time”
And Palmer said he was “absolutely honored to be a part of it.”
