NewEnglandFilm.com

I Know a Man … Ashley Bryan by Richard Kane and Robert Shetterly is a new documentary film about this 94 year old artist who skips and jumps in his heart like a child, yet is a spiritually deep creative genius and poet of 50+ children’s books, maker of magical puppets and sea glass windows from found objects inspired by his African heritage. Born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx, Ashley’s talent was nurtured by artist Romare Bearden. Ashley was drafted out of art school into the segregated US army at age 19. He served in an all-Black battalion during World War II and preserved his humanity by drawing, stowing supplies in his gas mask. Ashley now lives on the remote Cranberry Islands, Maine, and has been using art his entire life to celebrate joy, mediate the darkness of war and racism, explore the mysteries of faith, and create loving community. He quotes Marian Anderson admonishing “to keep another down you have to hold them down, and therefore cannot … soar to the potential within you.” He spreads beauty and joy through his linocut prints exhorting “Let My People Go” to the tune of the Spiritual Oh Mary Don’t You Weep, a song composed by slaves, sung by Kim and Reggie Harris with Bernice Johnson Reagon. His life story and the art he makes from this wellspring of experience is an inspiration to people of all ages.