you followed instructions. GOLD STAR!
now get on your way and learn about Jackie.
Click the handwritten text in the timeline to reveal details
published 9.20.2020
(1 of 5) edition xxii | vol. iii
Peruse this edition of The Brown Pages by using the Order of Edition. Simply select a section to check out and when you're ready to move on there'll be a leaf nearby to guide you back here for your next selection.
_edited.png)
 |  |
|---|
sitting in front of a wild arrowhead
a healthy bush of green hearts
aunt lisa beams through grief
she tells me she misses her hairs
in quiet moments
i watch her fingertips graze
across the grey fuzz growing from her scalp
head bent
we listen to the blues
and we hold her grief
you can cry auntie
we want to tell her about lorde
about how she too had cancer
and transformed her wounds into medals
we want to tell her about the mornings
Lorde spent at the edge
of her bed
eyes pressed closed
visualizing survival
instead
we fill the room
with Chaka Khan
and like Lorde
we dance
later we sit at the kitchen table
in front of my laptop glowing
as we watch my unreleased film Torchy’s Togs
she giggles at the moment when i wiggle
my tail and says you’ve always been silly
afterwards i tell her about Jackie Ormes
and she tells me that i'll go far
and i try to pause to breathe in her blessing
i will go far auntie
aunt lisa transitioned the day before the release of Torchy’s Togs
her life and work continues through me
we will go far auntie
This edition of The Brown Pages is the first of a quintet created alongside my latest project
a 5-part film entitled, LITANY.
The Litany Editions will provide insight into the creation of each chapter of LITANY.
Part I of LITANY, Torchy’s Togs, was released
August 19, 2020.
In this edition, we take a closer look at the cartoonist Jackie Ormes, the muse behind LITNAY's first chapter, Torchy's Togs, with an interactive timeline named:
The Life and work of Zelda Jackie Ormes.
As always, these pages are intended to be savored. Slow down, engage, click. read. But mostly we hope you enjoy ‘em.
the LITANY trailer
Lisa Blackman holding firstborn | Brad
Come on everybody! It's time to come clean. Have you watched Part I of LITANY, Torchy's Togs?
Litany | Part I | Torchy's Togs
.png)
pst. don't leave Torchy hanging. click your answer.
The first woman & Black woman with a nationally syndicated cartoon in America and the creator of Torchy Brown.
There is much to be learned from the life and work of Jackie Ormes. Below you’ll find a timeline of her life and musings on how her legacy is reflected in the film, Torchy's Togs
- At an early age Jackie expressed interest in drawing and visual arts. She was known to use up all of the household paper for her creations and transform Bars of Ivory into artistic carvings.
-Ormes’ earliest known cartoons can be found in Monongahela High School Yearbooks, years 1929-1930. These cartoons are line portraits capturing faculty and students from the school.
-While in high school Jackie contacted the editor of the Pittsburgh Courier repeatedly until she was given her first assignment, a boxing match.
-Once graduated she relocated to Pittsburgh where she was hired to proofread for the Pittsburgh Courier.
1921
to
1930
.png)
.png)
Spouse | Earl Clark Ormes
- Over the course of their 45 year marriage Earl held a variety of jobs. From working in banking to being a crane operator to a hotel manager of high end hotels such as The DuSable & The Sutherland (both in Chicago).
- Together they built a life as socialites. They formed and maintained friendships with entertainers and artists such as Lena Horne & Eartha Kitt.
- He passed in 1976.
1931
Sister | Delores Kathreen Jackson Towles
- Delores and Zelda grew up as close siblings who both enjoyed music and art.
- Delores became a singer known to sing “torch” songs. As a slight nod to her sister, Jackie named one of her characters Torchy Brown.
- She lived to be 100 years old.
Mom | Mary Brown Jackson
- Mary was a seamstress and homemaker.
- She nurtured her children’s imagination with the arts.
- After her husband, William’s passing, she sent her children to live with an aunt and uncle to gain stability. During this time she worked as a head housekeeper.
- She remarried in 1917 and relocated family to Monongahela, PA.
Ormes would later describe Monongahela as "like suburbia: spread out, and simple, Nothing momentous ever happened there. Nobody had much, but we were OK."
Dad | William Jackson
- He owned and ran a printing business & an open-air movie theater located on a vacant lot.
- He passed suddenly in 1917 after an auto accident.
click to learn about Jackie's fam
Date: Aug 1, 1911
Birth Name: Zelda Mavin Jackson
Parents: William Winfield Jackson & Mary Brown Jackson
Older Sister: Delores Kathreen Jackson Towles
1911
.png)
1931 to 1936(ish)
- Jackie & Earl celebrated the birth of their daughter, Jacqueline "Little Jackie."
- Jackie was an attentive mother who loved to take her daughter on walks and shopping.
- In 1936(ish) "Little Jackie" passed in her mother's arms due to cancer.
- Jackie vowed to not have anymore children to avoid the heartache of losing a child.
1937-1938
- Torchy Brown made her debut in Torchy Brown in "Dixie in Harlem" on May 1, 1937 in the Pittsburgh Courier.
-Torchy Brown in “Dixie in Harlem” follows Torchy, a witty, persistent country girl from Mississippi who leaves her farm chores behind to become a showgirl in NYC.
-Using mostly pen and ink, Ormes’ utilized the always fashionable Torchy to cover a wide range of prolific topics such as sex work, passing, segregation and more.
-Torchy’s name was inspired by the women in Jackie’s life. In addition to her name being a homage to Delores, Torchy’s last name was inspired by her mother's maiden name.
-Torchy Brown in “Dixie in Harlem” ran until April 30,1938.
1942
-Following in the steps of Torchy, Jackie & Earl joined the 500,000 folks who made the voyage to Chicago during the Great Migration.
-They settled in Bronzeville
.png)
1945-1956
- Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger ran in the Pittsburgh Courier weekly for 11 years straight reaching 358,000 households nationwide at its peak.
-It was a single panel comic that featured Ginger: a fashionable, pinup-style girl accompanied by a wise and witty, equally as fashionable, outspoken child, Patty-Jo.
- Together they mourned Emmett Till and protested displays of nationality long before Kaepernick.
1947-1949
1947-1949
1947-1949
-The Patty-Jo doll was produced by (white-owned) Terri Lee Company.
-Priced at $11.95 during a time when minimum wage was $.45/hr the Patty-Jo doll was intended for a middle/high class income.
- The doll featured an extensive collection of clothing and accessories.
-The Patty-Jo doll featured a hand painted face that was either hand-painted by Jackie or by a team of factory artists that she trained.
-The Patty-Jo doll was the first doll marketed as having “playable” hair that could be shampooed and restyled.
- The Patty-Jo doll was popular and was featured in magazines, newspapers and even Ormes’ own comics.
.png)
1947-1949
-4.jpg)
This is the work ya'll. Reshaping how we learn and share history. Reshaping whose legacy is highlighted. The information from the above timeline was sourced from the below works. I can't recommend enough Lifting As They Climbed and Jackie Ormes's comprehensive biography by Nancy Goldstein.
BOOKS
Goldstein, Nancy (2008) Jackie Ormes The First African American Woman Cartoonist. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press
Hast, Adele & Schultz, Rima Lunin (2001) Women Building Chicago 1790-1990. Bloomington & Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press
Kaba, Mariame & McDowell, Essence Lifting As They Climbed: Mapping a History of Black Women on Chicago’s South Side. Chicago, IL: Self Published
Schlabach, Elizabeth Schroeder (2013) Along the Streets of Bronzeville: Black Chicago’s Literary Landscape. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield, IL: University of Illinois Press
online
Onion, Rebecca, Fifty Years Before Boondocks There Was Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger, The Vault, 13 August 2013
Sayej, Nadja, The Subtle Radicalism of Cartoonist Jackie Ormes, Shonda Land. 6 March 2019
Teutsch, Matthew, Jackie Ormes, the FBI, and "Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger, Interminable Rambling, 12 October 2017
videos
.png)
1947-1949
1947-1949
1950-1954
1950-1954
- Rheumatoid arthritis made drawing difficult after 1956(ish). Nonetheless Ormes' never stopped taking commissions and creating for friends and charities.
- On Christmas Eve in 1985, while prepping for a party, Ormes' experienced a cerebral hemorrhage and passed.
- She is laid to rest on the Ormes family plot in Hope Cemetery in Salem, Ohio.
.png)
1985
1947-1949
1947-1949
1950-1954
1950-1954
- August 19,1950 marked the debut of Torchy in Heartbeats and the accompanying paper doll Torchy's Togs.
- Printed in the Pittsburgh Courier Torchy returned as a mature, career woman with a social conscience much like Patty-Jo.
- Torchy in Heartbeats was a weekly, full-colored strip that followed Torchy's search for love with storylines that dealt with race, gender, the environment and beyond.
-Torchy's Togs featured the fashions of the time and included beautiful descriptions of the garments much like high-end designers.
.png)
Much of my practice is rooted in attempts to connect deeply with Jackie Ormes and her work. From Tracing her strokes through recreating Torchy's dresses to releasing the film Torchy's Togs on the same day as Jackie Ormes' debuted Torchy's Togs in print.
A peek into the movement research for Torchy's Togs.
Back when I was a resident artist at the South Side Community Art Center.
1943
1943
.png)
1943-1945
- Soon after arriving in Chicago, Jackie began writing personality profiles & covering news for The Chicago Defender.
-For 7 weeks she wrote a women's column, Social Whirl, that reported on social gatherings such as dinner parties, welcome home parties, fashion shows, engagements and weddings.
-Social Whirl was a glimpse into Ormes's elite social circle.
-Much like her comics, she used the column to highlight causes important to her such as women's rights.
candy
- March 24,1945 Candy debuted and ran for 4 months.
-Candy marked the beginning of the use of her androgynous pen name "Jackie Ormes." Like many industries the cartoon industry was driven by white men, Ormes' chose a pen name to reach a broader audience.
- Candy was a single panel comic strip that followed a wisecracking housekeeper named Candy.
- Candy's name came from Earl and was a reference to the character's attractive appearance and to Jackie's sister-in-law, Emma "Candy" Ormes.
- Original art/newspaper copies of Candy no longer exist.
- Once Candy's run was complete Ormes left The Chicago Defender.
- There are no records that show Ormes' was paid for Candy.
1947-1949
1947-1949
-Jackie was active within Chicago's Bronzeville community throughout her career however once she retired from cartoons in 1956 she became more active.
-She developed a close friendship with Margret Burroughs soon after settling in Chicago and served on the board of the South Side Community Art Center. She also assisted with fundraising for the DuSable Museum of African American History.
-She served on the board of directors for the Clarence Darrow Community Center. A center that provided resources to residents of Chicago's LeClaire Courts and surrounding area.
-She helped initiate the now white-washed Chicago "Jeff Awards."
- She served the March of Dimes for nearly 20 years as a regional chair.
.png)
