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you followed instructions. GOLD STAR!

now get on your way and learn about Jackie.

Star

Click the handwritten text in the timeline to reveal details

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published 9.20.2020

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The Brown Pages | Edition XXII | Vol. III | Photo from  LITANY | Po’Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Dance Artist | Performance Artist | Artist Newsletter
The Brown Pages | Edition XXII | Vol. III | Photo from  LITANY | Po’Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Dance Artist | Performance Artist | Artist Newsletter
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The Brown Pages | Edition XXII | Vol. III | Photo from  LITANY | Po’Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Dance Artist | Performance Artist | Artist Newsletter
 The Brown Pages | Po’Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Artist | Dance | Performance Artist | Hand Drawn Vector | Sharpie | Handwriting | Artist Newsletter | Black Burlesque
 The Brown Pages | Po’Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Artist | Dance | Performance Artist | Hand Drawn Vector | Sharpie | Handwriting | Artist Newsletter | Black Burlesque
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The Litany Editions | Hand written vector | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago | Dance | Artist Newsletter

(1 of 5)    edition xxii | vol. iii

The Litany Editions | Hand written vector | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago | Dance | Artist Newsletter
The Litany Editions | Hand written vector | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago | Dance | Artist Newsletter

 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. 

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The Brown Pages | Chicago Dancemaker | Jenn Freeman | Po'Chop | Performance Artist | Artist Newsletter
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The Brown Pages | Chicago Dancemaker | Jenn Freeman | Po'Chop | Performance Artist | Artist Newsletter
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Textures from Chicago to Missouri
Textures from Chicago to Missouri

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

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The Brown Pages | Chicago Dancemaker | Jenn Freeman | Po'Chop | Performance Artist | Artist Newsletter
watch Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman in LITANY at www.itspochop.com/litany
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The Brown Pages | Chicago Dancemaker | Jenn Freeman | Po'Chop | Performance Artist | Artist Newsletter

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. 

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the LITANY trailer

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Lisa Blackman | The Brown Pages | Jenn Freeman | Po'Chop | Artist Blogzine

Lisa Blackman holding firstborn | Brad

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Come on everybody! It's time to come clean. Have you watched Part I of LITANY, Torchy's Togs?

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Arrowhead Leaf | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Artist
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Litany | Part I | Torchy's Togs

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Hand drawn arrow vector | The Brown Pages | Chicago Artist | Jenn Freeman | Po'Chop
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pst. don't leave Torchy hanging. click your answer.

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Notes on the life and work of Jackie Ormes on The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Dancer | Hand drawn vector
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Notes on the life and work of Jackie Ormes on The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Dancer | Hand drawn vector
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The first woman & Black woman with a nationally syndicated cartoon in America and the creator of Torchy Brown.

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 The Brown Pages | Po’Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Artist | Dance | Performance Artist | Hand Drawn Vector | Sharpie | Handwriting | Artist Newsletter | Black Burlesque
The Brown Pages | Edition XXII | Vol. III | Photo from  LITANY | Po’Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Dance Artist | Performance Artist | Artist Newsletter
The Brown Pages | Chicago Artist | Jenn Freeman | Po'Chop
The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Hand drawn vector x Jenn Freeman
The Brown Pages | Po’Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Artist | Dance | Performance Artist | Hand Drawn Vector | Sharpie | Handwriting | Artist Newsletter | Black Burlesque
The Brown Page | hand drawn vector x Jenn Freeman aka Po'Chop
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ii. welcome / auntie ain't far
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watch torcy's togs
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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

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Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
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- 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. 

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1921

to

1930

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Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
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Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
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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

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Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
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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.

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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."

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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.

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click to learn about Jackie's fam

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Date: Aug 1, 1911

Birth Name: Zelda Mavin Jackson

Parents: William Winfield Jackson & Mary Brown Jackson

Older Sister: Delores Kathreen Jackson Towles

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1911

Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
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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.

Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
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1937-1938

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- 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.

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Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
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1942

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-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

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Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
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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. 

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Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer

1947-1949

1947-1949

1947-1949

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-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.

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1947-1949

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Jackie Ormes' | Torchy Brown | Black Pinup
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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

Stitch | The Brown Pages | Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman | Chicago Performance Artist | Dancer
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1947-1949

1947-1949

1950-1954

1950-1954

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- 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.

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1985

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1947-1949

1947-1949

1950-1954

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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.

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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.

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A peek into the movement research for Torchy's Togs.

 

Back when I was a resident artist at the South Side Community Art Center. 

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1943

1943

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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.

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- 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.

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1947-1949

1947-1949

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-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.

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-The FBI maintained a file on Ormes. They were tracking her connection to the Communist Party and even pulled her in for interviews a couple of times. 

-Once the interviews began Ormes turned up the dial even more on inserting her political views into her comics (specifically Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger).

1948-1958

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stuff to do if you ain't ready to go

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Major love and appreciation for reading Edition XXII of The Brown Pages.

LITANY | Pt. II has | Issue (of blood) dropped. Sept 25, 2020 @ 7:30 pm (cst) via EXPO Chicago. 

we'll be back here soon after with part 2 of 5 of The LITANY editions!

Until then please consider sharing our work with someone you hold in your prayers and if you enjoyed these pages consider sending a love offering/tip.

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