Object Details
- Artist
- Brian Lanker, 31 Aug 1947 - 13 Mar 2011
- Sitter
- Odetta, 31 Dec 1930 - 2 Dec 2008
- Exhibition Label
- Born Birmingham, Alabama
- Folk music straightened my back and it kinked my hair. What is an Afro or natural today used to be called an Odetta.
- — Odetta
- Asked what songs she found most meaningful, Rosa Parks declared, “All of the songs Odetta sings”—a ringing endorsement of the immensely talented folk and blues singer who became known as the “voice of the civil rights movement.” Odetta discovered folk music in the early 1950s, just as the folk revival was gaining momentum. Moved by the ballads, work songs, blues, prison songs, and spirituals that vividly expressed the historic struggles of African Americans, Odetta made this music her own. Her soulful singing and distinctive guitar playing soon earned her critical and popular acclaim.
- The growth of the civil rights movement paralleled Odetta’s rising popularity. As her engagement with the movement deepened, her songs channeled her rage against injustice. “As I was singing, I was one of those things that was smoldering,” she later recalled. At the 1963 March on Washington, Odetta rallied the massive crowd with her powerful voice.
- Nacida en Birmingham, Alabama
- La música folk me enderezó la espalda y me enroscó el cabello. Lo que hoy es un estilo afro o natural, antes era un Odetta.
- —Odetta
- Al preguntarle qué canciones tenían más significado para ella, Rosa Parks dijo: “Todas las que canta Odetta”. Fue un endoso resonante al enorme talento de esta cantante de folk y blues conocida como “la voz del movimiento pro derechos civiles”. Odetta descubrió la música folk en la década de 1950, cuando el género estaba renaciendo. Conmovida por las baladas, los blues, los espirituales y las canciones del trabajo y las cárceles, que expresaban vívidamente las luchas de los afroamericanos, Odetta asumió esta música como suya. Su sentimiento al cantar y su manera de tocar la guitarra pronto le ganaron el aclamo del público y la crítica.
- La popularidad de Odetta creció junto con el movimiento por los derechos civiles. Cada vez más comprometida con esta causa, canalizaba su furia contra la injusticia en sus canciones. “Mientras cantaba, era como algo que ardía”, recordó. Durante la Marcha a Washington de 1963, Odetta enardeció a la multitud con su poderosa voz.
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; partial gift of Lynda Lanker and a museum purchase made possible with generous support from Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker, Agnes Gund, Kate Kelly and George Schweitzer, Lyndon J. Barrois Sr. and Janine Sherman Barrois, and Mark and Cindy Aron
- 1988
- Object number
- NPG.2021.128
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Copyright
- © Brian Lanker Archive
- Type
- Photograph
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 71 × 71.4 cm (27 15/16 × 28 1/8")
- Sheet/Mount: 81 × 75.3 cm (31 7/8 × 29 5/8")
- Mat: 88.1 × 86.8 cm (34 11/16 × 34 3/16")
- Frame: 92.7 × 91.4 × 4.4 cm (36 1/2 × 36 × 1 3/4")
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Location
- Currently not on view
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Costume\Jewelry\Necklace
- Interior
- Architecture\Arch
- Odetta: Female
- Odetta: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Music\Musician\Composer
- Odetta: Social Welfare and Reform\Reformer\Social reformer\Civil rights activist
- Odetta: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Film\Movie actor
- Odetta: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Music\Musician\Guitarist
- Odetta: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Music\Musician\Singer\Folk singer
- Odetta: Performing arts awards\Grammy
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.2021.128
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm47fcaa2da-e4d6-45ec-b978-24138cfc2c7b
