Rumors of Scipio Moorhead -- ep. by Howard Rambsy II

A brief take on Phillis Wheatley’s tribute to Scipio Moorhead, interpreting surviving poem and portrait as fragmentary “rumors” of early Black artistic collaboration in eighteenth-century America.

 Written by Howard Rambsy II
Read by Kassandra Timm 

Transcript

In 1773, an enslaved Black poet in Boston wrote a poem dedicated to the Black painter, also enslaved, who had drawn her portrait, offering a rare glimpse into an early moment of Black artistic collaboration in America.

You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions — a podcast about African American artistic production, the circulation of ideas, and more.

Phillis Wheatley’s 1773 poetry collection Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral includes the poem “To S. M. A Young African Painter, On Seeing His Works.” The “S. M.” refers to Scipio Moorhead. The frontispiece for Wheatley’s volume is based on a print derived from a drawing attributed to Moorhead. That image is the only surviving visual evidence of Moorhead’s artwork.

Wheatley’s poem dedicated to Moorhead is regularly described as one of the earliest known poems by an African American addressed to an African-descended visual artist.

So many artistic contributions by African Americans from the eighteenth century have been lost to history that we must necessarily refer to Wheatley’s poem as one of the first known or only surviving tributes. But it is not difficult to imagine other Black people, even those preceding Wheatley, who wrote about, painted, sculpted, and sang about the beauty and wonders of Black creative production.

We might celebrate Wheatley’s tribute to Moorhead while at the same time expressing regret that we do not have more information about the painter. The only surviving evidence of Moorhead’s artwork is the frontispiece portrait of Wheatley appearing in Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773). That image, produced in London, is thought to be based on a drawing attributed to Moorhead.

In 2002, Howard Rambsy spoke with poet and cultural critic Amiri Baraka about his experiences listening to recordings of jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler. Baraka told him that what he was hearing were “ruins” or “rumors” of Ayler’s real sound.

“What you heard were rumors. Rumors of what Albert sounded like live,” Baraka said. “The recordings couldn’t capture his sound, his actual sound. So what you heard were ruins of his real sound.”

Following Baraka, we might think of Wheatley’s poem and the frontispiece for her book as pleasant and invaluable rumors of what Scipio Moorhead’s artwork really looked like. Even in their fragmentary form, these surviving traces constitute a remarkable reception of early Black artistic production.

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This episode was written by Howard Rambsy, edited by Elizabeth Cali, and read by me, Kassandra Timm.

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