Calvin Alexander Ramsey Bio
Playwright, Book Author, Photographer
Seeing In Tempo,
intriguing perspectives of landscape by playwright, book author, and
photographer Calvin Ramsey will be exhibited in his first U. S.
showing with the June Kelly Gallery, 166 Mercer Street.
Opening on Thursday, July 1, the work will remain on view through
July 30, 2021.
Ramsey says photography
forces him to see and endow ordinary things with a rhythm, tempo,
and purpose. This body of landscape photos shot from the
windows of trains moving across the country and Ramsey’s sojourns
walking in wanderlust on New York’s Upper East Side coerce one to
look at landscapes in a unique way…echoing passage of time. In
2004 while traveling from Atlanta to Valdez, Alaska, through the
camera’s eye, Ramsey conceived of landscape not unlike independent
film stills intuitively captured while speedily passing. The
intermedia of non-representational language with visual elements
fascinates as visual poetry.
Here, each of Ramsey’s
photographs is as a time capsule with viewer mesmerized by image and
tempo of the train wheels revolution or urban pattern repetition.
Ramsey’s images whether patterns of nature or man convey an
impressive sense of fleetingness as in essence of time.
Ramsey’s images are not merely digital color photographs but
triggers of psyche recognitions. Tempo abides the viewer in the
visual sweep of each image as stimuli probing consciousness in which
liaison form with remembrance or foretelling.
Ramsey is known more as a
playwright and book author, having written and produced the musical
Bricktop and Ruth and The Green Book, the picture book
inspiration for the Academy Award-winning film, The Green Book.
In 2004 along his creative path traveling from Atlanta to Valdez,
Alaska for the Edward Albee Theater Conference (The Last Frontier
Theater Conference) the concept for this body of landscape images
was realized.
“To see with my own
rhythm, tempo and purpose is the firm ground that holds me. My
'dream voice' becomes louder and more visible the more I create
through my plays, books, and photography. We all have this
living creative muscle within us."
Ramsey was born in
Baltimore, Maryland and grew up in Roxboro, North Carolina.
Having lived in Atlanta, Georgia, Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, Santa Monica, California, Oaks
Bluff, Massachusetts, Saint Croix, and Saint John U.S. Virgin
Islands, he now divides his time between New York City and Sarasota,
Florida. Ramsey studied at UCLA.
Ramsey’s photographs have
been exhibited in the U.S. Virgin Islands and are included in
private collections in the United States. Throughout the
varied sequences in his career, Ramsey received the Jane Adams award
for Ruth, The Green Book, and Belle, The Last Mule at Gees
Bend, the Bank Street College Best Book award, Texas Blue Bonnet
Award, Forward Magazine Best Book award, ALA Notable Book award, and
the Star Review School Library Journal Award. Ramsey was a
recipient of the distinguished Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum
Major for Justice Award. Ramsey is a member of the National
Arts Club, New York, Sons of The American Revolution, and a former
Trustee at the Bronx Museum of Art, New York.
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Born in Baltimore, Maryland
Lives and works in New York and Sarasota, Florida |
Education |
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Studied at UCLA
Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop |
Exhibitions |
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Seeing In Tempo: Photography, June Kelly Gallery, New York
St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Island
St. John, U.S. Virgin Island |
Author |
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Authored 12 plays and 2 children’s
books |
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2013 |
Public radio show “Travel with
Rick Steves” interview about the “Green
Book,”airing over 170 stations across the USA |
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2010 |
“Ruth and The Green Book,” the
picture book inspiration for the Academy
Award-winning film, “The Green Book.” |
Productions |
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2007 |
Musical “Bricktop,” a
cabaret-style look at the life of Ada “Bricktop”
Smith, self-described performer and saloonkeeper who owned the
nightclub Chez Bricktop in Paris from 1924 to 1961, Lorraine Hansberry
Theater, San Francisco, CA |
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2006 |
Musical, “Bricktop” opened
Southwest Arts Center, Atlanta, GA; had a
nine-week run at Metro Stage, Washington, D.C.
“Canada Lee” chosen for a Play Lab at the Edward Albee Great Plains
Theater Conference, Omaha, Nebraska |
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2005 |
“Canada Lee,” Ramsey’s exploration
of complex career of African
American actor and civil rights activist, read at National Black Theater
Festival, Winston- Salem, NC
“The Green Book,” a two-act play about difficulties African Americans
faced traveling during the Jim Crow era, World Premier, Atlanta, GA.
Read at Yale University and LaMaMa, Manhattan East Village
“Shermantown, Baseball, Apple Pie, and the Klan,” Stone Mountain, GA.
venue |
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2004 |
Finalist, 12th Annual Last
Frontier Theater Conference, Valdez, Alaska,
critiqued by playwrights, actors, and directors, including Edward Albee,
Tony Kushner, Lloyd Richards, Courtney Vance, and Patricia Neal |
Awards |
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Jane Adams Award for “Ruth, The
Green Book,” and “Belle, The Last Mule at Gees
Bend”
Bank Street College Best Book
Star Review School Library Journal
Texas Blue Bonnet
Forward Magazine Best Book
ALA Notable Book
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major for Justice |
Membership |
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Georgia Council for the Arts
Theater Panel
Advisory Board of Emory University’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Collections
Woodruff Library, Atlanta, GA
National Arts Club, New York
Sons of the American Revolution, Louisville, KY
Former Bronx Museum of the Arts Trustee, NY |
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