My desire is to give visage and voice to my antecedents, the creators of the Black Metropolis, who were compelled and inspired by The Great Migration, yet persevered and sometimes thrived despite The Great Depression and Jim Crow segregation.

Acknowledgements to Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Romare Bearden, Edward Hopper, Langston Hughes, Roy De Carrava, Gordon Parks, and Charles Mingus for their guidance and inspiration.

Special acknowledgement to Dorothy Mallory Jones, poet, novelist, historian, and my mother. Her invitation to collaborate on the book Lissen Here! in 2004, was an early step on the path that has arrived at Bronzeville Etudes & Riffs. some of her words have made the journey, as well.