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Richard Overton (1913-2010) was a visual and performing artist whose work elaborated key themes of the Black Arts Movement. The artist was a jazz musician and Ella Fitzgerald’s longtime musical director. Overton also worked at the Milwaukee Public Library. Overton’s long artistic career evidences the roots of the Black Arts Movement in Milwaukee before the 1960s, its persistence into the 21st century, and its national and international connections. This work in particular resonates with Frankie B. Cole’s “Red Tropical Circle” and Gerald Duane Coleman’s “Pride of the Bamboo Forest" which appear alongside it in the exhibit.