 So, again, just take a minute to observe the detail before we talk about it. What's going on in this artwork? It's looking kind of a study of Africa. Study of Africa? African culture. Okay, what do you see that makes you say that? Well, the books that I saw that I could see from here are all about Africa. Africa and Asia. So I've looked there on Africa since 1413. Okay. So the book titles are turning into a bit of a clue about the artist's intention or message for the entire work. And something that really pops out to you is Africa. I think Americans, in particular, like the way they voice their language or voice that was used recently, they certainly said the African-American experience also tied to it. So it's an African-American experience, but tied back to Africa, which is appropriate for the American art to see it. Then you have some art that seems out of place, like Christian. Yes. And some of the covers seem more worn than others. Okay. Some of the books maybe are more worn, maybe more well-read than others. Are there any in particular that look more worn? The Du Bois book. Okay. Because the title is wearing off a little bit. She has the N and the A encyclopedias of encyclopedia of knowledge, color, and I don't know what that means. Yeah, it doesn't always give you the title. So there's a repeated theme in the encyclopedias that the volumes on the shelf refer to the N words or the A words. Okay. Well, the N word is right there. Yes. And that is an issue, obviously, if you're using this in schools. And if you want to talk about that, we certainly can. I use it on kind of a case-by-case basis depending on the teacher and the class in school. But this can be kind of a major point in discussion with kids, the language that's used in the text. What more can you find? I think I'm going to debate on the stuff, whether it's really so or if it's not. Yes. Why? Like really? So, okay. So there are these words here that could be read as Saab or could be read as SOB. Again, with prior approval from the teacher, I have taught that acronym to about 308th graders at this point. Doing well. What else do you notice about the words? How are they painted? What are they? Her thoughts. Okay, so where do we recognize that as thoughts from? I guess comic books. Cartoon's comic books. So that's one kind of influence in this artwork. What more can you find? She seems to be looking out somewhere. We see this window here. I don't know if she's looking at someone or out the window. Okay, how can you tell where she's looking? Well, I mean just from the way her face is turned, her eyes are directed someplace other than... Alright, so everything, her face and her eyes are directed up here. And then directed away from the books. I don't think it's her house. Okay, tell me, what do you see that makes you say that? I just look at how she's dressed. She's got on heels, shoes. She might, from where I'm thinking, just be visiting and all of a sudden inspecting somebody else's library. And then she just starts pulling off these books and then she turns and maybe she just has a question. So one reason that she might be thinking... A strong feeling. A strong feeling. Well, we see her thoughts, yes. So she may be listening to someone and thinking. And then she's also sitting on the floor. You're right, she's dressed up, but she's sitting on the floor. I've got those two books on the second shelf. The Slavery of Freedom and Black Women in White America. Almost as questioning of the future of what's been lost. I see bookshelves like this every day at the office because you're always trying to figure out who the occupant is based on what they're reading. But one of the things that connects the books for me is this idea that Africa is interesting and significant as long as it's impacting white people. Africa becomes interesting when we start exporting slaves. Slavery to Freedom is the ownership of African-Americans. It's not interesting in and of itself, but only when it's in relation to the British. Which would make me say Ibersaw of War, I swear. Yes. Now that's interesting. First of all, because by looking at a bookshelf we can tell a lot about the identity of the owner of the bookshelf who has arranged or even curated that collection of books. And also that so many of these are focused on Africa after European contact and the impact on this country. So all of these books, I don't know if you've ever read any of them, but they are all real. So we did end up featuring this in one of our programs I work on with eighth grade students because the teacher, when selecting works with me, came up and said, my parents have the same bookshelf. Not literally the same bookshelf, it's very kind of fragile. You know, maybe it's meaningful that the artist put this one spindly leg out there so that whole history is going to just crash down. But she really related to this and she wanted to use it to kind of bring some ideas together in her classroom. And she was comfortable bringing out some of the more uncomfortable history, which depending on your class and your group and how well you know that we may not be. So this is one of the more challenging works, but the result, the product we got, we had students write about this work were in the end deeply meaningful and they found real relevance to their own histories here. So we found it worth it in that situation.