Lewis Latimer: Renaissance Man [VHS tape]

Other products by The Lemelson Center for Study of Invention & Innovation

Product Features

• African-American
• Famous Inventor
• The Brewery Troupe

Product Description

Product Description
This is a 30 min. VHS on the inspiring life story of Lewis H. Latimer. Play presented by The Brewery Troupe (puppet group). Recounts the story of Latimer who rose to become a self-educated inventor, poet, artist and activist.

Product Details

• ASIN: B000W1RQ7W
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #87,360 in Everything Else

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars possibly good for Black History Month, February 4, 2008

By	Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Oops! I thought this would be of the high caliber that a recent PBS documentary on Dr. Julian Percy Julian was. It's not: this is a puppet show describing Mr. Latimer's life for an elementary school audience. This would be a nice thing to show for such an audience during Black History Month, however, this was soooo not addressed to my niche.

Many of us may be used to hand puppets surrounded by red curtains, where the audience doesn't see the puppeteer(s). This was different. The people operating the puppets were clearly visible. I found faces that don't move and mouth that only move in the up and down directions to be scary, but little children may love it. Lewis Latimer had a deep chin dimple, but the puppet made of him did not. A human narrator has a HUGE gap in her front teeth.

There has been a lot of activism by biracial individuals and multiracial families in recent years. This work says that Mr. Latimer's parents escaped slavery by his father pretending to be his mother's owner as they traveled north. This production does not say it, but a book I recently found said that Mr. Latimer was probably one-quarter white. This means he has something in common with Malcolm X. Parents of biracial children who are looking for role models may find this work extremely helpful.

I have two major problems with this production. First, the puppet troupe, here and usually, perform as crows. This is just like how crows in "Dumbo" were supposed to be African-American men, symbolically. Some people make the easy equation: "Crows are black and African Americans are black." However, crows are seen as loud, violent, and a pest to hard-working Americans. This is a racist way in which crows and we Blacks are connected. So I was very uncomfortable seeing crows as a supposedly neutral figure here. Second, hindsight is 20-20, but the work ends with an R. Kelly song playing. Because of allegations against the singer, it was troubling to hear his music in production intended for minors.