The Filmmakers
Above: Calvin Alexander Ramsey and his award-winning children’s book (Photo by Roy Speller Sr.)
CALVIN ALEXANDER RAMSEY Co-Producer
… acted on his life-long dream to become a writer in 2001 when he was laid over in Boston’s Logan Airport, several days before the 9/11 bombings. Having a revelation that “dreams are really desires” and time was short to accomplish his dreams, the world changed a few days later and so did Calvin. That moment launched him into researching his first play and becoming the writer he’d always wanted to be.
Born in Baltimore MD where his father worked in the steel mills, Calvin’s family moved when he was young to Roxboro, North Carolina in a kind of “reverse migration.” As an adult, Calvin took tentative steps along the writer’s road before 9/11, soaking up experiences and stories while living in Martha’s Vineyard MA, New York City, Santa Monica CA, and St. Croix, Virgin Islands. He attended writing workshops during his travels and took writing classes at UCLA.
Settling down in Atlanta in 1988, his career in insurance sales led to serving on the Advisory Board of Special Collections at Emory University’s Woodruff Library for five years, a virtual writer’s playground of inspiration, even if he wasn’t yet ready to define himself as a writer until the turning point in 2001.
Ramsey’s creative journey with the Green Book began in June 2004 when he completed a fictional stage play by the same name that became a finalist in the 12th Annual Last Frontier Theater Conference in Valdez, Alaska where it was critiqued by theatrical luminaries including Edward Albee and Patricia Neal. Readings of the play were presented at La MaMa E.T.C. in New York, directed by George Ferencz, as well as Baltimore Hebrew University, co-sponsored by the Baltimore Chapter of the NAACP, the Baltimore Jewish Council and the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Civil Rights leader, Julian Bond, was cast in a cameo role as Victor Green when the play moved on to a reading at the restored Lincoln Theater in Washington, DC. “The Green Book” premiered to sellout audiences as a fully staged production in 2011 at Atlanta’s Theatrical Outfit (www.theatricaloutfit.org). To date, Calvin has also written more than a dozen other plays, ranging in subject matter from Parisian nightclub owner, Bricktop, to one of Georgia’s favorite sons, Johnny Mercer, to the stark realities of Ku Klux Klan rallies in Stone Mountain GA to 1930’s American actor and early civil rights activist, Canada Lee, with others currently in development.
Translating challenging material for a younger audience, in 2010 Ramsey wrote his award-winning children’s book, “Ruth and the Green Book”, with Gwen Strauss and illustrations by Floyd Cooper, and has been regularly invited to give readings at museums, libraries, and events ever since. Then in 2012 and supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Jon Ludwig, Artistic Director of Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts, collaborated with Calvin to turn the children’s book into a theatrical production, combining live actors, puppets, and animated projections, along with original music by S. Renee Clark and a video-taped afterword by Georgia’s Congressman John Lewis (www.puppet.org/perform/ruthgreenbook.shtml). In 2011, Calvin wrote a second children’s book, “Belle, The Last Mule at Gee’s Bend: A Civil Rights Story” about the humble mule who pulled the wagon for Dr. Martin Luther King’s funeral. Ramsey served for three years on the Georgia Council for the Arts Theater Panel and is a recipient of both the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major for Justice Award and the BLACK MEETINGS AND TOURISM MAGAZINE APEX Award for Distinguished Service.
Above: “Ruth and the Green Book” at the Center for Puppetry Arts, Atlanta GA featuring live performances with visible puppeteers as well as animated projections (2012) / Adapted from Calvin’s children’s book by Artistic Director Jon Ludwig (Photo by Clay Walker)
BECKY WIBLE SEARLES Director / Co-Producer
… grew up in northern Ohio, hearing that family ancestors from the 1800’s had owned a stop on the Underground Railroad in Painesville OH near Lake Erie, Rider’s Inn (see below), sparking a life-long interest in Civil Rights stories. She owned her own production company in New York City for 14 years, One Eighty One Productions, specializing in clay, stop motion, and mixed-media animation, often combining it with live action for clients such as Nickelodeon, National Geographic, AT&T, Showtime, and Kool-Aid and can be seen on camera in two episodes of the PBS series “Reading Rainbow”.
As a mixed-media artist, Becky’s work has been shown in galleries, including the Whitney Museum in New York City (2017), and she often collaborates with her husband, Jimmy E. Searles, recently forming Piktoglyph LLC for a variety of art, film, and writing projects. GSUTV in partnership with Georgia Public Broadcasting / PBS and coordinated by Robert Judson, featured her in their half hour “Indie Filmmakers” series focusing on Becky’s background as a mixed-media artist / filmmaker and her collaboration with Calvin Alexander Ramsey to develop THE GREEN BOOK CHRONICLES / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuaw3kfYzIw
For nearly four decades, Becky has taught animation and related arts in a variety of settings for all ages and experience levels, including higher education, public schools, community events, and senior citizens centers, serving as a faculty member of the School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute, the New School, and Marymount College, NYC as well as the Art Center Design College, Tucson AZ/Albuquerque NM (now known as Southwest University for the Arts) and visiting artist for “Young Audiences” NYC. She was a professor of animation at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), first for 7 years in Savannah and then for a decade on the Atlanta campus through spring 2019, frequently in the role of graduate mentor and leading student short film collaborations that have screened at festivals including the London Experimental Film Festival, Athens ANIMFest (Greece), and World Animation Celebration (LA).
Becky had never heard of a Green Book until 2012 when she saw “Ruth and the Green Book” at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, met Calvin, and invited him to come speak to students at SCAD about being an author and playwright. Eventually Calvin asked Becky, “Any interest in making a short documentary together interviewing people I know who have used the Green Book?” and she happily answered, “Sure, as long as we can include some animation!”
THE CREW, CAST, and CONTRIBUTORS
THE GREEN BOOK CHRONICLES team has been very fortunate to work with a diverse production crew, initially in 2012 as a short film collaboration with over 30 students and professors from the Animation, TV Producing/ Film/Video, Motion Media, and Illustration departments at Savannah College of Art and Design’s Atlanta campus. In 2014 we expanded the project to a one hour production, transitioning to local professional crews in Atlanta (some of whom had previously been on the student crew), New York City, Myrtle Beach SC, and Birmingham AL. We are very grateful for everyone’s contributions, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes to help bring these Green Book stories to the screen! (Partial crew photos below followed by a full credit/crew list in process).
FULL FILM CREDITS LIST (in progress as of January 2020):
This film would not be possible without the generosity of our interview cast who shared their stories with us:
Gordon Brown
Patricia Burgess
Mike Chestnut (Myrtle Beach City Council)
Keith Cromwell (Red Mountain Theatre)
Leah Dickerman (Museum of Modern Art)
Howard Glener
Curtis Graves
Brian Green
Ramona Green
Shirley Henderson (Coleman)
Gloria Herbert (Black Meetings and Tourism Magazine)
Solomon Herbert (Black Meetings and Tourism Magazine)
Phillis Holliday
Wellington Cox Howard III
Gary Kirksey
Congressman John Lewis
Maira Liriano (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture)
John Maloney
Herbert Riley
Winter Shepherd (Red Mountain Theatre)
Anthony Smith
Marie Sutton
Candacy Taylor
Dino Thompson
Dr. Joyce Verrett
Wilbert Verrett
Dr. Albert Volmer
Bishop Calvin Wallace Woods
Charles Woods III (Birmingham Civil Rights Institute)
Paula Wynter
Charles Yarbrough
Director: Becky Wible Searles
Co-Producers: Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Becky Wible Searles
Assistant Producer / Research / Photography: Jimmy E. Searles
Funding Support in part from:
- The Len Ragozin Foundation / Mary Lonergan
- UAW Region 8 / Raymond Curry
- Associate Producers: Dr. Michael R. Ragan and Dr. Deborah V. Payton George
- Curtis Graves and Kay Bryant
Editors: Kelly Rose Magnusson and Zach White
Cinematographer / Audio (NYC, Newark, Washington DC): Rob Niosi
Cinematographer / Audio (Myrtle Beach): Jay Burgess
Cinematographer / Audio (Birmingham): Drew Francis
Production Assistant (NYC): TJ Jones
Production Photographer (ATL): Marty McPherson
“Mapping Jim Crow” Direction, Design, and Animation: Kelly Turner
“Mapping Jim Crow” Score: Hank Roberts and Tenzin / Lyra Music
Trailer Audio Sweetening: Beau Jimenez
Trailer Colorist: John Peterson
SCAD Atlanta Student Teams:
TV Producing / Interviews (ATL)
- Video Camera / Audio Engineer: David Howell
- Research, Logging, and Preview Video Development: Bernard Jackson
- Additional Research, Logging, and Video Shoot/Audio Assistance: Eolyn Arnold, Morgan Dixon, Layla Harleston, Chris Johnson, Kelly Rose Magnusson, Alejandra Morales, Ben Tincher, and Lance White
Supervised by Professor James Arnold
Animation / Illustration
- “New York Postcard”: Ammar Nassri and Zhou Quan
- “Florida Postcard”: Seungbin Ahn
- “ESSO” and “Crosby’s Motel”: Kodi Bobo
Motion Media
- Preview Video Edits: Reggie Harrison, Evleen Huang, Injae Lee, Britt Lyle II, and Sarah Shipman
Supervised by Professor Alessandro Imperato
Illustration
- “Billie Holiday” Mariel Cartin
- “Muddy Waters” Rick Lovell
- “Ella Fitzgerald” June Brigman
- “John Coltrane” Ju Wang
- “The Green Book Chronicles” Yohey Horshita
- “Duke Ellington” Rick Lovell
Supervised by Professor Rick Lovell and Professor Mike Lowery
SPECIAL THANKS to the following for their support and permission to shoot on location:
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NYC / Jacob Lawrence “Migration Series”
- Leah Dickerman, The Marlene Hess Curator of Painting and Sculpture
- Margaret Doyle, Director of Communications
- Meg Montgoris, Publicist
- Stephanie Katsias, Communications Intern
- Janelle Grace, Publicity Coordinator
SCHOMBURG CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN BLACK CULTURE, NYC
- Maira Liriano, Associate Chief Librarian
- Erika Paul, Pre-Professional
- Adenike Olanrewaju, Senior Publicist, The New York Public Library
MINTON’S PLAYLAND / HARLEM JAZZ ENTERPRISES
- Rosa Brito, Manager
- Julia Collins, Vice President
We’d also like to acknowledge invaluable help from the following Research Library Staff:
Randall Burkett – Former Curator of African American Collections, MARBL, Emory University, Atlanta GA
Friedrich Hamer – Curator of Published Materials, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia SC
Eleanor Hunter – Librarian, Auburn Avenue Library of Research on African American Culture and History, Atlanta GA
Karen L. Jefferson – Records Manager, Atlanta University Center, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta GA
Adam Watson – Photographic Archivist, Florida Memory, Division Of Library and Information Services
ADDITIONAL THANKS
Eve M. Kahn, New York Times
Jim Bowhall, Resolution ATL
SCAD Atlanta:
- Tina O’Hailey
- Matthew Maloney
- Carmen Taylor
- Kevin Moss
(Complete Additional Donors List to come)
For more information about this film: greenbookchronicles.com
For related information:
Jacob Lawrence “Migration Series” at the Museum of Modern Art: http://moma.org/onewayticket
The Green Books Collection at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture:
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the-green-book#/?tab=about
The Green Book Chronicles 