Folklife Tradition Bearer's Twisted Wire Sculptor

 

Dispatch

-Black History Northeast Louisiana Delta African American Heritage Museum President Joyce & Twisted Wire Sculptor Mr. Elvin L. Shields Jr.

At the Northeast Louisiana Delta African American Heritage Museum, Mr. Elvin L. Shields Jr. displayed two of his artworks entitled "An 18th Century Slave Loggers Camp and Exodus" depicting the African American experience on Cane River cotton plantations in Natchitoches Parish on Saturday February 26, 2022 a in Monroe LA. He spoke on his experiences as a child of sharecroppers and as a twisted wire toy maker from 1953-1964. He started making toys at the age of 5. He discussed his two books entitled "Plantation Toys and Our Journey, co-authored w/ wife Betty R. Shields" detailing life of African American sharecroppers in Jim Crow Louisiana. Mr. Shields was born on Melrose Plantation in 1948 and raised on Oakland Plantation from 1954 to1963. He graduated from high school in 1967 and served four years in the U.S. Army. He completed his education at the University of Houston majoring in Mechanical Engineering Technology in 1978 and began a 32 year career as a mechanical engineer performing design and construction administration. After retiring in 2011, he returned to Natchitoches and became a volunteer with the U. S. Park Service at Oakland Plantation where he teaches young people the art of twisted wire toy making and speaks to park visitors about growing up as a child of sharecroppers. In 2012 he furnished his 1860 childhood slave cabin as a Sharecropper's Museum, the first and only example in the U.S. Park Service.

Dispatch

Black History - Northeast Louisiana Delta African American Heritage Museum Executive Director & Board of Directors Ross Slacks, Judge Ben &Sue Jones, Presenter Elvin L. Shields Jr., Dr. Leonard Clark and Museum President Joyce Powell

 

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