Story behind the Story: Kadir Nelson’s We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.

Chipman, Ian (author).

The Shoulders of Giants

While a student at the Pratt Institute, Nelson was asked to do a painting about the Negro Leagues. “Nothing specific,” he remembers, “and having known nothing about it, I began to do a bit of research.” About that same time Ken Burns’ documentary Baseball was airing on PBS. “I became an instant baseball addict,” he says, “and particularly Negro League baseball.” Admittedly not the most zealous fan growing up, Nelson did play Little League and pickup games. But memory is a powerful thing, and the documentary rekindled in him a deep nostalgia for the game. “I don’t think it ever really leaves you.”

Nelson would spend nearly eight years researching, writing, and creating the artwork for We Are the Ship. Particularly challenging was the matter of how to re-create the player portraits. To this end he pored over the work of Charles M. Conlon—“his photographs were just so epic, and I wanted to present the history of the Negro Leagues in an epic way”—and Phil Dixon’s The Negro Baseball Leagues (1992). History can only take you so far, though, so he used the most readily available model: himself. Decked out in period suits and authentic replica jerseys, Nelson photographed himself in different poses for each portrait. Holding a bat on his shoulder and supplanting his own face with the scowling visage of Jackie Robinson leads to one of the most striking paintings in the book—but make sure not to miss the full team of little Kadir Nelsons playing warm-up catch in the background, each with the same delicate attention to detail.

Talking about the indomitable spirit of the Negro Leagues, Nelson becomes especially passionate. “You have these players who were not offered the chance to play on the largest stage in baseball, but rather than quit they decided to create their own stage. I think it’s a great lesson for people, particularly children, to learn that if you’re not offered a way, sometimes you can make your own way, make something beautiful out of something that wasn’t.” This sentiment may be at odds with the current state of the game, but rather than decry the bloated contracts and spoiled players complaining about lack of respect, he cuts to an important distinction: “There’s just more of a wall between the athletes and the general public now. But you still have to be able to hit the ball, or throw it by me.”

“I would have loved to have seen ‘Cool Papa’ Bell, to see how fast he really was. And of course watch Satchel Paige walk to the mound or Josh Gibson take a swing,” Nelson says enthusiastically. Although all of that is unfortunately lost to time, his work on the book did bring him in close proximity with the baseball community. He has met Hank Aaron, Rachel and Sharon Robinson, and Buck O’Neil. After showcasing his work at an event at PETCO Park, home of the San Diego Padres, Nelson was approached by a member of the organization. “I didn’t have any idea that the owner of the Padres was a big Negro League fan,” but when John Moores caught sight of Nelson’s work, he became an instant collector. “It was all a bit serendipitous, a matter of me being in the right place at the right time.” Though that may be true, it’s no more serendipitous than a great slugger “happening” to pull a fastball into the bleachers. Talent and perseverance reward themselves, whether in baseball or in art.