Perhaps add an opening sentence like: From music and literature to painting and design, African Americans have been expressing their ideas, emotions, and experiences in artistic forms for centuries. The Arts Collection encompasses sheet music, typescripts, correspondence, and young adult fiction books from African American artists. This collection contains items from the Bank of America Black American Music collection, and the Jacqueline Woodson collection. 

 The Bank of America Black American Music Collection contains musical pieces from the 19th and 20th centuries that were created, performed, or published by African Americans in the United States. Including musical talents like Harry Thacker Burleigh, the first prominent African American composer in the United States, and W. C. Handy, who was deemed the “Father of the Blues” for his composition of the first blues song, “Memphis Blues: a Southern Rag,” this collection tells the history of African American music while also reflecting its influence on popular music in the United States.    

 The Arts collection also includes materials from the prestigious children’s and young adult author, Jacqueline Woodson. World-renowned and multi-award-winning, Woodson’s books evince the history and modern life of African Americans in the United States. Her books depict accurate narratives centered around themes of racism, gender, class, equity, and social justice. The Jacqueline Woodson collection includes numerous novels, including several Sunshine State Young Adult Readers Award books, typescripts like her first published children’s novel, Last Summer with Maizon, and other materials related to her professional career as an author.