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Faith Ringgold
Artist, author and illustrator; Professor of Art, University of California, San Diego; founder of the Anyone Can Fly Foundation
Her first political paintings were created during the 1960s, and by the early 1970s, she was making her tankas (inspired by a Tibetan art form of paintings framed in richly brocaded fabrics), soft sculptures, and masks. She used this medium in her masked performances of the 70s and 80s. Ms. Ringgold made the first of her famous quilts, “Echoes of Harlem,” in 1980, in collaboration with her mother, Madame Willi Posey. The first of her story quilts, “Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima,” was written in 1983 as a way of publishing her unedited words. The addition of text to her quilts has developed into her own unique medium. Ms. Ringgold’s first book, Tar Beach, was published in 1991, and has won more than 20 awards, including the Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award. Her second children’s book, Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky, was published in 1992. Her third book, published in 1993, was based on “The Dinner Quilt,” her story quilt of 1986. Her first book for an adult audience, We Flew Over the Bridge: the Memoirs of Faith Ringgold, was published in 2005. Ms. Ringgold has illustrated 14 children’s books, including O Holy Night, The Three Witches (by Zora Neal Hurston), and Bronzeville Boys and Girls (by Gwendolyn Brooks). Ms. Ringgold received her B.S. and M.A. from the City College of New York, and has been awarded with 19 honorary doctorates. She lives and works in Englewood, NJ.
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