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Faith Ringgold Research Paper

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Numerous prominent Civil Rights Activists have been born in the Month of February, and many meaningful demonstrations took place during february during the civil rights movement. Because of these reasons, this month has been dedicated to acknowledging Black history. One significant African American Activist and Feminist is Faith Ringgold. Faith Ringgold was born in Harlem, New york city, New York, on october eighth, 1930, and has a powerful story of her upbringing the provides her arts and crafts with inspiration, and pride of her identity.
Faith’s mother was a fashion designer, and taught Faith how to quilt, a craft that has been in her family more than a hundred years. At the time Women-especially african american women-were seen as incapable …show more content…
Being a teacher Faith knew the importance of learning and soon she herself learned the true power of being informed. From then on Faith’s philosophy became “the more you look, the more you realize” and “you have to start making people look” she abandoned traditional painting as well as her job teaching to focus on art, her roots, and instilling her vision: Change. She started making acrylic paintings on canvas with lavish fabric borders, resembling Tibetan thangkas. Ringgold also began working with her mother, Willi Posey, to fashion and design elaborate hooded masks made of fabric, beads, and raffia, which were inspired by African tribal costume. She also crafted fabric “dolls” and larger stuffed figures, often depicting real individuals. Ringgold then began to combine her works into multimedia Performance pieces her first: “Wake and Resurrection of the Bicentennial Negro”, was first performed in 1976 by students utilizing her masks, life-size figures, and thangkas, as well as using her voice, music, and dance. In ''76 and ''77 Faith Traveled to west africa devoting her time and life work to the use of craft techniques-ignoring the traditional distinction between fine art and craft-and demonstrating the importance of family, roots, and artistic collaboration. Ringgold expanded the format of her thangka paintings to quilt size. Her mother pieced and quilted: Echoes of Harlem (1980), the first of these new works, before she (Willi) dyed in 1981. It was in 1983 that she finally combined image and handwritten text in her painted “story quilts”-the staple of her artistry-which convey imaginative, open-ended narratives; for example in the first, Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima? (1983), the familiar (racially insensitive and stereotypical) advertising character is turned into a

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