Acclaimed artist and Caldecott-winning picture book creator Faith Ringgold shares an inspiring look at America's lineage in this stunning ode to our country--past, present, and future. America is a land of diversity. Whether driven by dreams and hope, or escaping poverty or persecution, our ancestors--and the faces of America today--represent people from every reach of the globe. And each person brought with them a unique gift--of art and music; of determination and grit; of ideas and strength--that forever shaped the country we all call home. Vividly evoked in Faith Ringgold's sumptuous colors and patterns, WE CAME TO AMERICA is an ode to every American who came before us, and a tribute to the children who will carry its message into our future.

Faith Ringgold (born 1930) is famed today as the progenitor of the African-American story-quilt revival of the late 1970s, but her story begins much earlier, with her American People Series of 1963. These once influential paintings, and the many political posters and murals she created throughout the 1960s, have largely disappeared from view, being routinely omitted from art historical discourse over the past 40 years. American People, Black Light is the first examination of Ringgold's earliest radical and pioneering explorations of race, gender and class. Undertaken to address the social upheavals of the 1960s, these are the works through which Ringgold found her political voice. American People, Black Light offers not only clear insight into a critical moment in American history, but also a clear account of what it meant to be an African American woman making her way as an artist at that time.

The story of Faith Ringgold--activist, author, academician--is an uplifting look at a progressive artist who overcame discrimination and triumphed as a giant figure in American art, notable as an accomplished painter, a sculptor, a printmaker, and an art quilter. She has never abandoned her goal of searching for human dignity and empowerment for fellow African Americans while tirelessly fighting against discrimination. Faith Ringgold is a captivating look at the personal and professional life of one of the country's most notable female artists. Selected works from several of her famous series are presented, including The Flag Is Bleeding, Help: the Slave Rape Series #11, The Purple Dolt Series, Mother's Quilt, and We Came to America. Lisa E. Farrington is a faculty member at Parsons School of Design in New York City, where she teaches art and race and gender issues. A former Mellon Foundation fellow and recipient of numerous academic awards and honors, she is the author of Creaing Their Own Image; African-American Women Artists (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Art on Fire; The Politics of Race and Sex in the Paintings of Faith Ringgold (Millennium, 1999).

CORETTA SCOTT KING AWARD WINNER • CALDECOTT HONOR BOOK • A NEW YORK TIMES BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK Acclaimed artist Faith Ringgold seamless weaves fiction, autobiography, and African American history into a magical story that resonates with the universal wish for freedom, and will be cherished for generations. Cassie Louise Lightfoot has a dream: to be free to go wherever she wants for the rest of her life. One night, up on “tar beach,” the rooftop of her family’s Harlem apartment building, her dreams come true. The stars lift her up, and she flies over the city, claiming the buildings and the city as her own. As Cassie learns, anyone can fly. “All you need is somewhere to go you can’t get to any other way. The next thing you know, you’re flying among the stars.”

This book includes some 200 complete entries from the award-winning Dictionary of Women Artists, as well as a selection of introductory essays from the main volume.

A strong collection of essays in a field hungry for texts Provides theoretical basis for a developing subject International - authors from US, Ghana, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria Deals with important current issues - AIDS in Africa and the US; reproductive rights; the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas controversy Four colour cover