Maya Angelou … gives voice in this intensely sensuous poem to the powerful spirit of Black women the world over. It is a complex spirit comprised of remorse, pain, ecstasy, triumph – and above all, strength…
Tom Feelings … illuminates Ms. Angelou’s words with eighty-four vibrant sepia-toned portraits of ordinary Black women …
Ms. Angelou and Mr. Feelings, in this seamless collaboration of their immense talents, have composed a paean to today’s Black women for all the world to sing.
(From the book blurb)
The book can be found in the library Special Collections. Please click here for the call number.
About Tom Feelings
If any man should be regarded as the personification of the “black is beautiful” philosophy, that man is Tom Feelings. Feelings spent a lifetime as a painter, sculptor, and book illustrator underscoring this message. From the dawn of the U.S. civil rights era, when he came of age as an artist, Feelings was passionately committed to the mission of encouraging black children to understand their own spiritual and physical beauty. Feelings remained faithful to that mission for more than 40 years. (Read more)
When I am asked what kind of work I do, my answer is that I am a storyteller in picture form, who tries to reflect and interpret the lives and experiences of the people who gave me life. When I am asked who I am, I say I am an African who was born in America. Both answers connect me specifically with my past and present…therefore I bring to my art a quality which is rooted in the culture of Africa…and expanded by the experience of being black in America. (Read more)
Select works by Tom Feelings (artnet)
Other books by Tom Feelings available from the library
The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo (call number)
Daydreamers (call number)
Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book (call number)
About Maya Angelou
An acclaimed American poet, storyteller, activist, and autobiographer, Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri. Angelou has had a broad career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood’s first female black director, but is most famous as a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet. (Read more)
Select books by Maya Angelou available from the library
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (call number)
A Brave and Startling Truth (call number)
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (call number)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (call number)
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