We Flew Over the Bridge

Faith Ringgold was born in Harlem in 1930. She began painting more than forty years ago, and has exhibited in museums in the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. In addition to Tar Beach, the children’s books she has written and illustrated include Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky, If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks, and My Dream of Martin Luther King. Ringgold has received more than seventy-five awards, fellowships, citations, and honors, including seventeen honorary doctorates. She lives in Englewood, New Jersey.

“Bridging is the major motif of Ringgold’s life. . . . She is a bridge between the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights era. She is a bridge between her mother’s applied art of fashion design and her own fine art of painting and story quilts. She is a bridge between the black power movement and the women’s movement. And she is a bridge between the abstract art that dominated the ‘60s and the issue-oriented art that connected with viewers’ hearts-and lives.”-Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer “Faith Ringgold has already won my heart as an artist, as a woman, as an African American, and now with her entry into the world of autobiography (where I dwell), she has taken my heart again. She writes so beautifully.”-Maya Angelou “Faith Ringgold has created a rich and highly informative work not only of her own life as an American in general but as an African American in particular. These memoirs are a part of American history-of what it means to be an artist, a writer, and a philosopher in our society.”-Jacob Lawrence “Faith Ringgold’s exuberant and original art has made her one of America’s more important artists and a feminist heroine. Now her wonderfully honest memoirs will resonate with all political and creative women who are still fighting the battles Ringgold has won.”-Lucy Lippard, author of The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Essays on Feminist Art “In words that are as direct, honest, full of color and life as her paintings, Ringgold gives each reader the greatest gift of all-courage to be one’s own unique and universal self.”-Gloria Steinem “The story of Ringgold’s triumph-achieved through sheer determination, savvy, and self-conviction-is both accessible and inspiring.”-Lowery Stokes Sims, executive director, the Studio Museum in Harlem “Ringgold provides juicy autobiographical stories, supplemented with personal photographs as well as ample illustrations and descriptions of her work. It is a memoir every artist should read. . . . The book is informative, forthright, and fun, and is a great teaching tool for both emerging and established artists.” - Joyce Owens Anderson (Journal of African American History)

• Preface xiAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I: Harlem Born and Bred1. From the Cradle to the Classroom in the 1930s  32. Growing Up on Sugar Hill in the 1940s  25Part II: Men, Marriage, and Motherhood3. Men and Marriage in the 1950s and 1960s  394. My Mother Was Perfect, or So She Said  675. Parental Politics: My Daughters and Me  81Color Plates  97Part III: Making Art, Making Waves, and Making Money6. A European Trip Ends with a Death in the Family  1317. The 1960s: Is There a Black Art?  1438. The End of the 1960s: Out of the Studio and into the Streets  1659. The 1970s: Is There a Women's Art?  17310. Teaching Art: Those Who Can Should  21711. We Flew over the Bridge: Performance Art, Story Quilts, and Tar Beach  237Appendix: Matisse's Chapel  273Faith Ringgold Chronology  275Public and Private Collections  283Index  285