Background Information
Though many recognize Faith Ringgold as a renowned artist whose audience is primarily adult, generally, children recognize her as the author of beautifully illustrated stories which they have heard or read. Her "story quilts" which combine painting, quilted fabric, and story telling have brought her international fame. She is also known for her fight to eliminate discrimination against women artist. She led others in putting pressure on museums to include women artists, especially African Americans, in their collections, and through these efforts she was able to help all women artists.
Born and raised in Harlem, Ringgold experienced racism and sexism first hand, during her youth and as she developed as an artist. She graduated with a Masters from New York's City College in 1959. In her "French Collection," "Dancing at the Louvre," and "American Collection," her story quilts depict the life of Willia Marie Simone, a black female artist living in Paris, struggling for her place in the community. The quilt traces her, life up to the "American Collection" which focuses on her daughter. Simone is clearly based on Ringgold.
Appropriate Texts and Related Activities
Her quilts along with her other art work will form a part of this unit. If the teacher does not have any collections of Ringgold's work, there are a number of sites on the web containing pictures and information. (See bibliography.) I particularly will use the "Crown Heights Children's Story Quilt" which depicts various folktales. This piece will relate well to the folktale collections of Virginia Hamilton. Children will be asked to make a quilt related to the family story they have collected while reading The People Could Fly or to show events in their own family history.
Tar Beach, both the book and the art work, will be used to show the beauty of the paintings and the relevance of eight year old Cassie's imaginary flight from the roof of the Harlem tenement where she and her family go to escape the hot summer heat. Her dream of freedom has been answered as she glides over the city of New York where she claims various sights, including the union building which her father helped to build. The fact that he is now out of work, because he lacks a union card, will motivate a discussion on the existence of prejudice and discrimination in job hiring. This relates neatly to the discrimination Ringgold encountered as a black, female artist.
____
Cassie flies again, this time with her brother Be Be, in Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky. While gliding amongst the stars, they encounter a dilapidated old train which Be Be boards along with hundreds of other silent people. It is going North and the conductor is Harriet Tubman. While the train moves ahead, Aunt Harriet directs Cassie along the route taken by African Americans during the time of slavery. Cassie's experience brings her a vivid understanding of the horrors these individuals had to endure as well as showing her the kind and gentle ways in which others made their passage possible. At the end, Cassie and Be Be are reunited, both having gained a new understanding of their great-great grandparents' survival. Throughout the story brilliantly colored illustrations accompany the text helping it to come alive. These alone recommend the book. Besides the many historical facts and significance of the Underground Railroad which students will discuss and research, the caring relationship between Cassie and Be Be will be explored. A brief section on Harriet Tubman's life and a map showing the route of the Underground Railroad is included at the end.
Based on her quilt story "Dinner Quilt," in Dinner at Aunt Connie's House Ringgold takes us on another fanciful historical adventure in which cousins, Melody and Lonnie, meet and converse with twelve African American women who come to life from the portraits their cousin Aunt Connie has painted. Each woman relates a small bit of biographical information, enough to motivate students to discover more. The women we meet are Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Mary McCleod Bethune, Augusta Savage, Dorothy Dandridge, Zora Neale Hurston, Maria W. Stewart, Bessie Smith, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Marian Anderson, and Madame C. J. Walker. I will have students examine pictures noting differences between the story and the "Dinner Quilt." The importance of the annual family dinner and art show will be discussed and contrasted and compared to the students' own experiences and those we have read about.