Art For Fund Raising Program Blog

Art to Support Women and Children in Crisis

(words surrounding print)

Oprah We Love You. That’s the honest truth. 

After all these years of watching you

We don’t know what to do. 

It’s hard to believe that you really will go.

First we’ll rush home to catch the show

Only to realize you have gone. 

Then we’ll just wonder

What to do without you?

Good luck on your OWN.

The Oprah Winfrey Network sounds great. 

But just so you know, before you go,

No one will ever take your place. 

You are a very special case.

© Faith Ringgold 11/16/2010

OPRAH WE LOVE YOU by Faith Ringgold

Yesterday (May12, 2011) I received two awards in one day from Women’s Organizations, which inspired in me a new commitment to support Women and Children in Crisis.

My first award was at breakfast with the New York Women's Foundation:  Celebrating Women 2011 at the Hilton in New York City. The second award was at dinner with Womanspace 17th Annual Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award: Celebrating Women Who Inspire Us to Greatness at The Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village in Princeton, N.J.

I had just received the OPRAH WE LOVE YOU silkscreen prints, edition of 25, from Curlee Holton and four of his students who printed them at EPI (Experimental Print Workshop) at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. The students (Evan McGovern, Annis Zheng, Sarah Strong and Lauren Vassalo) had the assignment to produce the prints as a term project. 

Grace Matthews and I (Faith Ringgold) created the original imagery for the print from a Kuba design adapted from the art of the Kuba People of the Belgian Congo. This design, as does much of African Art, lends itself to collaborative art making. Together we have used the Kuba design (8 triangles in a square) in quilt workshops around the country and in Canada with as many as 24 people collaboratively participating in the Quilt. 

I was inspired to create OPRAH WE LOVE YOU for a tribute book to Oprah Winfrey by Janelle Dowell at www.BlackArtInAmerica.com.  Now that I have prints of the original design, what better way to give tribute to Oprah than to donate them to Women's Organizations in support of Women and Children in Crisis?

The OPRAH WE LOVE YOU prints will be available at the Anyone Can Fly Foundation’s 12th Annual Garden Party on June 12^th.  See www.anyonecanfly.org www.anyonecanfly.org for more information.

To request the donation of a print for your organization your organization must have 501c3 status and support women and children in crisis. Complete an order form from the tab above. 

- Faith Ringgold