About the Author

Peggy Cooper Cafritz is a Washington D.C. based activist, philanthropist, and art collector, and the cofounder of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Thelma Golden is the director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Kerry James Marshall is a Chicago-based artist focusing on the history of black identity. Simone Leigh is a New York based artist and curator exploring black female subjectivity and ethnography. Uri McMillan is a cultural historian and assistant professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. Hank Willis Thomas is a New York based artist and curator exploring identity, history, and popular culture. Jack Shainman is one of New York s top gallerists.

Reviews

"THIS VOLUME IS A REAL TREASURE. Hundreds of contemporary artworks by artists of African descent are illustrated. Peggy Cooper Cafritz (1947-2018), the passionate and inveterate collector, purchased the works over two periods of time. (She lost her first art collection to a house fire in 2009, and soon began assembling another.) The book showcases her art collections and documents her life. She pens an engrossing biographical essay that spans growing up in Mobile, Ala., to her ascension as an influential Washington, D.C., lawyer, arts patron/advocate, and founder the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. In addition, her relationships with key figures are revealed and explored through contributions from artists, gallery owner Jack Shainman, and Studio Museum in Harlem Director Thelma Golden, who conducts an interview with Cafritz for the book. Emerging artists are overwhelmingly represented in Cafritz’s more recent collection, artists such as Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Nina Chanel Abney, Derek Fordjour, Tschabalala Self, Titus Kaphar, and Simone Leigh, who she supported early and are coming into their own today. Cafritz, who died at age 70, two days before the official publication of this book, bequeathed the majority of her vast collection to the Studio Museum (400+ works) and Duke Ellington (250+ works). The gesture will benefit generations to come, as will this volume, which Cafritz titled with her mantra: “Fired Up! Ready to Go!” She’s left an insightful gift of great value to both new collectors and art world insiders, as well as those interested in transformational cultural leaders."
—Culture Type