Join Pat Cummings, Ekua Holmes, and Rich Michelson for a discussion on August 17th, 2021 at 4pm, at the Featherstone Center for the Arts.
Featherstone is located at 30 Featherstone Lane, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557
Illustrators Panels will take place outside the Art Barn (weather permitting, otherwise inside gallery). Panels are free but please register in advance by calling (508)693-1850.
7×14 in
Pat Cummings 1950-
Pat Cummings graduated from Pratt Institute in NYC. She was awarded the Coretta Scott King Medal in 1984, and was twice a Coretta Scott King Honor Awardee. She has also received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Children. She teaches children’s book illustration at Pratt and Parsons, preparing students for a career in children’s books, and likely inspiring more minority illustrators to enter the field than any other illustrator.
See Pat Cummings’ artwork in From Caldecott to Coretta Scott here.
16.5×13.25 in
Ekua Holmes 1955-
Ekua Holmes’ first picture book, Voice of Freedom, Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement garnered a Caldecott Honor, a Robert F. Sibert Honor, and the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe award for New Talent. Holmes’ was awarded the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award in 2018 for Out of Wonder and her second Coretta Scott King Award for her third book, The Stuff of Stars.
See Ekua Holmes’ artwork in From Caldecott to Coretta Scott here.
Curated by Richard Michelson
Richard Michelson, poet and children’s book writer, was born in 1953 in East New York, Brooklyn. The neighborhood was 95% Jewish and Michelson’s parents attended High School with Ezra Jack Keats. By the time Michelson left Brooklyn, the neighborhood was 95% Black, sparking a lifelong interest in racial justice issues. Michelson’s books have been listed among the Ten Best of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker; and among the best Dozen of the Decade by Amazon.com. He has received a National Jewish Book Award, two Sydney Taylor Gold Medals, three Skipping Stones Multicultural Book Awards, and a Harlem Book Fest Phillis Wheatley Honor. His work was chosen to “highlight the literary culture and history of Massachusetts” at the 2018 Library of Congress National Book Festival.
In 2008 Richard and his wife, Jennifer, purchased an Oak Bluffs Campground Cottage, where he can often be found writing on his porch after each morning’s Polar Bear Swim. Michelson first visited Featherstone in 2010 when he was invited to read as part of the Summer Poetry Series. He has been a regular visitor since and is honored to partner with Ann Smith and Featherstone in bringing this exhibit to Martha’s Vineyard.
