Thursday, March 4, 2021

Empowered Embroidery by Amy L. Frazer

 

I love how 'women's work' has become a political and social tool. In the past I have shared books featuring quilts that have a message (OurStory Quilts: Human Rights Stories in Quilts), teach history (And Still We Rise), and celebrate iconic leaders (HerStory Quilts:Iconic Women). 

I have combined quilting with embroidery to create I Will Life My Voice Like A Trumpet which features embroidered images and words of female abolitionists and Civil Rights leaders and to make Remember the Ladies featuring the First Ladies.

The employment of women's work as political and social commentary can be traced back centuries, as shown in Threads of Life by Claire Hunter.

Amy L. Frazer book Empowered Embroidery leads artists through her process of turning sketches into embroidered art that celebrates courageous women like Frida Kahlo (seen on the cover),  Eleanor Roosevelt, and Harriet Tubman.

I have only used the basic stem stitch for my quilts. I was excited to learn how to incorporate more intricate embroidery into a design. 

After reviewing the necessary tools and how-to of embroidery, and showing how she develops her sketches, Frazer uses her included projects to illustrate the process.

Specific stitches and how to employ them is detailed in ample photographs.
Empowered Embroidery is a fantastic resource for artists. It does assume an ability to sketch portraits to make original art. (I have also used copyright free images and photographs for some of my quilts.)

You do not need to be an experienced embroiderer. Frazer covers everything you need to know.

The stitches and techniques are transferable to any embroidered project. For instance, the step-by-step process of creating the multitude of flowers in the Frida Kahlo portrait are basic skills easily transferable to other projects. Frazer shows how to built layers of embroidery floss to create the dimensional feel of the flowers. The way Frazer creates eyes is also impressive, easily accomplished.

The portraits differ in style so each teaches new techniques. The Eleanor Roosevelt portrait uses running stitches. Maya Angelou is on a colored linen background. Harriet Tubman includes fused applique. Ruth Bader Ginsberg is thread painted. Michelle Obama includes favorite quotes.

This book will inspire you to celebrate your personal heroines and heroes through embroidery. 

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet by Nancy A. Bekofske

Empowered Embroidery: Transform sketches into embroidery patterns and stitch strong, iconic women from the past and present
by Amy L. Frazer
Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster
Pub Date  March 2, 2021  
$21.99

From the publisher

With Art Makers: Empowered Embroidery, learn to sketch and stitch strong, recognizable women from all walks of life.

Featuring sketching and illustration instructions, basic stitches, embroidery techniques, and 6 projects with portraits of famous women, this book is a must-have tool for hands-on artists and crafters.

If you’re a beginning embroiderer, start with the basic stitches and embroidery instructions at the beginning of the book. Essential tools, warm-up exercises, tips for embroidering facial features and hair, and general information on embroidery will give you the know-how you need to get started. 

Then dive into sketching your favorite female cultural and historical icons:

  • Frida Kahlo
  • Eleanor Roosevelt
  • Maya Angelou
  • Harriet Tubman
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  •  Michelle Obama

Once you’ve sketched your figures, follow along with the step-by-step embroidery projects as you learn to stitch the women featured in the book—and anyone else you admire! All of the projects are beautifully paired with large photos so that you can easily mimic the techniques at home while relaxing with your embroidery.

The author is a professional illustrator, designer, and embroiderer uniquely suited to give instruction on this fun, trending embroidery technique. With her expert tips, you’re sure to enjoy learning a new hobby, or advancing your skills if you’re already familiar with embroidery.

Art Makers: Empowered Embroidery makes it easy to sketch, stitch, and create your favorite female icons, from empowering women of today to icons of the past.

The Art Makers series is designed for beginning artists and arts-and-crafts enthusiasts who are interested in experiencing fun hands-on mediums, including polymer clay and papier-mache.

Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Poems to Night by Rainer Maria Rilke

 

Poems to Night is the first time Rilke's Night poems have been published in their entirety, translated in English. In 1916, Rilke presented his friend and fellow writer Rudolph Kassner the twenty-two poems in a handwritten notebook. 

Rilke wrote the poems between January 1913 and February 1914, during the same time he was working on the Duino Elegies, which has been my favorite volume of poetry for over forty years. And of the elegies, the eighth is my favorite; it was dedicated to Kassner.

In the Introduction, Will Stone confesses that the Poems to Night "possess the aura of a clandestine text, and resist any assured interpretation." 

Which is a great relief to me, baffled as I have been by these verses. Each reading further reveals the arc of Rilke's vision, how the poems reflect his basic understanding. The experience of being human and finite, and aware of the vast mystery beyond, is the bedrock of Rilke's poetry.

I read the Poems of Night, and read them again. I  reread portions of Rilke's biography and a fiction novel of his life to understand Rilke at the time he wrote these poems. 

Rilke arouses feelings in me, with certain lines flashing out like neon, and yet to understand his meaning seems to always hover beyond my full grasp. I struggle with the poems, eliciting more from the lines with every reading. His poetry is so unique to his own world view.

There is the theme of alienation, how humans can never fully connect. And how humans are concerned with the temporal and trivial, "seduced" by the world. Above the world is night, the realm of angels, a sacred otherness which we long to encounter and yet "renounce."

The ending lines are powerful.

Lifting one's eyes from the book, from the close and countable lines, to the consummate night outside: O how the compressed feelings scatter like stars, as if a posy of blooms were untied...Everywhere craving for connection and nowhere desire, world too much and earth enough. (Paris, February 1914)~from Poems to Night by Rainer Maria Rilke
Drafts of the Night poems are also presented, along with snippets from his other works that include the theme of Night, and biographical notes on Rilke's life. He was abroad when WWI broke out, unable to return to his Paris apartment. He lost all his manuscripts, books, and personal belongings, including photographs of his family. When he presented the notebook of poems to Kassner, he was in the military working as a clerk.

Poems to Night is a significant addition to Rilke's published works that will interest his legion of readers as well as all lovers of poetry.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Will Stone was the translator for Rilke in Paris, which I reviewed here.

Poems to Night
by Rainer Maria Rilke
Pushkin Press
Pub Date:  March 2, 2021   
ISBN: 9781782275534
price $18.00 (USD)

from the publisher

A collection of haunting, mystical poems of the night by the great Rainer Maria Rilke - most of which have never before been translated into English

One night I held between my hands
your face. The moon fell upon it.

In 1916, Rainer Maria Rilke presented the writer Rudolf Kassner with a notebook, containing twenty-two poems, meticulously copied out in his own hand, which bore the title "Poems to Night." This cycle of poems which came about in an almost clandestine manner, are now thought to represent one of the key stages of this master poet's development.

Never before translated into English, this collection brings together all Rilke's significant night poems in one volume.

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

The Girl Explorers: The Untold Story of the Globetrotting Women Who Trekked, Flew, and Fought Their Way Around the World


Do not mistake The Girl Explorers to be a lightweight collection of mini-biographies of colorful females dressed in men's attire as they cheerfully cross the globe. 

These females battled every sort of prejudice mankind could cook up. They faced sexual predation and ridicule. They fought for equality and against racism. They exposed the horror of prisons and stood for gay rights. Their work was attacked, diminished, forgotten.  They were suffragettes and feminists and scientists and intrepid risk-takers.


Their achievements were significant, but how many can you recognize? 

Amelia Earhart, of course. We all know that she disappeared. She also wrote her own wedding vows that did not include "obey" but did allow for her husband's infidelity.



Margaret Mead had to be 'rediscovered,' for in her lifetime, she was accused of presenting fake science.

Jayne Zanglein's history of the Society of Women Geographers is about the women I wished I knew about when I was growing up, back when I was reading about Robert Falcon Scott's doomed expedition with nary a female in sight. 

No, the biographies I found about women were nurses and social workers and nuns and such. Traditional female roles, really, even if they were fierce. 

I did have Jane Goodall and Mary Leakey who I read about in dad's National Geographic magazines, and later in books which I bought. 

But so many of these women I had never heard of. 

Their stories are the story of women's progress in their fight to be accepted as equals to the ruling male scientists and explorers. They were more than men's equals in their intrepid spirit, intelligence, endurance, and persistence.

Their work is beautifully described in memorable stories that I will not soon forget. This is a fantastic history, and a must-read for every young woman who dreams of high adventure and scientific endeavors.

I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

The Girl Explorers: The Untold Story of the Globetrotting Women Who Trekked, Flew, and Fought Their Way Around the World
by Jayne Zanglein
SOURCEBOOKS 
Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 9781728215242
hardcover $25.99 (USD)

from the publisher

Never tell a woman where she doesn't belong.

In 1932, Roy Chapman Andrews, president of the men-only Explorers Club, boldly stated to hundreds of female students at Barnard College that "women are not adapted to exploration," and that women and exploration do not mix. He obviously didn't know a thing about either...

The Girl Explorers is the inspirational and untold story of the founding of the Society of Women Geographers—an organization of adventurous female world explorers—and how key members served as early advocates for human rights and paved the way for today's women scientists by scaling mountains, exploring the high seas, flying across the Atlantic, and recording the world through film, sculpture, and literature.

Follow in the footsteps of these rebellious women as they travel the globe in search of new species, widen the understanding of hidden cultures, and break records in spades. For these women dared to go where no woman—or man—had gone before, achieving the unthinkable and breaking through barriers to allow future generations to carry on their important and inspiring work.

The Girl Explorers is an inspiring examination of forgotten women from history, perfect for fans of bestselling narrative history books like The Radium Girls, The Woman Who Smashed Codes, and Rise of the Rocket Girls.

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Create Landscape Quilts: A Step-By-Ste Guide to Dynamic People & Places by Meri Henriques Vahl

 

Dawn Prayer on the Ganges shown on cover

Meri Henriques Vahl was a trained artist when she saw her first art quilt. It was a revelation, and an inspiration. Painting with fabric, she developed new methods for construction. Create Landscape Quilts shares her journey, her quilts, and her techniques.

When I saw the detailed, gorgeous quilt on the cover I had to know more.

Vahl creates collage quilts, inspired by images from across the world. Her work includes traditional landscapes and scenes populated by the human figure in both outdoor and interior settings.


She uses unfused and fused fabrics held under a layer of tulle then quilted.

We All Speak Peace

Chapters take you through the steps to make a simple landscape collage and her paper doll technique.

Arlington Row in Bilbury Village, Cotswolds, England 
For details and texture, Vahl uses a variety of materials, including yarn, cotton, thread, beads, lace, roving, feathers, paper, and dryer lint. "There are no rules," she states. It's a chance to try new things, allowing your imagination free play.
Grand Tetons
Creating is not about perfection, Vahl warns. Be open to all possibilities.

After you choose your image, quilt backing, and adding batting, Vahl leads you through the process of composing your quilt. She includes basic design laws,and  demonstrates how stitching can enhance your images.
Flower Market at Chichicastenango, Guatemala

In the past I have used tulle overlays. Her 'paper doll' method is somewhat close to what I used on my unfinished quilt for Emily Dickinson. I do so appreciate Vahl's well presented information on her techniques, which will greatly help me going forward.

I am also in awe of the subjects of Vahl's art, her celebration of people from all cultures and landscapes from across the world.

This is a highly recommended book for art quilters of all experience levels.

I was given a free ebook by the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Create Landscape Quilts: A Step-by-Step Guide to Dynamic People & Places
by Meri Henriques Vahl
C&T Publishing
Pubication February 25, 2021
Book ( $29.95 ) eBook ( $23.99 ) 
ISBN: 978-1644030127
UPC: 734817-114130
eISBN: 978-1644030134

from the publisher
Quilt realistic people and places with artistic flair

Create unique art quilts of your favorite places—and the places you want to go! Meri Vahl shares her simple yet unique method for quilting realistic nature scenes and villages from fabric. Using photographs from her travels, the author explains how to achieve stunning scenery with lifelike details. With techniques like fabric collage and tulle overlay, even beginners will learn to quilt majestic mountainscapes, charming buildings, and realistic people. A stunning gallery of quilts—some named best in the world—will inspire you to bring your own travel photos and art quilt ideas to life.

From photo to art quilt! Recreate landscapes, people, and buildings with ease,  World-renowned art quilter Meri Vahl teaches you her award-winning process. Immortalize your journeys as you paint scenes with fabric, one step at a time

Covid-19 Life: Books, Quilts & Vaccinations

On Friday, my husband received his first Covid-19 vaccination. And next Thursday I will get my first vaccination. It is a great feeling, nearly euphoric, after a year in retreat, to know this is the beginning of the end of a very scary time.

I understand that I will be wearing masks and still being careful, but we can schedule our missed eye exams and dental checks without feeling so vulnerable.

My spring reading list has gotten grown to massive proportions! 

I have Finding Freedom by Erin French from BookishFirst. It arrived on bread making day.

I have had numerous books offered to me by publishers and my NetGalley shelf is overfull!

New on my NetGalley shelf:

  • The Man He Became: Roosevelt's Rise from Polio to the Presidency, James Tobin's The Man He Became written for middle school readers. (Tobin is married to the daughter of a couple we knew some years ago. We were given autographed copies of his previous books, Ernie Pyle's War and To Conquer the Air.)
  • The Coffin Ship: Life and Death at Sea during the Great Irish Famine by Clan McMahon
  • Highway Blue by Alisa McFarlane, a novel about 'being lost and found'
  • That Summer by Jennifer Weiner, whose Big Summer I read last year
  • Lincoln in Private: What His Most Personal Reflections Tell Us About Our Greatest President by Ronald C. White
  • The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live by Danielle Drelinger
  • Thief of Souls by Brian Klingborg, a mystery
  • The Remnants of Summer by Dawn Newton, a coming of age novel set in Michigan

These books join the others already on my shelves. Which, to remind you, include

  • The Bookseller of Florence by Ross King
  • Astrid Sees All by Natalie Standford
  • The Sound Between the Notes by Barbara Linn Probst
  • Eleanor in the Village: Eleanor Roosevelt's Search for Freedom and Identity in New York's Greenwich Village by Jan Jarboe Russell 
  • Light Perpetual by Frances Spufford
  • The Ride of her Life by Elizabeth Letts
  • Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers to Rediscover America by Scott Borchert
  • The Reason for the Darkness: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science by John Tresch
  • Infinite Country by Patricia Engel
  • Blind Spots: Why Students Fail and the Science that Can Save Them by Kimberly Nix Berens
This is daunting!

Still, I sew on.

I finished the Nancy apron.

And I machine quilted the mushroom embroidery and vintage fabric quilt.

I have the backing for the Water Lily quilt and the Rebel Girl quilt! I am going to be a machine quilting machine.

We grew basil by seed and they are finally looking like they will survive! They are in a metal box that I painted some years ago.


This week I Zoomed to hear Diane Rehm talk about her new book through the National Writer Series. Next month I will join them again to see Imbolo Mbue, whose Behold the Dreamers and  How Beautiful We Were  I have read.

Our March library book is Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney--who will join us on Zoom!
Gus the cat got very curious when our son racked the snow off the roof.
But Sunny was chill.
I have to also have a pic of Ellie. This is from last winter when she was obsessed with squirrels.
That's all the news from The Literate Quilter.

Stay safe. Find your bliss. Spring will come and so will the end of the pandemic.

Thursday, February 25, 2021

The Genome Odyssey: Medical Mysteries and the Incredible Quest to Solve Them by Euan Angus Ashley

 

I have been interested in genome research since I first heard about it. As a genealogy researcher, I am curious about what we inherit from our ancestors. I seek out family resemblances and inherited traits, finding my eyes in one relative, my body type in another. 

I wonder what health issues I inherited, or did not inherit. My mother had autoimmune diseases, and so do I. My grandfather had horrible ragweed allergies, and so does our son. My father had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and so does my cousin. My aunt and her two children struggled with alcoholism. Two grandfathers (aged 52 and 68) and an uncle (age 34) died of heart attacks. 

For some people, their genes are secret time bombs. A healthy athlete suffers a sudden heart attack and dies. A baby's normal progress stops, and even regresses. 

What if there was a test that could warn us of impending or likely health issues so doctors could be prepared to remedy or even cure them? What if it was affordable for everyone? What if if was part of our normal preventative health care insurance?

This could be reality.

The Genome Odyssey is a fascinating narrative of Dr. Ashley's research in genome sequencing and how it was applied to solve medical mysteries. 

The science is very accessible in presentation, so that even non-medical folk like myself can understand how genes and sequencing works. The personal stories of those whose lives were changed through genome sequencing  and genetic therapy are affecting. For some, simple OTC supplements changed their life.

The author addresses the current Sars-CoV-2 pandemic, telling how the scientific community swung into action even as governments floundered, and explaining how vaccines was developed and how the different kinds work on the virus. 

"Could even more widespread use of genomics have gotten us further ahead of this pandemic to begin with?", he asks. He notes that wastewater can predict which community will have the next rise in infections. If we systematically tested wastewater the way we test drinking water, we could be prepared to prevent disease flareups.

In a capitalist, profit-driven health system, the question is who will pay. Will the rich only benefit, or those victims of rare diseases who are covered by research grants? Another issue to be addressed is the privacy of genome information and its use. Ashley adds, "Just because we can, doesn't mean we should. Nor does it mean that we can afford it."

Yet the possibilities of what doctors will be able to do in the future are endless.

I received an ARC from the publisher through Bookish First. My review is fair and unbiased.

The Genome Odyssey: Medical Mysteries and the Incredible Quest to Solve Them 
by Euan Angus Ashley, MD, PhD
Celadon Books
Publication Date: February 23, 2021
hardcover $26.99; ebook $14.99
ISBN 9781250234995

from the publisher

“This wonderful page-turner captures the excitement, peril, wonder and anticipation of the so-called “genomics” era — the era that has begun us to allow us to sequence the entirety of DNA carried within our bodies, and to understand the functions of parts of this genome. Dr Ashley, one of the pioneers of gene sequencing technologies, writes with authority, elegance and simplicity to enable an in-depth understanding of the most exciting scientific developments of our times. Every curious reader must read this book.” —Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of Maladies and The Gene

In The Genome Odyssey, Dr. Euan Ashley, Stanford professor of medicine and genetics, brings the breakthroughs of precision medicine to vivid life through the real diagnostic journeys of his patients and the tireless efforts of his fellow doctors and scientists as they hunt to prevent, predict, and beat disease.

Since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, the price of genome sequencing has dropped at a staggering rate. It’s as if the price of a Ferrari went from $350,000 to a mere forty cents. Through breakthroughs made by Dr. Ashley’s team at Stanford and other dedicated groups around the world, analyzing the human genome has decreased from a heroic multibillion dollar effort to a single clinical test costing less than $1,000.

For the first time we have within our grasp the ability to predict our genetic future, to diagnose and prevent disease before it begins, and to decode what it really means to be human.

In The Genome Odyssey, Dr. Ashley details the medicine behind genome sequencing with clarity and accessibility. More than that, with passion for his subject and compassion for his patients, he introduces readers to the dynamic group of researchers and doctor detectives who hunt for answers, and to the pioneering patients who open up their lives to the medical community during their search for diagnoses and cures.

He describes how he led the team that was the first to analyze and interpret a complete human genome, how they broke genome speed records to diagnose and treat a newborn baby girl whose heart stopped five times on the first day of her life, and how they found a boy with tumors growing inside his heart and traced the cause to a missing piece of his genome.

These patients inspire Dr. Ashley and his team as they work to expand the boundaries of our medical capabilities and to envision a future where genome sequencing is available for all, where medicine can be tailored to treat specific diseases and to decode pathogens like viruses at the genomic level, and where our medical system as we know it has been completely revolutionized.


Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Brooklyn On My Mind: Black Visual Artists from the WPA to the Present by Myrah Brown Green

Brooklyn On My Mind: Black Visual Artists From the WPA to the Present by Myrah Brown Green brings together 139 inspirational artists with connections to Brooklyn. The book is beautifully presented, each artist given a two-page spread to showcase their work, and accompanied with a brief artist's statement or biography sketch. It is a book full of powerful images depicting the black experience. 
Ellsworth Ausby (1942-2011) Space Odyssey and an untitled work

Turning pages is like a visit to a gallery, each work an exciting encounter.
Kehinde Wiley portraits

There are well known names such as Kehinde Wiley who was commissioned for the portraits of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. 

Chapter Title Page, Games, 1979, by Jacob Lawrence 

Jacob Lawrence is one of the WPA artists included. I was lucky to have seen an exhibit of his Legend of John Brown paintings at the Flint Institute of Arts in 2016.

Dread Scott writes that he creates "revolutionary art to propel history forward."

I was drawn to the beautiful portraits of children.

Ernest Crichlow (1914-2005) Her Stand, 1987

Ernest Crichlow was part of the Harlem Renaissance and a mural painter and art teacher for the WPA.  Her Stand is a beautiful portrait, but he said that his early controversial work, such as a painting of a Klansman raping a  black woman, "best represented him."
Violet Hewitt Chandler, Boy in Cap and Sweater (2015)
Violet Hewitt Chandler used her children in many of her portraits. 
Fishing, 2012, by Carlton Murrell
Carlton Murrell wrote that his art captures his nostalgia of childhood in the Caribbean which he hopes will spur peace, calm and optimism. 



James Brown's Sorrows, 1992, strikes the viewer with its emotional impact, the strong lighting and shadows. The woman hiding her face is especially haunting.

Sorrows, 1992, by James Brown

I loved the use of fabrics  and found objects in Study War No More, 2015, by Deborah Singletary.
detail Study War No More, 2015, by Deborah Singletary



The gold shimmer in Myra Kooy's Light Streams, 2017, is just extraordinary. She writes that she desires to "offer the viewer, through my art, an equally peaceful place upon which they can relax their eyes."

detail Light Streams, 2017, by Myra Kooy

The book is divided into seven thematic chapters:
  • The WPA Experience, President Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration which gave jobs to artists and writers during the Depression
  • Passing it Forward, the standard-making artists
  • Songs of Our Mothers and Fathers, artists representing the African American heritage
  • In the Spirit, artists whose work channels the spiritual
  • Global Inspirations, art that represents places beyond Brooklyn
  • Contemporaneous Connections features art that incorporates 21st c issues and technology and ideas
  • New Thought, the artists who "keep the create arts flame burning in Brooklyn."
I hope this glimpse into the book intrigues you! Every page is enthralling.

I received a free book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Brooklyn On My Mind: Black Visual Artists from the WPA to the Present
Myrah Brown Green , Foreword by Chirlane McCray
Schiffer Publications
hard cover $60.00
Size: 9″ x 12″ | 395 color images | 288 pp
ISBN 13: 9780764356520 



about the author

Dr. Myrah Brown Green is an art historian, author, arts consultant, lecturer, and independent curator. Raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her love for arts began in childhood while spending countless hours creating at the Community Art Center in the housing complex where she lived and included frequent excursions to culturally rich art institutions. She moved to Brooklyn to attend Pratt Institute. Dr. Myrah is also a professional quilt maker who has been quilting and teaching textile arts for more than thirty years. Her quilts are in a number of prestigious collections including the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum in Washington, DC, and Michigan State University. For the past decade Dr. Myrah has devoted her time to assisting the Black New York artist community to document and archive their art.

from the publisher 

This new resource assembles 129 Black artists and their magnificent works, highlighting their important contributions to art worldwide. Beginning with the Brooklyn-based artists active during the Works Progress Administration years and continuing with artists approaching their prime today, the collection spans 80 years of art. From highly publicized artists to rising talent, each is tied to Brooklyn in their own way. Artists include Jacob Lawrence, Otto Neals, Onnie Millar, Kehinde Wiley, Dindga McCannon, Melvin Edwards, Dread Scott, Xenobia Bailey, Vivian Schuyler Key, Kay Brown, Russell Frederick, and many more. Seven chapters highlight overarching themes that connect the artists, besides their Brooklyn connections. A foreword by New York City’s “first lady,” Chirlane McCray, marks the importance of Brooklyn’s Black creators within the city’s art community.