The Black Woman: An Anthology Book

I was 16 years and had just arrived from Puerto Rico, when my uncle had a visitor. A very charismatic young black woman, who was living with an artist painter. Her name was Joanne Clark. My uncle introduced me and was proud to tell me that Joan had just published a chapter on motherhood in a compilation about Black Women. The woman on the cover of the book had a large smooth afro and so did Joanne Clark. The afro look was at the edge of everything. It was Hip, cool, radical, of self realization and freedom. The chapter on motherhood in this book, was one of the first reading I did in the english language upon arriving from Puerto Rico. I remember that I had to use a dictionary, and I read slow.

This book gave me a cultural panorama not only of black women, but of the sisterhood of women in general or in a Universal way; the only way I knew at that tender age.

Meeting the author was paramount in the development of my own artistic ways. I was lost and without advise about the future, all I knew was that I loved Art, sculpture and painting in particularly.
A few years passed and I was frustrated in some computer class, trying to make a career to make a living, when I ran into the author again. With one big supportive smile, she told me that I was on the wrong track and that I had to return to painting. I did and forty years after that is what i still do. I am proud of this book, needless to say....