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JUNE 24,2000, ENGLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY The Garden and The Studio • n the elegant, mysterious and meticulously designed I garden1 are towering oak trees, shrubs and flowers, as I well as a fish pond behind which a waterfall tumbles, a weather-stained wooden pagoda, a white gable-roofed bird house perched on a stand, a stream of dry pebbles, a small stone "fire" fountain, and a stone bench. It is there that I read about the history of slavery in New Jersey. Earlier this morning I spent time upstairs in Ringgold's tall, spacious studio, whose walls are studied with story quilts and prints from a major new work in progress. Ringgold and her husband, Burdette live on Jones Road, and it was not long ago that Ringgold laughingly told Grace Welty, her assistant, that she was "going to put Jones Road on the map." This, Ringgold is doing in a variety of ways. The Jones Road Series and The Anyone Can Fly Foundation The Jones Road series will "channel" (Ringgold's term) a multi-part narrative from the late 18th century until the present. The sales of these paintings, drawings and prints, to be assembled over the years, will help fund her Any One Can Fly Foundation, which will be devoted to "the advancement and production of research fundamental to the arts and cultures of the African Diaspora." Ringgold plans to release more of the Jones Road series each year in the context of an annual garden party, the first of which was held in 1999, at her Northern New Jersey home in Englewood. At these events, individual photographs of the invited guests will be made by Ringgold into composite portraits, which will also supPhot ographic port rait of Fait h Ri nggol d. port the Foundation. FR: "I moved to Englewood in 1992 with the studio and the Foundation in mind, but when the garden was created, I realized how important it was to have a garden and the sheer beauty of its trees, flowers and foliage has become an inspiration all in itself." "After I came here and began to pursue my dream, I met with resistance from my hostile neighbors, and that inspired me to give greater attention to the history of black people who had come to this area centuries before me." "I wanted to use the beauty of the place and the harsh realities of its racist history to create a kind of compensatory series that turns all the ugliness into something beautiful. I am also tryRi nggol d St udio wall Spring / Summer 2001 Nk a- 19 Great Grandma Bingham, circa 1900. Aunt Emmy, 2000, Acrylic on canvas. ing—which is the hardest part—to speak in the voice of the characters of the Jones Road Series in an attempt to place myself back in the seventeen hundreds when my grandmothers and fathers endured the struggle that made it possible for me in the year 2000 to walk free and tell their story." On one wall is Aunt Emmy in White Hat and Dress, which I saw originally at the first garden party last year. Still unfinished , it represents the slight figure of a pretty bespectacled woman. She stands, composed, in a white organza dress, full of shades of subtle pinks and blues that play off both against her dark skin and the splashes of greens, reds, yellows and blues that form the scenic background. Next to the painting Ringgold has tacked up a copy of a small blurred photograph of a stocky, tough and proud-looking black woman. Like Emmy, she has a wide-brimmed white hat and dress, wears glasses and holds a purse. Below the photograph is a handwritten caption, "Grandma Bingham." Grandma Bingham is Ringgold's great-grandmother and a direct personal connection for Ringgold with African-American slave history. FR: "I still need to do research about Betsy Bingham. I want to find out when she was born, and when she was set free—as I know she was born into slavery—so perhaps I can discover how she got to look so regal. Peter and Betsy Bingham were slaves who had acquired land and property in Palatka...

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