It's notes from America I'm Kai Wright.

Last year the New Museum here in New York held this incredible 50 year retrospective on

the artist Faith Ringgold.

It was a gorgeous collection of work that told the story of the American people in the

20th century, really, and specifically a history of black people and how and whether we

fit in this country.

I wanted to learn more about Faith Ringgold's work, so I took a trip to see the exhibit

with our producer, Rahima Nasa, and to see one of Faith Ringgold's famous story quilts

was called Dancing at the Looves.

So it's this large quilt and in the center of it is a scene that's painted on.

There's borders around the quilts that are made up of different pieces of floral fabric.

The quilt depicts two black women and three little black girls who have their arms stretched

out like they are dancing around.

They're wearing these colorful dresses and they just look so, so happy.

And behind them is a row of three famous paintings of white women, including the Mona Lisa.

And like much of Faith Ringgold's work, the whole scene is just kind of meta.

It's a semi-autobiographical artistic comment on art itself.

And Rahima wanted me to see it and share it with all of you because she spoke about it

with Faith Ringgold's daughter, Michelle Wallace.

Now, Michelle is herself a very big deal.

She's an art historian and a feminist scholar.

She wrote a really important book about sexism within the black nationalist movement.

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