We Flew over the Bridge

“This story told in numerous engaging family photos, art work reproductions and lore, is now getting a much-deserved, broader distribution. The story artist Faith Ringgold tells is one of warm family relations, sustaining friendships, and the challenge of overcoming prejudices. The book also is a visual chronicle of African American fashion and style.” - International Review of African American Art

“Ringgold provides juicy autobiographical stories, supplemented with personal photographs as well as ample illustrations and descriptions of her work. It is a memoir every artist should read. . . . The book is informative, forthright, and fun, and is a great teaching tool for both emerging and established artists.” - Joyce Owens Anderson, Journal of African American History

"[O]ne of the country's most preeminent African-American artists and award-winning children's book authors, shares the fascinating story of her life, complete with family pictures." - Ebony

"[P]art cultural history, part coming-of-age story, part romance and part portrait of perseverance. . . ." - Diane McKinney-Whetstone, Essence

"A memoir is revealing on two levels: since it’s selective remembering, what the author chooses to tell us about herself ends up telling us something additional. We Flew Over the Bridge is candid, sometimes humorous, sometimes bordering on bitter, and almost quilt-like as she pieces together a wide range of topics, from the intensely personal to political and professional. Harlem at the close of the Renaissance, the art world’s resistance to nonwhite artists, Black Power’s resistance to feminism, combining marital life and parenthood with a career—all are viewed through her unique lens." - Gerri Gribi, AfroAmericanHeritage.com

“Bridging is the major motif of Ringgold’s life. . . . She is a bridge between the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights era. She is a bridge between her mother’s applied art of fashion design and her own fine art of painting and story quilts. She is a bridge between the black power movement and the women’s movement. And she is a bridge between the abstract art that dominated the ‘60s and the issue-oriented art that connected with viewers’ hearts—and lives.” - Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

“Faith Ringgold has already won my heart as an artist, as a woman, as an African American, and now with her entry into the world of autobiography (where I dwell), she has taken my heart again. She writes so beautifully.” - Maya Angelou

“Faith Ringgold has created a rich and highly informative work not only of her own life as an American in general but as an African American in particular. These memoirs are a part of American history—of what it means to be an artist, a writer, and a philosopher in our society.” - Jacob Lawrence

“Faith Ringgold’s exuberant and original art has made her one of America’s more important artists and a feminist heroine. Now her wonderfully honest memoirs will resonate with all political and creative women who are still fighting the battles Ringgold has won.” - Lucy Lippard, author of The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Essays on Feminist Art

“In words that are as direct, honest, full of color and life as her paintings, Ringgold gives each reader the greatest gift of all—courage to be one’s own unique and universal self.” - Gloria Steinem

“The story of Ringgold’s triumph—achieved through sheer determination, savvy, and self-conviction—is both accessible and inspiring.” - Lowery Stokes Sims, executive director, the Studio Museum in Harlem