Tongues Untied, on the other hand, generated con-
troversy about public funding for the arts. Riggs, a
recipient of a number of grants for the arts, used
grant money to create the first documentary about
gay, black issues for public television. Even though
critics warmly received Tongues Untied, like Ethnic
Notions, the conservative public was angry over a
perceived misuse of public funding. Tongues Un-
tied is an important exploration of racism and ho-
mophobia, positing that gays and lesbians can gain
a better appreciation and understanding of their
community by celebrating their histories, stories,
and sexuality.
Riggs’s work is also important because of his
experimental, jazzlike method of storytelling. His
narrative voices fuse poetry, history, documentary,
and autobiography. Because he draws from multi-
ple storytelling methods, Riggs creates a new kind
of documentary that is neither wholly documen-
tary nor wholly fiction, while addressing deeply
divisive issues like race and sexuality. His most
poignant film, Black Is... Black Ain’t explores the
complexities of blackness as defined and perceived
in the black community, particularly as it relates to
the community’s multifaceted perspective on rac-
ism, sexism, and homophobia. Black Is... Black
Ain’t was filmed while Riggs was sick and dying. In
the film he speaks from his hospital bed: “As long
as I have work then I’m not going to die, ’cause
work is a living spirit in me—that which wants to
connect with other people and pass on something
to them which they can use in their own lives and
grow from.”
Riggs received the National Emmy Award in
1987 for Ethnic Notions, an award for Best Docu-
mentary at Berlin for Tongues Untied in 1989, and
the Maya Daren Lifetime Achievement Award for
Color Adjustment. He produced films until he died
from AIDS in 1994.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Biography of Marlon Riggs.” Gravity. Formerly
available online. URL: http://www.newsavanna.
com/gravity/BlackIs/biographyofMarl_419.html.
Holmlund, Chris, and Cynthia Fuchs, eds. Between
the Sheets, in the Streets: Queer, Lesbian, Gay Doc-
umentary. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1997.
Kim Hai Pearson
Brian JenningsRinggold, Faith (1930– )
Visual artist, storyteller, and feminist activist Faith
Ringgold was born on October 8, 1930, at Harlem
Hospital in New York City to Andrew Louis Jones,
Sr., and Willie Edell Jones (Willi Posey), a fashion
designer and dressmaker. An arts graduate from
City College in New York City and professor of art
at San Diego State University until her retirement
in 2003, Ringgold divided her residence between
her New York and New Jersey home and studios
and Southern California. Her 17 honorary doctor-
ates reflect the art world’s broad appreciation of
her extensive traveling shows and appearances on
university campuses. Ringgold’s versatile expres-
sion includes paintings, Tibetan-style tankas, per-
formance art, masks, freestanding sculptures, and
painted quilts in U.S. museums and international
collections. Her publications, primarily children’s
books, complete this impressive catalogue. Ta r
Beach, the Caldecott Award winner for 1992, is ac-
knowledged by many as a children’s classic.
African-American identity and its history mo-
tivate her writing, her 14 publications, and her
visual art creations. Images expressing struggle
and transformation, freedom, and overcoming
adversity illuminate this heritage. For instance,
Ringgold’s picture stories for children, Tar Beach
and Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the
Sky (1992), denote freedom through their fly-
ing characters. The pathways of “The Coming
to Jones Road” an exhibit of a series of prints
and paintings that opened at the ACA Gallery
in January 2002, are likewise metaphors of free-
dom. A second focus in Ringgold’s work displays
historic struggles that promoted societal change
and transformation. Although her work is some-
times bloody, such as “The Flag Is Bleeding,” a
powerful 1960s painting, “peaceful” change and
transformation are highlighted in two illustratedRinggold, Faith 437