Ida B. Wells-Barnett
About the Artist
This fabric portrait was created by Cynthia Clark, a 17-year-old junior at Claremont High School (class of 2025) from Pomona, California. Cynthia is an "A" grade student involved in school clubs, after-school programs, and various community organizations. She participates in the Sirius Young Scholar program at The African American Museum of Beginnings (TAAMB).
Cynthia's interests include playing piano and drums, cooking, baking, writing, and watercolor painting. She's studying American Sign Language and pursuing medical assistant certification through ROP. Her career goal is to become an optometrist with a Health Sciences degree from UC Berkeley, followed by a Doctorate in Optometry to open her own practice.
About the Subject
Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) was a pioneering African American journalist, activist, and civil rights leader. She was a fearless investigative journalist who documented and exposed the horrors of lynching in the American South, risking her own life to fight for justice. Wells-Barnett was also a founding member of the NAACP and a suffragette who fought for women's voting rights.
About the Artwork
This fabric art portrait was Cynthia's first textile project, created in admiration of Ida B. Wells-Barnett and appreciation for everything she did to help African American causes. Cynthia enjoyed selecting the various fabrics and seeing how each one enhanced the look of her portrait. Her favorite part was sewing and keeping all the beautiful fabrics attached to the under cloth.
The project taught Cynthia to think more deeply about the meaning of different art pieces and brought out skills she didn't know she had, like sewing. She learned about shadows and how to make certain parts of her artwork stand out. Looking at her finished work continues to inspire her, and she hopes to create many more art pieces of historical Black figures to inspire others to do the same.