Artist, educator, and illustrator Constance Moore will read and share imagery from her newly released picture-book biography of the groundbreaking artist Rosie Lee Tompkins.

A renowned artist based in Richmond, California, Rosie Lee Tompkins contributed more than five hundred quilts to the collection of Eli Leon, a scholar and advocate for African American quiltmaking traditions who donated his entire collection to BAMPFA. Born Effie Mae Howard in 1936 in Arkansas, the artist later adopted the pseudonym Rosie Lee Tompkins. She learned quilting as a child from her mother but did not practice the craft seriously until the 1970s, after she had relocated to and built a life in the Bay Area. Today she is known as an artist who made an extraordinary range and number of quilts in which she explored a variety of traditional patterns through her own individual sensibilities of healing, spirituality, and love for her family combined with an innovative use of her favorite fabrics.

Families who purchase the book at this event will receive the author’s personal signature and a 10% discount on the cover price.