Kara Walker (Nov. 26, 1969)
Walker is a painter and printmaker who has become famous for her paper silhouettes. Her work addresses race, gender, stereotypes and Black history. Walker has made a career out of controversial works that force people to see the ugliness of the world. In 1997, the painter won the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”
![Installation view of Kara Walker: "My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love" (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 11, 2007–February 3, 2008). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins](https://blerds.atlantablackstar.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/karawalkerinstallview1_600_1140.jpg)
Gwendolyn Bennett (July 8, 1902- May 30, 1981)
Sadly, Bennett was an overlooked poet, painter and writer from the Harlem Renaissance. She was multi-talented in a variety of areas. Bennett worked alongside intellectuals like Alain Locke. In addition to writing and painting, she served as a journalist working for the New York Herald Tribune, The New Republic and the New York Amsterdam News.
![This is an untitled river landscape from Bennett from 1931. Most of her work has been lost.](https://blerds.atlantablackstar.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/20130313_135915435_RGB_M25228-1.jpg)