Jazz Stories: Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow #1: Somebody Stole My Broken Heart 2004

Faith Ringgold made this painted story quilt titled 'Jazz Stories: Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow #1: Somebody Stole My Broken Heart,' and it just vibrates with the energy of jazz. I love imagining Ringgold working on this; the way the image might have bloomed slowly into being. There's a real sense of layering and building, both in the painted surface and the quilting around the edges. I'm thinking about the physicality of this piece, the way the paint sits on the fabric, the way it feels to touch. The overall colour is red, but there is also a lot of blue and yellow that gives the red more depth. See how Mama's in the middle, singing her heart out? The musicians stand around her, giving her space to perform. I feel like Ringgold is right there with them, celebrating the joy and the pain of the blues. I see echoes of Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence, who worked with similar themes of Black life and culture. It’s all one big conversation, artists building on each other, keeping the story going. And in the end it is all about ambiguity, feeling, and not knowing the exact meaning, but responding to what the artwork makes us feel.