Award-Winning Artist Ekua Holmes Visits Winsor
On Monday, February 3, Winsor hosted award-winning artist and activist Ekua Holmes to help kick off Black History Month.
Ms. Holmes spent a busy day at Winsor in large part thanks to Administrative Assistant to the Division Heads Danica Villanueva and Lower School Division Head Sharon Jones Phinney. Holmes is a graduate of the Shady Hill School, where Ms. Phinney taught for over 25 years. Together they have previously created workshops for the Association of Independent Schools in New England (AISNE) conferences.
Ms. Holmes knows the power of educators, after all, it was her third-grade teacher, Ms. Goldberg, who noticed her skill in the arts. A Bostonian, Ms. Holmes and her mother spent many Saturday mornings at the Museum of Fine Arts. It was a full-circle moment for the lifelong resident of Roxbury to have an exhibit at the MFA—“Paper Stories, Layered Dreams: The Art of Ekua Holmes” opened in January 2022. One of the many benefits of being located in Boston, Winsor students often venture to the MFA on class field trips.
Class I and Class II students had the opportunity to spend the morning with Holmes. In preparation for the visit, Winsor’s Virginia Wing librarians pulled books by the artist and students spent time browsing and writing questions about her art, interests, and life. Using Black Girl You Are Atlas, which was illustrated by Ms. Holmes, Class I and Class II English Faculty Laura Beebe and Lisa Stringfellow designed an activity for students to create a found poem. The literary equivalent of a collage, found poems take existing texts and refashion them. It was a fitting activity, especially given that Ms. Holmes’ primary medium is collage. The poems are now on display in the Lower School hallway.
In honor of Black History Month, Lower School SOMOS/SISTERS and Upper School SISTERS hosted lunchtime meetings for the entire Winsor community with Holmes as an honored guest. SISTERS is one of many student affinity groups available at Winsor and is a space to affirm black students’ sense of racial identity while encouraging participants to be full, connected participants in the larger community. Open meetings were held in the Valeria Knapp Trustees Room and attendees learned about Ms. Holmes’ journey to become an artist and her process for collage art and illustrating books.
While this was Holmes’ first in-person visit to Winsor, she has previously participated in a virtual event. Many Winsor students have read the children’s book Dream Street, which was written by Winsor alumna Patricia Elam Walker ’71 and illustrated by Holmes. The book is based on their memories of growing up together in Roxbury. In December 2021, the cousins participated in a virtual Winsor event moderated by Winsor alumna Pamela Parks McLaurin ’71, P’12. Pamela, who was also director of admission at Winsor for 18 years, said she was struck by “how early in life these two women pursued their passions.”
Thank you to everyone who made this special visit possible!
