2022 Notable Folklorists of Color

colorful image with 2022 exhibit title

Expanding the Frames centers over 130 BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) ancestors from the 19th century through 2021—who often have worked within their own communities—as significant producers of scholarly knowledge about the communities and traditions they studied within the United States and her territories.  Seeking to present some of the diversity of their experiences within BIPOC communities, and their perspectives toward folklore, the ancestors in this exhibition range from young adults to venerated seniors; and from many who had little formal academic training but were grounded in the knowledge systems of their communities, to numerous others who attained advanced degrees from the academy despite segregation and other exclusionary practices, and approached folklore studies from groundings in other disciplines.

Check back soon – more ancestors are being added each week!

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (Bamewawagezhikaquay)

Frederick Douglass

King Kalākahua (David La‘amea Kamanakapu‘u Mahinulani
Nalaiaehuokalani Lumialani)

Charlotte Forten Grimke

Queen Lili‘uokalani (Lydia Lili‘u Loloku Walania Wewehi
Kamaka‘eha)

Maxidiwiac (Buffalo Bird Woman)

Emma Ka‘ilikapuolono Nakuina

Zanea Panea (Z.P.) Kalokuokamaile

Frances La Flesche (Minxa’ska)

Charles Waddell Chesnutt

Anna Julia Haywood Cooper

Yan Phou Lee

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

Will West Long (Willí Westì)

Emmet McDonald Starr

James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson

John Wesley Work II and Frederick Jerome Work

William Jones (Megasiáwa / Black Eagle)

Zitkala-Ṡa (Red Bird / Gertrude Simmons Bonnin)

Cleofas Martínez Jaramillo

María Adelina Isabel Emilia (Nina) Otero-Warren

Mourning Dove (Hum-ishu-ma / Christine Quintasket)

Samuel Shinkle Taylor

María Cadilla de Martínez

Lorenzo Dow Turner

Charles S. Johnson

Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert

Andrew Polk Watson

Aurora Lucero-White Lea

John Brother Cade

Mary Abigail Kawenaʻulaokalaniohiʻiakaikapoliopelekawahineʻaihonua Pukui

Viola B. Muse

Pura Belpré

Arthur Huff Fauset

Marcus Bruce Christian

Willis Laurence James

Langston Hughes

John Wesley Work III

Sterling Allen Brown

Arnaud (Arna) Bontemps

Mary Elizabeth (Bessie) Jones

Ophelia Settle Egypt

Lesley (Esley) Riddle

Arthur L. Campa, Sr.

Rosebud Yellow Robe Frantz (Lacotawin)

John Lovell, Jr.

Richard Nathaniel Wright

Katherine Dunham

Francis L. K. Hsu (Xu Hongguang)

Lawrence Reddick

Lewis Wade Jones

Ching-kun (CK) Yang (Yáng Qìngkūn)

Rubén Cobos

Esther Martinez (P’oe Tsáwa)

Gordon Parks

Edith Kanaka‘ole

Ralph Ellison

Samuel C. Adams, Jr., Ulysses S. Young

Margaret Walker Alexander

Lee-hsia Hsu Ting and Nai-tung Ting

Grace Lee Boggs

Albert Murray

Frank Yerby

Edward Pasqual Dozier

Violet Kazue de Cristoforo

Robert H. McNeill

Keewaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel

Pearl Eileen Primus

Alixa Naff

Yuri Kochiyama

Teodoro Vidal Santoni

James Baldwin

Frank Bonilla

Stephen E. Henderson

Chang-Su Houchins

James Hirabayashi, Lane Ryo Hirabayashi

Nora Marks Dauenhauer (Keixwnéi)

John Gwaltney

Mellie Leandicho Lopez

George Na‘ope

A.K. Ramanujan

Roberto Martínez, Sr.

Rosemarie Freeney Harding

Toni Morrison

P. Sterling Stuckey

Audre Lorde

Vine Deloria

Ernest J. Gaines seated in a wheel chair

Ernest James Gaines

Roy Simon Bryce-Laporte

Doreen Gamboa Fernandez

Horace Clarence Boyer

Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr.

Head shot of Samuel A Floyd

Samuel A. Floyd

Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor

Ronald Takaki

Alfonso Ortiz

Julius Lester

John Blassingame

Manuel Heriberto Peña

Gloria Anzaldúa

J. Nash Porter

Alan Jabbour

Juan Flores

Albert Jordy Raboteau II

Pang Xiong Sirirathasuk Sikoun

VèVè Amasasa Clark

Cornelia Walker Bailey

Edward J. Cabbell

Joaquín Rivera

Patricia Jones-Jackson

Young Kwok (Corky) Lee

Mary Siisip Geniusz

Kariamu Welsh (Asante)

Jesús (Chuy) Negrete

Dorothy Sara Lee

Ramón (Chunky) Sánchez

bell hooks (Gloria Jean Watkins)

John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt

Linda Mabalot

Reaves Fred Nahwooksy

Karin Higa

Marlon Troy Riggs

Dawn Mabalon

Liyna Anwar