
In “Her Stories,” Virginia Hamilton tells African-American fairy tales—and tells them well
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Typically, when I spend the night at the house of local artist Rudy Fig I expect that there will be a lot of art making, snacking, and cuddling with her 17-month-old son Vincent. And while these things still happened, this time I went with a slight ulterior motive.“I have something to show you,” I tell her.“What is it?” she replies apprehensively.“Don’t worry, it isn’t dirty,” I laugh as I pull an unassuming book out of my bag. I give it to her and ask her to look through the artwork and the writing and tell me what she thinks. Because Rudy Fig is known well for fantasy artwork that is so sweet and tart that could rot the teeth right out of your head I figured it would be fascinating to see her perspective on a book of fairy tales that many have never heard of before. Many people don’t know that African-American fairy tales exist to begin with.Her Stories is a book of fairy tales, myths, and historical accounts with black women as the predominant cast of stories that have been retold by Virginia Hamilton. Continue Reading