With February being Black History Month, there are a number of black artists and authors with awe-inspiring stories and works that deserve more recognition. They are advocates and their pieces show their past along with what they believe in. Of course there are a multitude of inspiring black artists, but these are just a few from this day and age.

Kehinde Wiley 

Kehinde Wiley is a painter and a sculptor. He recreates famous artworks but replaces the white subjects with black contemporaries. His pieces have a unique sense of harmony and peace between the background and foreground. Wiley painted Barack Obama’s presidential portrait in 2018 and started the Black Rock Residency Program in 2019 to fuel younger artists’ careers (“Kehinde Wiley”). Wiley is an inspiring artist and advocates for blacks through creativity.

Kara Walker

Kara Walker is a contemporary artist who shows race, stereotypes, gender and identity through American history in her artworks (“Kara Walker”). Walker’s goal is to make viewers feel something when they look at her art. She wants people to think after looking at the pieces. She advocates for race and gender through her artwork. Walker received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Atlanta College of Art in 1991. She was one of the youngest recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship at age 28.

Angie Thomas

Angie Thomas is an author, producer, speaker and activist (Thomas). She is a former teen rapper and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing along with an unofficial Hip Hop degree. The novel she is most famous for is “The Hate U Give” which was originally a senior project in college but it was later published by the Balzer+Bray imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. She has written two other novels after “The Hate U Give” and continues to speak about racial problems today.

Alice Walker (not related to Kara Walker)

Alice Walker is a world-renowned writer, poet and activist (Gumbs and others). Walker has been an activist for human rights in general. Her work is inspiring and strives to support those who cannot speak for themselves. She wants change in this world to help people and end suffering.