In April 2011, scupltor and print artist Elizabeth Catlett sat down with The Root's editor-in-chief Henry Louis Gates Jr. at Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Researc to discuss her artistic inspirations, life in Mexico and the struggles blacks and women faced, and continue to face, in the modern art world. Known for her black expressionist prints and sculptures, Catlett's seminal print works include Sharecropper and Malcolm X Speaks to Us. Catlett died Monday, April 2 in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
The Root's Valerie Gladstone also talked to Catlett in 2011 during a U.S. showcase of her art at the Bronx Museum and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University.