A native of St. Rose, Louisiana, Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs moved with her family to Chicago in 1922 in search of better job and educational opportunities. Growing up on Chicago’s South Side, Burroughs remembers the neighborhood’s deep sense of community. Throughout her career, as both a visual artist and a writer, she has often chosen themes concerning family, community, and history. “Art is communication,” she has said. “I wish my art to speak not only for my people––but for all humanity.” 14 This aim is achieved in Birthday Party, in which both black and white children dance, while mothers cut cake in a quintessential image of neighbors and family enjoying a special day together. The flexibility of linoleum allowed the artist to create an array of patterns and textures. Flowered dresses, draped streamers, swinging pigtails, and rippled icing convey the liveliness of a child’s party.

Burroughs received degrees from the School of the Art Institute and the Teacher’s College at Columbia University, New York. She has traveled extensively in Africa, Asia, and Europe, and has exhibited her art for over fifty years. In addition to her activities as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and poet, she has been an important activist. In 1941 she was involved in the opening of the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago. This center, one of the only Works Progress Administration projects still operating, was founded to provide arts opportunities and training for residents of this predominantly black neighborhood. (Many of the artists represented in this volume have shown their work there; see nos. 5, 8, and Schulman essay.) Burroughs also founded, with her late husband, Charles, the DuSable Museum of African American History, another prominent cultural institution in Chicago (see no. 27). Today she serves on the board of the Chicago Park District, continuing to be a strong advocate for cultural awareness among the city’s diverse communities. (KNP)