Ekua Holmes is a native of Roxbury, Massachusetts and a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.  As an artist, designer, and an illustrator of children’s literature, she has become a keen observer of her environment and repeatedly chooses it as her subject matter.

Voice of Freedom, Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, written by Carole Boston  Weatherford was published in 2015 featuring illustrations by Holmes in her debut publishing project. In 2016 the book won a Caldecott honor, a Sibert Honor, and a Boston Glove Horn Book Award. In addition, Holmes won the Society of Illustrators Silver medal and the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe award for New Talent. In 2018 and 2019 Out of Wonder: Poets Celebrating Poets, and Stuff of Stars featuring Holmes’ illustrations garnered back to back Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards. This new enterprise is nurtured by and contributes to her studio practice.

Holmes is also the founder and lead artist of the Roxbury Sunflower Project, now in its 7th year. The project is a collective community installation which distributes free sunflower seeds as well as invites residents, organizations and businesses to plant and nurture sunflower gardens in and around Roxbury as elegant symbols of the community’s deep roots, resilience, and radiance. Currently Holmes directs MassArt’s sparc! the ArtMobile, pursuing a mission to “ignite art and design in the neighborhood!”

CORETTA: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. CORETTA SCOTT KING

Ekua Holmes brings to life in a children’s picture book the autobiography of Coretta Scott King––wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.; founder of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (the King Center); architect of the MLK, Jr. legacy; and global leader in movements for civil and human rights as well as peace. In the book you will learn how a girl born in the segregated deep south became a global leader at the forefront of the peace movement and an unforgettable champion of social change.

This abridged illustrated version of Coretta Scott King’s autobiography is both powerful and beautiful. Multimedia collages dominate the pages: layered portraits, straightforward portrayals of the text, and mosaics incorporating newspaper print and photographs. Bright colors counteract the sepia and black-and-white tones of the newspaper pictures. The use of collage allows readers to feel the different waves of emotions, especially as the text turns to the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King’s life afterward. The motif of flowers ties the book together, showing grace in a time of tragedy.