by Deputy Diva

If you saw the movie “Akeelah & the Bee”and recall the scene where Akeelah and her spelling mentor gaze at a sculpture of Frederick Douglass, you’ve seen the exquisite work of Tina Allen. 

Tina Allen was born in Hempstead, NY.  She set out to educate the public about historical African-Ameicans who were not household names.  Her first piece that put her on the map was a 9-foot bronze sculpture of labor leader A. Philip Randolph, who helped organize a union for sleeping car porters in the 1920s, for a train station in Boston. 

Over the next 22 years Allen created more than a dozen other sculptures of black activists to be displayed in public spaces. Whether her subjects were famous or not, her works were her way of “writing our history in bronze,” Allen said.

One of her most highly publicized works was a 13-foot bronze of author Alex Haley, whose 1976 book “Roots” inspired people around the world to trace their family history.  SOURCE

Tina Allen passed on Tuesday, after complications resulting from a heart attack.  The world has truly lost a gifted and talented sister!