"Congresswoman Barbara Lee Speaks to Me," paper doll, 2023

 

I love collecting paper dolls of historical figures--past and present. So, when I heard that writer Arabella Grayson and artist Bruce Patrick Jones had teamed up for a paper doll book of Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), I knew I had to have it. The book--a folio of 12 unbound pages--is a lovely tribute to a trailblazer.

"Congresswoman Barbara Lee Speaks to Me," immerses the reader in the life and times of the congresswoman who has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1998. The folio features a six-and-a-half inch doll and 11 outfits.

Rep. Lee has become a beacon of progressive leadership on issues such as racial equity, women's rights, climate change, restorative justice, gun control, LGBQT rights and more. She's also running for the U.S. Senate seat once occupied by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died in September. Although the book's release coincides with Rep. Lee's run for the U.S. Senate, it is independent of her campaign.

Arabella Grayson, a journalist, has compiled a timeline of Lee's life and career interspersed with inspirational quotes from the congresswoman's speeches and writing.

"Why Barbara Lee?" Grayson wrote recently. "I used to live in her district in the San Francisco Bay Area. We're both Mills College alums, graduating when it was still a women's college. We attended the same church. She's a staunch advocate for children's, women's and workers' rights."

Grayson curates "Two Hundred Years of Black Paper Dolls," containing more than 100 Black paper dolls from her collection for a touring exhibit that has traveled to The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures, the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles and the Mills College F.W. Olin Library. She earned a master's degree in liberal studies from Mills College and holds an undergraduate degree in public relations from San Jose State University. She studied acting at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. A talented writer and award-winning photographer, her work has appeared in numerous, books, magazines and newspapers. She is a contributing writer to Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady (SUNY Press, 2009).

Bruce Patrick Jones is a longtime illustrator and paper doll artist, well known and beloved in the paper doll community. His exquisite illustrations have made his paper doll books highly collectible.

To order the paper doll folio, click here.