I have been a UFDC member-at-large since 2005, which includes a subscription to their quarterly publication,
Doll News. In the past seven years, I have never been as fascinated by a
Doll News issue as I am with the current one. I reveled at the following:
- A black fashion doll graces the cover. (There may have
been one issue of Doll News in the past seven years with an antique black cloth doll on the cover, but never a modern
black doll of any type),
- There are four (count them: 1, 2, 3, 4) articles on black dolls in this issue, and
- A black paper doll is also included!
What?
This is history.
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| Deva Dolls 2010 limited edition Malaika is a lovely cover girl for the Fall 2012 Doll News! |
The gorgeous cover doll of the Fall 2012 issue of
Doll News is
Deva Dolls 2010 limited edition
Malaika redressed in
Summer Nights Cami and Jon fashion by Robert Tonner with wig by Michael Hawaii.
Malaika and several other haute couture dolls, many if not all have been restyled, are featured in the 24-page article,
Black in Fashion by Ian Price. Yes, there are 24 pages that comprise mostly full page images of beautiful black dolls! (In a doll periodical, this was unheard of before now.)
The Lady of Sudan Goes to Paris, a paper doll by Peggy Jo Rosamond from 1988 follows the Price article.
A Doll Jambalaya is a two-page feature on Cynthia Orgeron and Northshore Doll Club's special doll exhibit held at the UFDC Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana this past July. Several black cloth dolls are shown in the included images.
A Stitch In Time Folk Art Black Cloth Dolls is an image-intense, eight-page report of the special black-cloth doll exhibit curated by Joyce Stamps at this year's UFDC Convention.
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| Among several other genres, a nice collection of South African Ndebele dolls is featured in the fourth article in the current issue of UFDC's Doll News. |
Curator, artist, and educator Nashormeh Lindo talks with Ian Price about the exhibition she curated at the African American Art and Culture Complex in San Francisco. This 12-page article features several genres of vintage-to-modern African and black dolls. The article also references my first book,
The Definitive Guide to Collecting Black Dolls, along with other noted black-doll reference books.
In
Black in Fashion, Ian writes: "Nowadays, doll makers have embraced the diversity of our
culture and black fashion dolls are represented as never before." I hope the publishing industry catches up and rides the black-doll inclusion wave as successfully as
Doll News did in their current issue.
Collectors of black dolls not only understand and appreciate the significance of all black doll genres, they also enjoy and deserve to routinely see the dolls they love in print.
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