news | Thursday February 19, 2026

Selma Burke: Carving a Sculptor's Life Has Arrived!

The first of our 2026 titles has returned from the printer and we couldn’t be more excited that Selma Burke: Carving a Sculptor’s Life by Caroline Russell-King and Maria Crooks is making its book debut! This award-winning play imagines the life of African American sculptor Dr. Selma Hortense Burke. Selma Burke’s art recorded many of the momentous events of her long life, including lynchings, the Harlem Renaissance, the Holocaust, and the assassination of Martin Luther King. An exceptional artist and a record keeper of some of the most major occurrences of the twentieth century, Burke’s work was stolen by the government, destroyed by her husband, and dismissed by many, and yet she persisted in creating art, understanding that it is easier to rip something apart than to make something from scratch.

An excerpt from Selma Burke:

“SELMA
Are we only going to learn about European art?

PROFESSOR
I think I know what you are asking. An example would be Matisse. In 1906 he took a trip to North Africa and fell in love with an African statue. Matisse used this image throughout the course of his career. This was considered revolutionary.

SELMA
Isn’t that considered theft?

PROFESSOR
Homage. (to the class) Matisse would see this as a form of cultural exchange –

SELMA
Where is Matisse?

PROFESSOR
He’s in Paris. He works in his atelier, where he takes in a very select few gifted proteges.

SELMA
He’ll take me.

…

SELMA
Everything is so grand in scale and composition. Which do you like?

MATISSE
Most of it is not to my taste. I’m just sorry there is so little for you to see.

SELMA
So little? I was overwhelmed by it all!

MATISSE
Well, modern art isn’t there, and of the antiquities we lost so much.

SELMA
When?

MATISSE
We had this little thing called the French Revolution.

SELMA
The peasant uprising, the rebellion against the monarchy. They were justified. They were hungry.

MATISSE
But in their zeal to overthrow, they destroyed so many statues, so many frescos, so many oils.

SELMA
They felt justified, having been exploited.

MATISSE
The need to punish others is not a good motivation to deprive your children of the bounty of artists.

SELMA
Their children were deprived of food.

MATISSE
Selling art would buy bread, destroying it – no.”

Order your copy of this remarkable play that asks who is allowed to make art, and who is allowed to unmake it. Order your copy of Selma Burke: Carving a Sculptor’s Life here.