Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries in Atlanta, Georgia celebrates the seventieth anniversary of the founding of its permanent collection and the sixtieth anniversary of the unveiling of the "Art of the Negro" murals with this commemorative volume. Initially conceived with works selected from annual exhibitions, the collection today constitutes a rare and remarkable assemblage of African-American art. "In the Eye of the Muses "tells the story of the Atlanta University Art Annuals held between 1942 and 1970, from which the collection stemmed, cataloging the 887 artists who participated and crucially enhancing our understanding of art by African Americans. In an accompanying essay, Hale Woodruff's "Art of the Negro" mural suite is eloquently explicated by art critic Jerry Cullum. "In the Eye of the Muses" presents a monumental catalogue of a unique collection.

Beauty pageants are wildly popular in the U.S. Virgin Islands, outnumbering any other single performance event and capturing the attention of the local people from toddlers to seniors. Local beauty contests provide women opportunities to demonstrate talent, style, the values of black womanhood, and the territory's social mores.

"Queen of the Virgins: Pageantry and Black Womanhood in the Caribbean" is a comprehensive look at the centuries-old tradition of these expressions in the Virgin Islands. M. Cynthia Oliver maps the trajectory of pageantry from its colonial precursors at tea meetings, dance dramas, and street festival parades to its current incarnation as the beauty pageant or "queen show." For the author, pageantry becomes a lens through which to view the region's understanding of gender, race, sexuality, class, and colonial power.

Focusing on the queen show, Oliver reveals its twin roots in slave celebrations that parodied white colonial behavior and created creole royal rituals and celebrations heavily influenced by Africanist aesthetics. Using the U.S. Virgin Islands as an intriguing case study, Oliver shows how the pageant continues to reflect, reinforce, and challenge Caribbean cultural values concerning femininity. "Queen of the Virgins" examines the journey of the black woman from degraded body to vaunted queen and how this progression is marked by social unrest, growing middle-class sensibilities, and contemporary sexual and gender politics.

This first comprehensive publication on New York-based interdisciplinary artist Autumn Knight documents her performances addressing the regulation of African American female bodies. Accompanying these images are scores and notes, text by performance studies scholars and an artist interview with choreographer Cynthia Oliver.