12/10/2025
With the transition of Napoleon Jones-Henderson to the realm of ancestors, we have lost a truly great artist, teacher, researcher, and friend. He stood out as an African-centric critic of the arts tradition to which he contributed so much. Always expansive in his thinking, Jones-Henderson worked in many media pursuing interests in printmaking, fabrics and design, mural-making and enameling. An exponent of the Chicago-spawned AfriCobra movement in Black Art, he conducted creative projects across the globe including Europe, the Caribbean and Africa as well as the African Diaspora beyond. Through his imaginative imagery he celebrated the colors, patterns, energy and soul of continental and Diaspora African legacies. In his many commissions, he always integrated young people that he mentored carefully. His artistic impact stretched over more than half a century reaching myriad communities and increasing both understanding and appreciation of what it really meant to declare that “we are an African people”.
Edmund Barry Gaither
Executive Director Emeritus
Image: Roxbury Rhapsody by Napoleon Jones-Henderson
