Book excerpt: This omnibus volume offers a unique look at a fascinating and evocative strain of art that originated chiefly in the rural American South and in the black cultural centers as blacks migrated across the continent. Pictorial quilts, sculpture and carvings, basketry, pottery, forged metal, musical instruments, and dwellings---these are among the forms that express this appealingly quaint yet powerful presence in American art and African folk heritage from which this wonderful art springs. Celebrating its African folk roots and the individual artists whose lives are so closely intertwined with their art, this illuminating introduction collects writings by sixteen notable scholars of this rich and varied treasury of folk culture. Contributors include Marie Jeanne Adams, Elizabeth Adler, Simon Bronner, John Burrison, Gerald L. Davis, Dena Epstein, David Evans, William R. Ferris, Roland L. Freeman, Christopher Lornell, Brenda McCallum, Clarence Mohr, John Scully, Ellen Slack, Robert F. Thompson, Mary Twining, John Vlach, and Maude Wahlman.