Costume designer Ruth E. Carter to provide Black History Month keynote

Legendary costume designer Ruth E. Carter will provide the Black History Month keynote address in a special event on Sunday, Feb. 27 in Union South.

Presented by the Wisconsin Union Theater, the Black History Month Planning Committee, and the Black Cultural Center, “An Evening with Ruth E. Carter” will feature a lecture and discussion with the acclaimed designer, followed by a Q&A.

Poster for the Black History Month keynote event: An Evening with Ruth E. Carter. Details about the event are in the web post.Over her 30-year career, Carter has worked across genres and brought her skills to more than 60 diverse film and television projects, including Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” and “Malcolm X,” Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad,” and the 2018 Marvel film “Black Panther,” for which she became the first African American woman to win an Oscar for best costume design.

Event Details

  • Date: Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022
  • Time: 7:00 p.m. CT (doors open 6:30)
  • Location: Varsity Hall, Union South, 1308 W. Dayton St.
  • Cost: Free and open to the public

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Black History Month 2022

About Ruth E. Carter

Carter is an expert storyteller who harnesses the power of visual communication to share narratives of culture, race, and politics. Creating costumes for generation-defining films, she brings vibrancy, nuance, color, and texture to each of her culture-shifting characters. Carter’s deep understanding of character, combined with her nuanced use of color and texture, has made her an essential storyteller committed to sharing the past, present, and future of Black culture.

Carter was born in Springfield, Mass. She attended the historically Black college Hampton University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Theater Arts. Initially, Carter pursued acting, but her work in the college wardrobe department led her to discover the art of costume design. Carter apprenticed at the Santa Fe Opera before relocating to Los Angeles where she designed costumes for stage productions and dance studios. In 1988, Spike Lee recruited Carter to design the costumes for his film “School Daze.” She has since worked with Lee on 14 films and has designed for many other directors including Ryan Coogler, Lee Daniels, Ava DuVernay, John Singleton, and Steven Spielberg.

In 2019, Carter was the subject of an episode of “Abstract,” a Netflix documentary series highlighting artists working in the field of design. The same year, she was honored by the Costume Designers Guild with a Career Achievement Award and by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science who awarded her the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. Learn more…