Rein Whitt-Pritchette: The Folks on Coffee Hill

Rein Whitt-Pritchette grew up in Colorado and began drawing as a child. He served as a radio operator in the Vietnam War, and after returning home, took up art as a serious career. The Folks on Coffee Hill is a long-term series of serigraphs that depicts Greek myths featuring contemporary African American individuals as gods. Coffee Hill is Whitt-Pritchette’s Mount Olympus. The word ‘myth’ can refer to both foundational origin stories as well as widely held false beliefs. Whitt-Pritchette challenges ideas about whose stories get told and how. Odysseus successfully demonstrates that this depiction of the hero is just as valid as any other.