Springfield Symphony Hall, 34 Court St. Springfield, MA

Like all Springfield Public Forum events, this event is free to the public with no tickets required. There is on-street metered parking, free parking at MGM Springfield two blocks away, or a parking garage right next to Springfield Symphony Hall under I-91 at 1620 E. Columbus Ave, Springfield. If you park in the garage under I-91, you can receive $2 parking. Simply pay for your parking in the lobby of Symphony Hall at the event. Cash only and exact change appreciated.

There will be a book signing of “The Art of Ruth E. Carter: Costuming Black History and the Afrofuture, from Do the Right Thing to Black Panther” after the talk. You may pre-purchase your book HERE (enter $40 in the “Custom Amount” category) and pick up at the event .

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Ruth E. Carter is the two-time Academy Award winning American film costume designer. Best known for turning the Black Panther superhero into an African King, Carter made history as the first Black person to win the Costume Design category and earned Marvel Studios their first Oscar recognition.

For BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER, Carter made history, again, for her outstanding costume design work and becomes the first Black woman to win multiple Academy Awards in any category and the first costume designer to win for the first film and its sequel.

Carter pays tribute to the people of Africa through the costumes in BLACK PANTHER and BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER. She fuses traditional and contemporary while incorporating technology to deliver fashion and function, creating Afrofuturistic pieces that empower the female form, honor ancient cultures, and invoke a deep sense of representation unlike any other costumes experienced on screen.

For BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER, Carter transforms the groundbreaking Afrofuturistic Wakandan looks from the first film and introduces new superheroes and the underwater world of the Talokan into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She was tasked with creating hundreds of costumes and multiple builds for superhero characters steeped in symbolism and storytelling from two civilizations that battle on land, in air, and underwater. Carter elevates the characters from the first film by adding more brilliance and depth of emotion and culture to the costumes and creates new wearable art with breathtaking pieces that honor post classic Mesoamerican Maya culture for the Indigenous futuristic Talokan.

Over three decades in film, television, and theater, Carter has earned seventy credits and collaborated with prolific directors, including Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, Ava DuVernay, and Ryan Coogler. Carter’s costumes based on real and imaginative characters provide an arc to the narratives of African Americans from DO THE RIGHT THING, MALCOLM X, WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT, AMISTAD, THE BUTLER, MARSHALL, SELMA, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME, COMING 2 AMERICA to BLACK PANTHER:WAKANDA FOREVER. Her devotion to retraining the eye to see beauty through costume design and telling stories that enrich the humanity of the Black experience cements her legacy as a preeminent voice and expert on period genres and Afro aesthetics. Carter’s outstanding costume design work has been honored with Academy Award nominations for MALCOLM X (1993) and AMISTAD (1998) and an Emmy nomination for the miniseries reboot of ROOTS (2016).

The impact of her career in filmmaking has been recognized with the Costume Designers Guild’s Career Achievement Award (2019) and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2021). She is also a member of the board of governors for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Her costumes serve as an American treasure of history and culture and are on display in a traveling museum exhibition titled “Afrofuturism in Costume Design” and in her book “The Art of Ruth E. Carter” – a behind-the-scenes journey in creating the most iconic costumes in filmmaking available May 2023.

Carter is beloved in her hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts and was given the key to the city for her achievements and service to the community (2021). She is a graduate of Hampton University, Virginia (HBCU) and most recently served as their commencement speaker and was given the distinction of honorary doctorate. She holds an additional honorary doctorate from Suffolk University, Massachusetts. 

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Presented free to the public thanks to Sponsor:

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