Among her many achievements, Chase-Riboud is also :

~ The first American woman to visit the People's Republic of China after the Revolution (1965)

~ The first American woman to have a personal exhibition at a major American museum (The University Museum, Berkeley)

~ the first living American woman to have a personal exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of New York,

( the Paul Klee gallery, 1999)

~A dual citizen of France and the United States, the French government knighted Chase-Riboud in March, 1996.

In 1998, she was commissioned to create the African Burial Ground Memorial sculpture for the U.S. Federal building in New York.

She feels that this historic monument, entitled Africa Rising, is a culmination of her varied accomplishments in history, literature, poetry and sculpture.

In 1999 and 2000, Chase Riboud completed the century with several major museum personal exhibitions including

The Metropolita Museum in New York,

The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore and The New Orleans Art Museum.

In 2001 her Malcolm X number 3 was acquired by The Philadelphia Art Museum for their permanent collection as part of their 150th anniversary celebration and her Cleopatra's Marriage Contract was featured in the British Museum's Cleopatra Exhibition.

Barbara Chase-Riboud's place in history, is a culmination of accomplishments in both literature, poetry and sculpture & all the threads of her creative life woven into one unique expression, itself evoking the intricate and delicate interweaving of one common heritage.

Listen to Barbara Chase-Riboud on her lastes novel,"Hottentot Venus",winner of the American Library Associations black caucus prize for Best Fiction 2004

Length 6:34 click here

See Barbara Chase-Riboud on PBS

'Imagining Sally Hemings'