Crowns : Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats

Rating:
Summary: Symbols of Reverence
Review: "Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats" is a genuine treasure and a breathtaking illustration of fine art. Photographer Michael Cunningham and journalist Craig Marberry exemplify the meaning of a queen with their artistry. The first portrait invites you to begin a journey that will lead you page by page through history with the inspirational and candid stories of each woman bearing a Sunday worship service crown. Truly this book extends to all religions by exploring one simple, but ever important symbol of showing reverence to God.

Rating:
Summary: Symbols of Reverence
Review: "Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats" is a genuine treasure and a breathtaking illustration of fine art. Photographer Michael Cunningham and journalist Craig Marberry exemplify the meaning of a queen with their artistry. The first portrait invites you to begin a journey that will lead you page by page through history with the inspirational and candid stories of each woman bearing a Sunday worship service crown. Truly this book extends to all religions by exploring one simple, but ever important symbol of showing reverence to God.

Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous elegance
Review: "Crowns: Portraits of Women in Church Hats" brought to memory many Sundays in church when I was a child. Women walked with regal grace when wearing their church hats. I saw some of these women during the week and many were plain and quite ordinary in appearance. But at 11:00 on Sunday morning, they were elegant and stately as they strutted, in their church hats, towards their seats in the sanctuary. The photgraphs are as beautiful as the women they portray. This is a "must have" book for any woman who loves gorgeous hats and the women who wear them.

Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous elegance
Review: "Crowns: Portraits of Women in Church Hats" brought to memory many Sundays in church when I was a child. Women walked with regal grace when wearing their church hats. I saw some of these women during the week and many were plain and quite ordinary in appearance. But at 11:00 on Sunday morning, they were elegant and stately as they strutted, in their church hats, towards their seats in the sanctuary. The photgraphs are as beautiful as the women they portray. This is a "must have" book for any woman who loves gorgeous hats and the women who wear them.

Rating:
Summary: A feast for both the eyes and soul
Review: "I going to meet the King, I must look my best"....Crowns is a celebration of women of color and the hats they wear to church. Back when, "when a woman got her feet under her, then she bought a hat". This is a testiment of faith and joy. featuring women of all ages and backgrounds, it features the women wearing their favorite hats and then a page or so of their comments. Many stories are told of the first hat, and of family sacrifice so the woman of the house could have proper church wear. This is a celebration of faith and joy....and a balm to this southerner, removed to a land where hats are not worn.....a true delight.

Rating:
Summary: Hat Owner Says Thumbs Up!!!!!
Review: As the owner of one of the few hat businesses in Iowa, I give "Crowns" a thumbs up, five star rating. The book is truly a journey across America that lands you on the pews next to a wide cross section of African American women, any given Sunday morning. Each photograph tells its own story.......the faces and places portrayed in this illustrative essay...causes the reader's mind to come alive and make new friends with "hat stylish" sisters from all walks of life. Creators, Cunningham and Marberry are to be commended for telling the story about our passion for earthly crowns and glory, the hat.

Rating:
Summary: Regal women, beautiful hats
Review: Coming out of a hat wearing, church going family of women, I really enjoyed this book. I bought a copy for my sister-in-law and my mother! The hats were beautiful (too bad they didn't use color photographs), and I enjoyed the stories of the women who were wearing the hats.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: From a visual anthropology perspective this book is great. I live in Memphis, Tn where the COGIC convention is every year and we see SOME HATS! We call it the Hat Parade. These women are strong and reflective of the class that women in hats posess...
The photography is wonderful, the commentary fun and enlightening.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: From a visual anthropology perspective this book is great. I live in Memphis, Tn where the COGIC convention is every year and we see SOME HATS! We call it the Hat Parade. These women are strong and reflective of the class that women in hats posess...
The photography is wonderful, the commentary fun and enlightening.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Rating:
Summary: Crowns--Pictorial Essay of An African American Legacy
Review: From the yesterday jungles of our Motherland to the sanctuaries of today's 21st Century Temples, high profile headresses have been and will always be significant cultural markers for African American Women. Being a frequent hat-bearing female, myself, I thank the author and photojournalist for making their literary commentaries regarding our fetish to be unusually dressed about the head. For me, my interests in hats began as a 7 year-old while watching my mother and her 7 sisters step out on Sunday mornings, dressed to perfection. I would look up at all of them with sheer adoration for their adorning crowns. What was even more intriguing was that each of their hats were "hand-me-down, make-overs" from the rich white women on the avenues who employed these women as domestic workers. So beit, they were day workers during the week; but as soon as they donned their hats, they were queens for a day...Sunday Morning, that is.