37. Mom Rose

Melvina Lathan has pursued a dual career as a fiber artist and as a professional boxing judge. In 1991, she became the first African American female licensed as a professional boxing judge in the state of New York where she currently serves as the Commissioner of the New York State Athletic Commission. She has judged for all of the major world and international sanctioning organizations and received many boxing-related honors. Lathan was invited to join a consulting team which contributed to the earliest stages of planning and development for the Muhammad Ali Center, now located in Louisville, Kentucky. When not at ringside, Melvina is an exhibiting artist and photographer. As a mixed media artist, Lathan has worked with fiber art for over thirty-five years. Through fiber art she uses a whimsical approach to create and explore the images of America's multiculturalism by interjecting pattern and dimension, often incorporating natural and semi-precious stones, hand carvings and other natural raw materials and objects. She has exhibited her work in galleries and museums throughout the world. She also constructs sculptural and glass assemblages. Bold in color, texture and symmetry, her sculptures offer a daring contemporary contrast to the "old world" stained glass. As a costume designer she has created costumes for New York Off-Broadway Theater, and has served as design consultant for numerous MTV music video productions. Melvina is a graduate of the Franklin College of Science and Arts.