L. Frank (born 1952) is the ''nom d'arte'' of L. Frank Manriquez, an American artist, writer, scholar, cartoonist, and activist for Indigenous languages from

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. She lives and works in Santa Rosa, California.

Art

In 1990, L. Frank was Artist in Residence at the Headland Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California; her artwork has been exhibited widely throughout California and appears in several publications.

Publications

Her regular column/graphic, "Acorn Soup", has appeared in the quarterly newsletter ''News from Native California'' since 1992. "Acorn Soup" features the comic adventures of Coyote in his various guises: the Creator of the Universe and the Buffoon, the Trickster and the Tricked, always the Indian's Wise Fool. A selection of L. Frank's "Acorn Soup" cartoons have been collected and published in book form. Concerning L. Frank, one reviewer of the book a
Amazon.com
commented: "Introducing the Gary Larson of the Native American cartoon world!" Another book, "First Families: Photographic History of California Indians" with co-author Kim Hogeland, was published in September 2006. It is an introduction to California's native populations, with pictures such as the re-creation and sailing of the ''tii'at'' (a traditional Tongva/Gabrieleño canoe) off Catalina Island in 1995, to the 1918 picture of Kumeyaay men performing a sacred funerary dance with ''karuk'' dolls, to an image from 1932 of Salinans leading anthropologist J. P. Harrington on an expedition along California's central coast. Each chapter covers a different region of California, with brief essays introducing the region's cultures, histories, and contemporary life.

Community activism

She is a former board member of the California Indian Basketweavers Association and one of seven founding board members of the Advocates for Indigenous California Languages, organizations that are involved in the preservation and revival of Native Californian languages through traditional arts practice, language immersion, conferences and workshops. She has won several awards for her activities, including from the American Association of University Women, the

James Irvine Foundation The James Irvine Foundation is a philanthropic nonprofit organization that provides grants to other organizations in California. The foundation was created in 1937 by James Harvey Irvine Sr. (1867–1947), as a charitable organization to hold cont ...

, the Fund for Folk Culture (for travel to the Native Californian art collection at the Musée de l' Homme in Paris). In 1995 she was featured as a "Local Hero" in KQED-TV/Examiner Newspaper's Native American Heritage Month series. Frank is also active in the

Two-Spirit ''Two-spirit'' (also known as ''two spirit'' or occasionally ''twospirited'', or abbreviated as ''2S'' or ''2E'', especially in Canada) is a umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people who fulfill a trad ...

culture educating and spreading awareness of issues. In response to the Pope canonizing Juniper Serra, Frank with Corine Fairbanks and other activists held several publicized rallies to bring to light the detrimental affect that the mission system had on

California Indians Indigenous peoples of California, commonly known as Indigenous Californians or Native Californians, are a diverse group of nations and peoples that are indigenous to the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and afte ...

. In 2016, Frank built a traditional Tongva tule boat for Northwest Journeys, an intertribal event in Washington state, which was highlighted on the KCET channel. In the fall of that year, she was a speaker on Native American rights and the protection of the Earth at the Dakota Pipeline protest. She stated the media's coverage of the event has been misconstrued. "We don’t want violence or perceived violence to be what’s on the media." In June 2019, Frank was awarded the Alexis Arquette Family Foundation , LA Pride 2 Spirits Activist Award.Trans Activist Bamby Salcedo to Be Honored at LA Pride FEM(ME) Event
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References

External links

L. Frank bio and video
Mingei International Museum

* ttp://www.aicls.org/ Advocates for Indigenous California Languagesbr>California Indian Basketweavers Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frank, L. 1952 births Living people 20th-century American photographers 20th-century American writers American basket weavers Painters from California 20th-century American painters 20th-century American illustrators American comics artists Native American language revitalization People from Santa Rosa, California 20th-century American women artists American women basket weavers American non-binary writers American non-binary artists Non-binary activists