Joan Maynard

Joan Bacchus Maynard (née Cooper; August 29, 1928 − January 22, 2006) was an American artist, author, community organizer, and preservationist. She was one of the founding members of a late 1960s grassroots group to preserve the legacy of Weeksville, a pre-Civil War African American community in Brooklyn, New York. Early life Maynard was born in Brooklyn, New York. She attended Bishop McDonnell Memorial High. Her father was John W. Cooper, a ventriloquist. Her mother, Julia St. Bernard, was from the Caribbean island of Grenada. She received a scholarship to attend the Art Career School in Manhattan. She graduated from Empire State College. She was a Revson Fellow at Columbia University. Career Maynard was a cover artist for The Crisis magazine, the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Bank Street College of Education.