A Whistlin' Girl and a Crowing Hen

Rosalind Wilcox, the subject of "A Whistlin' Girl", is an artist, educator and musician. Rosalind is a brilliant storyteller. She is warm, funny, talented, extraordinarily capable, and a very human being. Her striking resilience and generous spirit illuminate the film.

Rosalind was born at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and grew up on the South Side in a neighborhood called Bronzeville. Her parents, along with many aunts and uncles, left deep roots in rural Mississippi when they headed North after World War II to make a different kind of life for themselves and their children. That they were part of a mass cultural movement known as the Great Migration is something realized in retrospect. In real time, each person makes an individual decision to stay or go, whether headed North or South toward home.

Rosalind Wilcox earned an M.F.A. in Art Therapy from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Rosalind also earned a Master of Arts degree from The University of Mississippi. Rosalind practiced Art Therapy at the University of Chicago Medical Center following studies at the Art Institute. After moving to Mississippi, Rosalind taught visual arts at The University of Mississippi and later at the Mississippi Arts Honors High School before joining the faculty at a historically black community college. Rosalind is now Chair of Fine Arts at Coahoma Community College in Clarksdale, Mississippi.