Phyllis Marie Bowdwin, creator of the Middle Passage African Holocaust Collection has been designing jewelry for over 25 years.  She has studied in the Ivory Coast, West Africa, Taxco, Mexico, Parsons School of Design, The Crafts Students League and the Educational Alliance.

Ms. Bowdwin's Middle Passage pins and poster have been acquired for the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York.  Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Essence Magazine, BET Weekend Magazine, U. S. News & World Report, The Daily News, Jet Magazine, the Winston Salem Journal and the Smithsonian's American Visions holiday catalog.  Her work has been exhibited and sold at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, the Museum of African American History in Detroit, the Museum of African American Art in Tampa, the National Black Arts Festival In Atlanta, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, where she received an award for the most unique work in the African Marketplace.

Collectors of her work include Ms. Susan Taylor, New York State Regent Adelaide Sanford, Dr. Francis Cress Welsing, Dr. Barbara King, and Mr. Stevie Wonder.

Ms. Bowdwin enjoys working with several mediums to produce her unique, award winning line of jewelry.  Inspired by her African ancestry, Ms. Bowdwin works to reconcile the ancient, traditional techniques of the African masters with the influences of contemporary arts to achieve her unique style.  She experiments with organic materials, such as translucent wood, amber, crystal, cowrie shell, bone and grass cloth, combining them with gold, silver, brass, pewter and copper metals.  Her technique includes metal sculpting, etching. embossing, lost wax casting, fold forming, and roller printing.

A native New Yorker, Ms. Bowdwin continues to live in the Bronx, where she has her studio and runs her company, "Who Deserves It More Than You?" In addition, Ms. Bowdwin is a Teacher Trainer for the New York City Board of Education, a curriculum developer for the New York State Education Department, and a Life Skills teacher in a homeless shelter.  She is currently helping community-based organizations raise funds with her Middle Passage/MAAFA collection.  Ms. Bowdwin hopes to continue to interest and excite her patrons with her eclectic creations, and to find a voice for her observations and Insights into life as an African American woman, artist, motivator, teacher and crisis intervention counselor.