Retired Professor Emeritus of ceramics and humanities at Florida A&M University, Leatrice Yvonne Edwards-Tucker is a multi-award winning sculpture whose ceramics career began as a student at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles i1962-65. She studied under Helen Watson, and was highly influenced by Peter Volkous’ West Coast freeform pottery style and Paul Soldner’s Japanese Raku firing technique. Born and raised in Chicago, “Yvonne” moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA after obtaining her degree in art education from University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

While at Otis Art Institute, she met her future husband, Curtis Tucker. Fascinated by her interest in ceramics, Curtis spent a lot of time with Yvonne at in the ceramics studio, where she taught him Raku. Otis graduates Michael Fremkis and Bob Glover, Watson’s assistant, spent many long nights with them in studio as well, influencing Yvonne and Curtis’ ceramics creations. Over time, Yvonne and Curtis developed a new firing technique for Japanese raku which, when coupled with African inspired drawings on their ceramic pieces, they coined “Afro-Raku.”

Yvonne Edwards-Tucker started her ceramics teaching career at Miami-Dade College, Florida in 1968. The majority of her teaching career was at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida where she taught ceramics and humanities from 1973-2003. She retired after 30 years at FAMU, and was awarded Professor Emerita status.