DEBRA EUBANKS RIFFE is a native of Tupelo (Lee County), Mississippi. She earned her BFA from Howard University, College of Fine Arts, Washington DC and has been a professional graphic designer and illustrator for more than thirty years. Her studio practice is, exclusively, original hand-printed relief prints of woodcuts and linoleum blocks.

While living abroad, in the northwestern seaport city of Barranquilla, Colombia, South America, Debra discovered a common set of experiences that paralleled traditional life patterns of small towns in the American south. Civil rights activism, food apartheid, environmental injustice, illiteracy and the customs and traditions practiced within the African American community are topics that continually shape her visual narratives.

Debra has exhibited extensively. A few in-state venues include the Alabama Center for the Arts (Athens), Jemison Carnegie Heritage Hall (Talladega), Johnson Center for the Arts (Troy), Wiregrass Museum of Art (Dothan), Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts (Florence), Lowe Mill Arts (Huntsville), ArtsRevive (Selma), Rosa Parks Museum (Montgomery), Meridian Museum of Art (Meridian, MS), Gumtree Museum of Art (Tupelo, MS), and the Freedom Rides Museum/Historic Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station where she has a linoleum block relief print of civil rights activist James Peck on permanent display. Indian Springs School (Indian Springs, AL), the University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point (WI) and Dillard University (New Orleans, LA) hold an exclusive portfolio of thirty 16” x 20” linoleum block prints entitled “Holding the Line.” The black and white images were created to honor the activists and foot soldiers of the 1963 Birmingham Civil Rights Campaign and marked the 50th year anniversary of the iconic event.