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Updated:
29 Nov 2007
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Gateway to African American History
An exhibition of 100 striking black-and-white photographs evokes the personal stories and hard-won victories of influential African Americans who helped shape the life of their nation over the past 150 years. Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits -- the inaugural exhibition of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture -- traces the history of the United States from the vantage point of people who have suffered discrimination, oppression and injustice. Even now, after decades of social progress, the images from Resistance still challenge America to live up to its own highest ideals, according to Deborah Willis, curator of the exhibition. (complete text)
StoryCorps Turns Ordinary People into Oral Historians
Usually people come in pairs to the story booth -- a grandmother and granddaughter, a husband and wife, a father and son. They ask each other such questions as What was the hardest moment you had growing up? When did you meet your husband (or wife)? How has the Civil Rights Movement affected you personally? Their recorded recollections become part of the archive of StoryCorps, a project that is preserving the personal stories of ordinary Americans for future generations. (complete text)
Gee’s Bend Quilters Create Art from Scraps of Fabric
Generations of black women in the tiny, isolated town of Gee's Bend, Alabama, have created quilts with stunningly beautiful geometric designs and colors, but until the late 1990s, the quilts were little known beyond the community. Most of the 750 residents of Gee’s Bend are descendents of slaves who worked on a local plantation and became sharecroppers after slavery was abolished in 1863. In the last few years, the art world has taken notice of their creations, and prices for the quilts range from a few hundred dollars to more than $20,000. “This is art that deserves to be recognized,” says art historian Bernard Herman. “It speaks to something that we lose sight of, which is the presence of art in everyday life.” (complete text)
Virginia Rooted in Senegalese, Kentish and Native Cultures
The American Indian, African and English roots of modern-day Virginia culture are showcased at the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington. Festival participants include artisans, farmers and craftspeople from Senegal, where many of the first African slaves originated, as well as Kent, England, which supplied Jamestown with its first English colonists, and representatives from Virginia’s eight remaining Indian tribes. The exhibit shows how all three groups contributed to the emerging culture of the state. (complete text) |
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