Category: Cultural Thoughts
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Sankofa in the Rail: Notes from the Ancestors at Coffee Bluff
Sankofa in the Rail: Notes from the Ancestors at Coffee Bluff
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Today felt like a love note from the ancestors. I was on set for Port SAVant’s music video “Movin,” which features a snippet of my TEDx Talk layered into the track. The song is all about returning to self, moving with purpose, and honoring our origins. So it felt perfect…
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“Ain’t No Way”: Okra, Perloo, and Proof We All Cousins
“Ain’t No Way”: Okra, Perloo, and Proof We All Cousins
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I talk to Moustaph almost every day. He’s my Wolof tutor, based in Senegal. I’m in Savannah, Georgia. Our sessions are part language lesson, part cultural exchange, and part catching up between cousins—because that’s exactly what it feels like we are. We always start with greetings, because in Senegalese culture,…
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Against the Grain: On Quilting, Rebellious Spirits, and the Miseducation of Wendy Kendrick
Against the Grain: On Quilting, Rebellious Spirits, and the Miseducation of Wendy Kendrick
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“When the house creaks or makes some weird sound, I just say ‘Hey, Ms. Aminah.’ I figure she’s just tipping through to see what I’m working on.” I smiled when Wendy Kendrick, the 2021 Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Fellowship recipient, said that. The fellowship includes a three-month residency in Ms.…
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Re-Membering Women’s History: Laura Gadson and Shimoda Donna Emanuel’s Story
Re-Membering Women’s History: Laura Gadson and Shimoda Donna Emanuel’s Story
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Any good visual artist, writer, musician, or dancer will tell you that the process of creating is deeply spiritual. Artists are vessels for the ancestors to communicate. Like when they told Shimoda Donna Emanuel that she wants to learn how to make jewelry—a craft that’s granted her a seat at…