In the early 1980s, archaeologists excavated land along Howard Road, SE before construction began on the Anacostia Metro Station in southeast Washington, D.C. Objects unearthed in the excavation revealed nearly 10,000 years of human settlement in the area. Their discoveries included cobble stones, useful for shaping into tools. The excavation revealed traces of a Native American camp on the Stickf
Muchos washingtonianos bailaron al ritmo de esta conga haitiana. La cabeza del tambor, formada por un parche de cuero tensado, está sujeta con cuerdas enrolladas alrededor de unas clavijas que atraviesan el cuero y sobresalen los lados del tambor en un ángulo de 45 grados. El cuerpo cilíndrico se afina en la base del tambor formando tres niveles cada vez más estrechos. En Haití es conocido como ta
El percusionista Paul Hawkins tocaba esta conga en las clases de danza y tambores africanos de Melvin Deal en el New Thing Art & Architecture Center. Este centro cultural comunitario floreció en el barrio Adams Morgan de Washington, D.C. entre 1966 y 1973. Las congas son una mezcla de tambores de África occidental y central y tambores de Cuba. La cabeza de este tambor de madera está cubierta por d
In the mid-twentieth century, handmade goods began taking on new significance amidst an increasingly industrialized and consumer-oriented society. This crocheted blanket provides a colorful example of how craft can transform an ordinary household object. Resembling a quilt, brown yarn binds individual squares together in rows of fourteen by twenty-four. Sometimes known as “Granny squares,” a stere
By the eighteenth century, needlework samplers containing moral and religious verses had become popular. Artist Ira Blount (1918-2020) draws from this earlier tradition in his embroidered piece featuring a fruit tree and text reading “Hear and learn to be silent, be silent and learn to understand, understand and learn to remember.” The end of the sentence is further punctuated by two black birds f
Longtime DC resident Ira Blount was born in Tennessee, but global influences inspired his work. Here, Blount has created an intricate cross-stich embroidery that depicts a woman wearing a floral kimono peering over a fan that partially covers her mouth. She crouches at the edge of water, her head framed by a ring of cascading flowers, while a dragonfly flutters nearby. The needlework piece is char
The twig rim of this wall basket produces a natural, uneven shape. Wood splints and round reeds are woven in a plain weave. The handle, also made of twig, attaches to the basket with a God’s Eye design. A macrame decoration made of red and mauve pony beads hangs below the rim on one side.
The Cuíca is a friction drum of African origin played in the batucada (an ensemble of instruments used for the samba) during the Brazilian carnival. It is a membranophone, which is an instrument that produces its sound by the vibration of a stretched membrane. A rod is fixed in the center of the drumskin and projects inside the shell. The sound is produced by rubbing the rod between the thumb and
This basket is cylindrical in shape and lacks a handle. The wood splint rim is double-lashed and shows evidence of a slightly uneven resinous coating. The body combines wood splints, round reeds, and double plied twisted seagrass cord to create depth and texture. The weave and the shape suggest the storage possibilities for this basket. Artist Ira Blount has remarked that “nowadays, we’ll run to t