Rosie and Tobias Washington were Black farmers in 1902 who had seven children and raised peanuts, vegetables, cotton, cows, hogs, and horses. Tobias died in 1915 and great grandmother Rosie Washington, inherited the farm and became the sole operator of the farm. Grandmother Rosie taught her children and grandchildren the importance of farming not just for survival, but as a farming business. As an artist and descendant of land developing people I locate my responsibility to ethically document, interpret and represent land stewarding narratives for contemporary audiences to consider their role in the preservation movements.
Mo’lasses: an Integrated Ancestral Technologies Project. This work consists of iterative combinations of archival research imagined through visual, performance, sonic and immersive installations using found objects from my ancestral land. The aim is to collect and reinterpret cultural data relating to the memories and material archives of rural southern black settlements and its relevance especially for contemporary descendant audiences. .
The Mary Allen Museum of African-American Art and History is seeking to restore Mary Allen Hall by reigniting the same spirit of cooperation and goodwill that led to the school’s founding. Having suffered from fire, neglect and natural disasters, the brick walls remain standing while the interior is in a state of collapse due to aerial elemental exposure after the collapse of the ceiling in 2019. Through careful preservation planning and support for an ongoing capital campaign, it is hoped that Texans will rally to save this architectural and educational landmark. However after nearly 20 years of attempted preservation efforts this small town is beginning to lose stamina in the race to keep on keeping on.
SPIRIT OF THE ARCHIVE // SANKOFA AS PRAXIS THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2023 | 6-8 PM AAHRC/HPL- Gregory Campus 1300 Viktor Street Houston, TX 77019 This event is in partial fulfillment of the of the Scholar-in-Residence program, a joint initiative created and supported by Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL) and African American History Research Center/Houston Public Library (AAHRC/HPL). Watch our 2023 Scholar-in-Residence Viktor le. Givens for his culminating lecture, a hybrid performance ritual and research presentation that explores the spiritual and cultural potentials in working with archives as a site for liberation and identity (re)creation.
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