A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects

Chairmaker Awake debuts with a wondrous celebration of how “Black people have resisted their erasure through craft” over the course of American history. Antebellum laws banning enslaved people from reading or writing led Black Americans to record their history in alternative ways, Awake explains, describing how the Pictorial Quilt of Harriet Powers, a 19th-century Georgia folk artist born into slavery, commemorated an 1833 meteor shower interpreted by enslaved people as a divine signal that they would soon be freed. Black Americans made vital contributions to Southern architecture, Awake notes, pointing out that the American-style porch derives from those built on slave cabins by enslaved Africans, who brought from their homelands more sophisticated strategies for staying cool in tropical climates than their European enslavers. Highlighting Black artists’ ingenuity across a variety of disciplines, Awake details how Richard Poyner revolutionized chair design in the mid-1800s by constructing backrests that bent backward, and how the Gullah community in the American Southeast transformed sweetgrass baskets from utilitarian tools for rice production into intricately woven decorative objects. The history offers fascinating insight into the creative ways Black artists have pushed back against oppression, and Holland’s dazzling illustrations highlight the dignity of the featured individuals and the remarkable craftsmanship that went into their creations. This will expand readers’ understanding of what crafts can do, and what they’re for. (Feb.)