Art-Making for the Ancestors: Ifé Franklin's Ancestor Slave Cabin Workshop

An immersive community art-making event, Ifé Franklin's Ancestor Slave Cabin Workshop guides participants of all ages in creating miniature cabin dwellings designed to honor the ancestral spirits of enslaved African-descended people in the Americas.

Using fabric, beads, buttons, shells, raffia, patterned paper, craft sticks, and images celebrating Black identity, this hands-on workshop personalizes the spaces and lives of the enslaved, inviting participants to transform the painful history of slavery by creating dwellings of beauty, love, and dignity. Throughout the gathering, a curated slideshow and playlist will immerse participants in a celebration of Black family, beauty, resistance, resilience, and cultural pride. Ms. Franklin -- whose practice is rooted in the power of art to heal -- describes the miniature cabin creations as “offerings or gifts to the spirits of these ancestors, who never had a home of their own.”

Presented by Research BIPOC History, "Art-Making for the Ancestors" will especially lift up the names of enslaved and free Black ancestors who resided in and around present-day Bristol, RI between 1680 and the Civil War. A volunteer-led project, Research BIPOC History seeks to engage the public in a deeper understanding of Black and Indigenous ancestral communities by documenting the existence of enslaved and free Black and Indigenous people, making primary source documents accessible to the public, and partnering with community stakeholders to celebrate this history.

Ifé Franklin is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is inspired by slave narratives, dreams, dance, dreams, dance, song, and visions. Her decade-long Indigo Project honors the lives and history of African-descended people whose labor generated the wealth of nations. At the center of Ms. Franklin's practice are her life-size replica ancestor slave cabins, which incorporate Adire fabric, an indigo-dyed cotton cloth decorated using a resist technique from the Yoruba culture.

"Art-Making for the Ancestors" marks Ms. Franklin's first community art-making event in RI. The workshop has engaged families and intergenerational audiences at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Black Market in Roxbury's Nubian Square, Boston College, and The Royall House and Slave Quarters of Medford, MA.

Host or Publisher Tisch College