(Re)tracings of What Was Once Present/Absent

we were going to be elders just because we were still around and i was going to listen to you on a panel we didn’t feel qualified for and hear you talk about your guilt for still being alive when so many of your friends were taken y suicide by AIDS by racist police...

Behind the Lens

This community program puts African American adornment traditions at the heart of our media literacy program. Many of  our lessons begin with an activity about a particular type of adornment and then we look critically at how that tradition is depicted  in  various...

A Closer Look at AS220 Youth

AS220 Youth is a free arts education program in Providence, Rhode Island, serving young people ages 14 to 21. AS220 Youth has three teaching sites: our downtown Providence studio, UCAP Middle School, and the Rhode Island Training School, the state’s juvenile detention...

Art of Style @ JazzFest

Afterschool 5th‐ and 6th‐grade students in KID smART classes at Akili Academy in New Orleans were part of the Smithsonian’s Will to Adorn Youth Access Program during the 2013–14 school year. Over the course of the year, students studied adornment, style, and culture...

The Smithsonian’s Will to Adorn Youth Access Project

Zora Neale Hurston, the renowned anthropologist and folklorist, observed in 1934 that “the will to adorn” is one of the primary characteristics of African American expression. Like orature, quilting, and musical forms such as the blues, African American dress and body...