Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville) has an exhibit, African Traditions, that the children & eye just cannot experience enough. We invited another family to visit the Museum with us today for our the third viewing. We had a nice time.
Too see the guide looking to me constantly for approval each time she spoke on the culture was totally humoring. After a while it felt uncomfortable because as the others in our appointed tour group noticed her behavior, they began to look to me to help her clean up her sketchy details about Afrakan culture.
"Do you know about this?", a gentleman asked me, as the escort tried to find the words to describe the traditional "Rites of Passage" Ceremony that takes place at 13 for many young ladies on the continent. Time after time she referred to it as "Bush School" (commonly named), but she lacked the insight needed in order to convey the ritual without sounding pejorative. Just as she did when she pointed out Western influence in many of the paintings and remarked that everyone around the world "tries to do what we do in the West."
But it's cool. It's common. Still unfortunate how the truth about Afrakan culture has to come in slow-leaks, not overwhelming indoctrination like the teachings of Europe. One would think that we would have easy access to truth related to our earliest existence as earth creatures. The research has been done. Why hasn't it been made readily available? Hmmm...
We were able to release a bit of creative build-up in the process. That was fun!
No matter this is the third mask we've made this year. This one is definitely my best yet.
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