C3: Cloth, Culture, Community; Exploring 1,000 Years of Black Pittsburgh through Clothing

C3: Cloth Culture Community

Exploring 1000 Years of Black Pittsburgh through Clothing

By Tereneh Idia

December 16, 2022 – April 16, 2023

Exhibition Location: BNY Mellon Satellite Gallery Lobby of Steel Plaza T Station 500 Grant Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Contemporary Craft 5645 Butler Street Pittsburgh, PA 15201 www.contemporarycraft.org 412-261-7003

C3: Cloth, Culture, Community was made possible by Heinz Endowments, Dawn & Chris Fleischner, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Photos by Njaimeh Njie

Front and back cover image – Amina 3000

C3: Cloth Culture Community

Exploring 1000 Years of Black Pittsburgh through Clothing

C3 began with the question, “Who was the first Black person in Pittsburgh?”

The answer led to an exploration of over 1,000 years of history, beginning in West Africa and taking us all the way to the year 3000. From African queens to war veterans, and coal miners to civil rights activists.

Designer and writer, Tereneh Idia, shares a dozen stories that shed a light on our all too often overlooked but powerful ancestors who helped shape the Pittsburgh region, America, and the world.

C3 Flag: in Honor of Black Pittsburgh

This image shows a portion of the East and Gulf Coasts of the United States with a portion of the coast of West Africa. The dotted line tracks the route across the Middle Passage to Louisiana and up through to Pittsburgh, PA.

Yes, Africans were enslaved in Pittsburgh. Yes, there were free Africans in Pittsburgh.

The flag is framed by important foods and natural medicines found in West Africa, the southern United States, and in Pennsylvania including Lagos spinach, collard greens, pumpkin leaf, okra, dandelion, garlic, and wild senna. These are flanked by ferns, which were used by escaped enslaved Africans as a guide to find fresh water.

At the center of the flag is a symbol of the Flying African and Eagle as one entity. The Flying African, is a symbol of the desire for those in the African diaspora in the Americas to seek freedom through our gifts. The eagle is the national symbol for the United States; it is also on the Nigerian flag coat of arms, as a symbol of Nigerian independence from British colonialism. However the Ugo is the Nigerian eagle, and has much older significance as an animal of honor and reverence which can be seen in traditional masquerade ceremonies.

Throughout the exhibition you will see garments made from this fabric as well as elements of the flag appearing in many of the outfits.

Credits

Design and Drawing: Tereneh Idia

Printing: Artists Image Resource (AIR)

Ink mixing and Design: Rachel Saul Rearick

Note: Resources on all inspirations are at the back of this publication

QUEEN AMINA

We begin C3 in West Africa, specifically Hausaland which is now modern day Nigeria. In the state of Zazzau, Aminata, also called Amina, was born in 1533.

After the death of her brother in 1576, Amina became the Queen and ruler of Zazzau. Given her lifelong interest in and commitment to all things related to battle, she quickly gained respect and developed a close bond with the military. The Hausa commitment to iron smithing and metalworking is legendary.

While Amina refused to marry, instead focusing on increasing the wealth and strength of her community, which she achieved, she would take temporary husbands after battle. The legend goes on further to say that she would kill these men the next day.

Outfit: Queen Amina

Breastplate: 18 gauge aluminum chainmaille

Tunic: hemp and organic cotton silk

Equestrian culottes: upcycled upholstery fabric from Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse (PCCR)

T-shirt: soy jersey t-shirt

Crown: recycled brass, designed and created for the C3 project by Selima Dawson of Blakbird Jewelry

Artist’s Reflection

As an undergrad at Drexel University, I donned a pair of wide trousers and a head wrap. In the middle of the Main Building I yelled “I am Amina of Zazzau, Hausaland!” It was for Black History Month. At the time I was the head of the Black Student Union and it was my idea to “Make Black History come alive” by having people dress up as historical figures. I cannot remember if I was the only one who showed up to do this but I remember yelling out “I am Amina!”

I first learned about her because of the beautiful and heroic image of her on a Nigerian stamp. I was enthralled and still am.

FLYING AFRICAN

“Have you ever heard of Flying Africans?” I asked a friend of mine who lives in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

“Oh yes, you mean the Africans that flew away from enslavement?”

Bessie Coleman, the famous African American woman pilot, spoke of the freedom of flight. Some in the Oneida Indian Nation say the Black people were given providence and responsibility over the air. One traditional Maasai folk tale says that they originated when Narok, their black deity, extended their arms down from the cosmos, leading the Maasai down to earth.

Some believe Black people can fly.

The most famous American-based story of Flying Africans can be heard in the seminal film by Julie Dash, Daughters of the Dust. We learn of Igbo Landing in Georgia, a place where hundreds of years ago a group of 18 Igbo from Nigeria came to these shores in a slave ship. Once they left the ship and saw their fate, the slave auction block, they joined hands. Instead of walking together to the slave market they walked back to the water. Some say they drowned, others say they flew back to Africa.

Outfit: Flying African

Dress: hemp and organic cotton silk with water-based ink block print

Wings: upcycled lace from PCCR

Artist’s Reflection

One of the internal and external questions that most African Americans I know have asked is, “What would I have done if I was enslaved?” I often say I do not think I would have survived very long. The 1991 film Daughters of the Dust taught me the Igbo Landing story. The eighteen Igbo who, it was told, joined hands and walked back into or over the water to freedom has always resonated with me.

Upon learning that slave revolts were more likely to happen when more women were on board slave ships did not surprise me. This garment was created in honor of all of the Africans who transitioned along the Middle Passage.

VIRGINIA REGIMENT

Francois, an African man who escaped enslavement by the French, was stationed at Fort Duquesne and told the British in Williamsburg Virginia that the French were about to leave their fortification. This was a key incident in a series of events that led to the formation of Pittsburgh in 1758. Virginia Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie was so pleased with this information that he offered Francois his freedom.

“Forty-two Black militiamen were believed to have been with him [British General John Forbes] when Forbes renamed the fortification for the English Earl of Chatham, William Pitt.” Jerry Byrd, a general assignment reporter, created a special edition of The Pittsburgh Press Sunday Magazine, The Sunday Roto in 1982 entitled From Slaves to Statesmen….A history of Blacks in Pittsburgh.

In fact, Blacks played the most essential role in martial endeavors precisely where slavery was most fundamental to society. The exigencies of worldwide war transformed a local reliance upon black soldiers for the defense of particular colonies into an imperial dependence upon them for the security of Britain’s Atlantic empire. Following Britain’s declaration of war against France in 1756, representatives of the colonies of Georgia and South Carolina reminded the Board of Trade in London that they were menaced “not only from the Enemy from without, but also from an equally dangerous and merciless Enemy within, viz. their Negro Slaves, . . . who would doubtless be glad to purchase their Freedom at any rate or any risque.”

To afford black workers’ contribution to the British war effort its proper significance, however, it is essential to recall that mid-eighteenth-century European-style warfare employed many more laborers than warriors. Siege warfare required the sustained effort of thousands of men, and the vast majority of men on the battlefield engaged in manual labor rather than combat. While the courage and intrepidity of musket-toting regulars was touted in the aftermath of victory, commanders knew that neither they nor their arms would have made it to the field of battle without the toil of the auxiliaries.

Outfit: Virginia Regiment

Breeches: printed hemp and organic cotton canvas

Shirt: organic cotton and reuse ribbon

Tie: organic cotton

Virginia Regiment reenactment jacket: Veteran Arms, block printing by Tereneh Idia

Vintage Head Wrap: hand-made and indigo-dyed, donated by Jamie Boyle

Beads: glass, donated by Tammy Schweinhagen

AKIATONHARONKWEN

Akiatonharónkwen’s descendant, Daniel Bonaparte says, “One of the most important Mohawks doesn’t have one drop of Mohawk blood.” His name has been said to mean “multicolored bird” or “one who unhangs himself.”

Atiatonharónkwen, also known by the names Atayataghlonghta and Colonel Louis Cook, was born in 1737 in what is now Saratoga, New York to an African man and Abaniquis or Mohigan mother. He was almost taken and enslaved by a French soldier, but his mother cried out for help and the Haudenosaunee helped them, going so far as to adopt the family into the Mohawk Nation. Being adopted into a Native American community means you are in, of, and with that community. Akiatonharónkwen was present at General Edward Braddock’s defeat among many other battles. He fought in the Seven Year War, the Revolutionary War, and The War of 1812. He eventually became an American ally, became a Catholic and took the name Louis Cook. He died in 1814 as a result of fighting in the War of 1812.

Outfit: Akiatonharónkwen

Breeches: printed hemp and organic cotton canvas

Shirt/tunic: organic cotton and deerskin Belt and garters: hand-beaded, deerskin and glass beads

Leggings: vintage wool blanket Porcupine headdress: Veteran Arms

(Note: Mohawk headdress including the Haudenosaunee gahsdo:wah include three eagle feathers, as a non-native person I did not think it was appropriate for me to procure eagle feathers.)

Artist’s Reflection

The more I learned about Atiatonharónkwen, the more I wished I had known about him all along. Here was a man who had been saved from enslavement by the Haudenosaunee and adopted by the Mohawk. That process means “blood” does not matter. He is Black, he is African, and he is Mohawk.

For this reason I wanted to include him in this exhibition, to juxtapose his service with the French with that of his free and enslaved African brothers and sisters who served with the British. Throughout what became the United States, Africans were adopted, saved, enslaved, and in community with the Indigenous of these lands.

NEGRO “SUKEY” SUCK

In 1790, Peter Costco bought his freedom from John McKee, the founder of McKeesport, for 100 pounds. That same year, McKee indentured Kut from her enslaved mother, Negro Suck. The name Suck is believed to be based on the Wolof name Sukey, while Kut has West African and Creole heritage meaning “quite” or “graceful lily.” Slaves were sometimes given names like Negro, Mulatto and Black.

Interestingly, there is a marker near PPG Place noting Pittsburgh’s Underground Railroad heritage. Yet there is no marker, no monument, no public notation or space acknowledging Pennsylvania’s enslavement heritage beginning in the 1630s nor to the thousands of enslaved Africans and their descendants. In 1780, Pennsylvania passed a “gradual abolition of slavery act.” As you can see even 10 years later there were still enslaved Africans in Pittsburgh.

Outfit: Negro “Sukey” Suck

Dress: C3 flag fabric in organic cotton, hand-painted red “K” on chest Headwrap: fabric found in Kenya

Artist’s Reflection

How could a mother indenture her own daughter? I thought about this for a long time. I sat and spoke to Sukey often. I cried with her. I came to understand that even though the document she placed her mark said “of free will…,” she was an enslaved woman. Because it was ten years after the “gradual abolition” act was passed, enslavement was happening. For Sukey, a 12 year and 6 month indenture was the best she could do for daughter given her circumstances.

There was a Torrens train stop near what is now Wilkinsburg. Wilkins was one of the signatories on the aforementioned indenture act. Wilkins owned lots of land, and it seems Torrens was right next to him or potentially on that land as well. Torrens may have been in the glass and window making business, and the Torrens family also owned land in downtown Pittsburgh, where PPG Place is now. I have no idea if there is a connection. More research is needed, including what happened to Sukey and Kut.

Sukey’s mark on indenture agreement

JOHN VASHON 1800s

On one hand, the 1800’s created the opportunity for African Americans in Pittsburgh to become entrepreneurs, educators, and more. After researching the businesses in downtown Pittsburgh, one could argue there were more Black owned businesses in the 1800’s in the golden triangle than there are now. On the other hand, as Jerry Bird notes in From Slaves to Statesmen: A History of Blacks in Pittsburgh, the city is the “midwife” to Jim Crow law and racial segregation.

One entrepreneur, John Bathan Vashon, became one of the most important Black leaders in the country. Vashon was born in Virginia in 1792. His mother was enslaved and his father was a white Frenchman. At the age of 20, he served in the navy in the War of 1812, was taken prisoner, traded for a British soldier, then returned to Virginia. In 1829, he moved with his wife and son from Carlisle to Pittsburgh.

Here he built a fortune from barber shops and bath houses, building the first bath house for women west of the Appalachians. But he did not end there. He was also an abolitionist, founder, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. He is one of the many under-sung heroes in Pittsburgh.

Outfit: John Vashon

Vest and trousers: upcycled seersucker fabric from PCCR Collar: hemp and organic cotton C3 flag Shirt garters: ribbon and vintage hooks Shirt: Late 1890-early 1900s vintage cotton, procured via LooneyEuneys on Etsy Tie Pin: Nautical themed, by Shelley Cooper Jewelry Vintage cufflinks from eons antique fashion boutique

Artist’s Reflection

It seems that the rest of the country knows more about John Vashon than Pittsburgh does. There is Vashon High School in St Louis Missouri, which opened in 1927. The University of Chicago’s archives includes letters from William Lloyd Garrison to John Vashon in the 1830’s. His son George Vashon established Avery College in Pittsburgh, proof of what generational wealth and opportunity may foster. And the impact of what happens when it does not. Tributes to Vashon’s work and legacy as well as the contributions of his descendants seems overdue.

GREAT MIGRATION FAMILY 1920s

Between 1910 and 1960, over 4.5 million African Americans left the south in search of what late novelist and poet Richard Wright called “the warmth of other suns.”

While Pittsburgh welcomed folks from Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the African American population of Allegheny County in 1910 was 34,217. In 20 years, that number grew to 83,326. The Urban League reported that between 1918 and1923, approximately 25,000 African Americans came to Pittsburgh. Black newspapers like the Pittsburgh Courier were a key part of this process. By 1930, two-thirds of the Black Population in Pittsburgh were from outside the region.

Bold Improvisations: 120 Years of African American Quilts was an exhibition at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in 2009. The Heinz History Center created an oral history featuring the artists in that exhibition. One of these oral histories told the story of how a Black family came to Pittsburgh. It involved a white bar owner, his daughter, and Black male employee who did not welcome her sexual advances. The woman falsely claimed the African American man attacked her, which meant he had to flee the town immediately. This man was the father of one of the now Pittsburgh-based quilters.

Outfits: Great Migration Family

Mom: vintage Peter Pan cotton fabric featuring dogwood flowers, enameled cameo-map brooch Child 1: vintage Peter Pan cotton fabric, Pennsylvania Regiment French and Indian War reenactment hat by Peck 2 on eBay Child 2: vintage Peter Pan cotton fabric, rag doll Quilt: The Weed Wack for Zell Strong by Ada S. Cyrus, 2016, cotton scrap quilt

Artist’s Reflection

This Great Migration story, while inspired by the story read at the Heinz History Center, takes a different approach. For every Black family who moved safely North, some didn’t make it. We do not know how many lives were lost to state-sanctioned violence, the violence of whiteness, and the weaponizing of white womanhood. For this reason, this family travels north without their husband, without their father. The mother wears a brooch showing the silhouette of her lost beloved’s face, as well as their route north to Pittsburgh. Because they had to move in haste, and because of where they lived in the south they did not have winter coats, they traveled with a quilt to provide warmth on their journey to Pittsburgh.

I am grateful to many Black women artists, especially for this portion of the C3 exhibition. Firstly, all of the artists who participated in the Bold Improvisation exhibition. Second, Tanya Crane who taught me how to enamel. Third, to Ada Cyrus for loaning one of her amazing quilts to the exhibition.

Ms Ada says of this quilt: “It was made for a child in the family, they pulled up some of the corners to see what was inside.”

THADDEUS MOSLEY SR. 1930s

My grandfather, Thaddeus Mosley, Sr., began coal mining at the age of 16. He died in his 50’s so I never got a chance to meet him.

A favorite story of mine is set in the town Number Five Mine, Pennsylvania near present day Grove City. Mosley, Sr. was a union organizer. As such, the mining company was not a fan. To intimidate organizing, they would send guards to their home and shoot rounds of buckshot at the house. My father and his siblings would hide under the bed while my grandfather shot back from the living room window and my grandmother shot from the kitchen window. One of my aunts was hit once, and lived her whole life with buckshot in her leg.

My grandfather also ran moonshine for a neighbor who brewed it in their home. My grandparents were amazing farmers, as both their families had farms at one point. They grew food so they did not have to pay money back to the company to feed their family.

Outfit: Thaddeus Mosley Sr.

Henley Shirt: organic cotton

Vintage Carhartt overalls: procured via eBay, block printed by Tereneh Idia Dried floral arrangement: GrassRoots Health via Etsy

Artist’s Reflection

I wanted to include something that showed some of the multifaceted life of my coal miner grandfather. There is a nod to his agricultural interests and talents, as well as the lost legacy of larger scale farming and land ownership.

1940s

“I threw my uniform in the San Francisco Bay but I kept my dog tags.” This was my first introduction to World War II. This was my father, Thaddeus G Mosley, talking about his return from his service with the US Navy in the Solomon Islands. Apparently, you had to turn in your dog tags to qualify for veteran benefits. The fact that African American service people did not get the same benefits as whites is often reported, but the intergenerational and lasting impact of getting less than they deserved is not discussed enough. It led to lower wages, less wealth, and an inability to secure housing or attend college. So the cycle of having less than you deserve continued, and still does to this very day. This injustice was bad enough, but it was made worse if you were one of the 48,000 African American, women, or LGBTQIA+ service people who were given a Blue Discharge. This was a neither honorable or dishonorable discharge that was disproportionately leveled at Black service people and those who were thought to be homosexual. Those who received a Blue Discharge were routinely denied veteran benefits. While African Americans made up around 6.5% of the army during World War II, 22% of the Blue Discharges were given to Black soldiers. While it was abolished in 1947, there were no automatic reviews to determine veteran benefits.

Outfit: WWII Veteran

Suit: Upcycled wool suiting material, synthetic blue fabric lining, black ribbon Chain: Triple V for victory charm, upcycled chains from PCCR Vest: upcycled upholstery fabric from PCCR Tie: hemp and organic cotton C3 flag fabric Shirt: Vintage, from eBay Durag: vegetable dyed and block printed, hemp and organic cotton silk

Artist’s Reflection

The New Pittsburgh Courier was instrumental in the “Double V for Victory” campaign, the goal of which was to defeat fascism in Europe and anti-Black racism in the United States. But how do you fight for a country who does not see you as a full citizen, a full human being?

There are documented cases of violence and even the death of Black service people returning to their home towns in America in uniform, only to be killed in that uniform. Some whites were so disturbed to see a Black man in military uniform. Imagine surviving Hitler only to be killed by your white neighbors?

For this project I added another “V,” that of ending discrimination and injustice of the LGBTQIA+ community. Often in my social justice work and writing I say, “It is never one thing.” To allow injustice to one member of our human family impacts all of us.

BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT 1970s

The terms “artivist” and “artivism” were born in the 1990s as a result of the Chicano movement, though the act of using art for political and social change is much older. Pittsburgh’s role in the Black Arts movement includes the works of artists such as Selma Burke, August Wilson, Jacob Lawrence, and Romare Bearden, to name a few. Organizations such as the Selma Burke Art Center, Kunte Repertory Theater, Bidwell-Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, and the Harambee Festival heralded other spaces and organizations. From the Bridgespotters and The Shadow Lounge of the 1990s to now with the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Boom Concepts, Black Unicorn Library, BlckNvmbr, Legacy Arts, 1HOOD, PearlArts, Alma | Lewis, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Kente Arts Alliance, and more. Arts have always been at the center of the African community, with purpose, use, intention, and meaning well outside of Westernized white cube spaces where one may observe but not engage. The Black Arts Movement acted as a way to provide information that was intentionally left out of curriculums, galleries, universities, and museums. It provided a space to go before or after school. It acted as a safe space to go while you waited for caregivers to come home from work. It was an extension of a family. It is family.

Outfit: Black Arts Movement

Tank Top: screen printed by Clockwise Printer, hand-painted by Tereneh Idia Patchwork Jeans: hemp and organic cotton, patched with various textiles

Artist’s Reflection

I remember one day Elsie Neal and I had the same hairstyle. Mister Rogers was part of my childhood in an additional special way because my brother Anire and I were on a few episodes of the show. But seeing Ms. Neal with that top knot making cool things on Mister Rogers always made me happy and proud. While I was surrounded by Black arts and Black artists, seeing one on TV made a difference.

After school I would go to Bidwell for dance classes. I remember going to Selma Burke Arts Center often, and to this day whenever I see a dime, I think of Ms. Burke. When I returned to Pittsburgh in the early 2000’s, Bridgespotter events and The Shadow Lounge were essential. One of my first exhibitions was at August Wilson Center and it was there that I gifted the Angela Davis with one of the IdiaDega - Olorgesailie Maasai Women Artisans necklaces.

Black art spaces, Black artivists and artivism is essential to Pittsburgh, America, and the world.

Name a cultural movement in the past 50 years that has had a greater impact on the world than Hip Hop?

I won’t wait because you cannot name one.

On the streets of Nairobi, you can hear Kiswahili and Shang (slang) rap. In Kuala Lumpur, I attended a Hip Hop festival. In Izmir, Turkey, the bay is lined with beautiful skateparks and graffiti. All around the world, you see Hip Hop in music, literature, fashion, media, and more. Hip Hop culture is so ubiquitous, it is hard to remember that Street fashion is hip hop. Street culture is hip hop. The comfort core looks, while obviously impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic, is also steeped in the sneakers, baggy clothes, sports inspired, layering, hoodie, tattoos, body, hair, and nail art that intersects Hip Hop.

Hip Hop’s five pillars: MCing (rapping), DJing, Breakdancing, Graffiti, and Beatboxing – dance, literature, oratory, painting, rhetoric, poetry, style, fashion and the list goes on. Hip Hop is the culmination of the Black Arts Movement. It is a movement.

Outfit: Hip Hop

Headdress: deconstructed vintage tracksuit

Pants: block printed vintage track pants

Shirt: vintage Black and Yellow t-shirt, procured via eBay

Artist’s Reflection

The outfit mirrors how a breakdancer looks in the middle of a windmill. The legs are now on top, the arms act as levers, wings – while the bodice, back, and chest make the connection to the ground.

AMINA 3000 circa 3000

It is the year 3000. Diondega, Haudenosaunee Confederacy – formerly known as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – is returned to the Seneca, Keepers of the Eastern Door of the Six Nations. All those who welcome a truly representative multicultural government are welcome to stay given that the land and resources both natural and human made are shared.

Amina 3000 is on the governing council of Diondega. Because of the climate crisis and destruction of the Kinzua Dam, Pittsburgh topography has changed. The seat of governance is now on Mt. August, the Hill District, renamed for August Wilson.

Amina is dressed in a way that is more comfortable for a city that now has over 100 days of 90 degree heat index and above. Nudity is not automatically associated with sexuality or sensuality, but with the body. She is not being provocative, she is being herself. Much of what she is wearing is sourced from things around the community.

Outfit: Amina 3000

Bandeau Top: hand-woven, found lace doilies

Shoulder Holster: 18 gauge aluminum chainmaille

Nation Sack: red suede

Foraging Knife: Terra Temple Arts

Undergarments: flora and fauna

Brooch: found, Great Migration imagery

Sarong: hemp and organic cotton C3 flag fabric

Amina 3000, continued

Artist’s Reflection

To live where your voice, talents, gifts, history, heritage, and future are central to how the community celebrates itself -that is a dream of mine. Amina 3000 has found that place, helped make that place because those around her love, care, protect, and respect all she is, will be, or could become.

About Tereneh Idia

Tereneh Idia is a designer and writer. Before the Creative Development Awards –Artist in Residence at Contemporary Craft, she launched Atasa Solar, developing renewable energy apparel with IdiaDega. IdiaDega is a eco-design collaboration of Maasai, Oneida and African American women. They have exhibited at Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, The Frick Pittsburgh, and The August Wilson African American Cultural Center.

Tereneh has presented work in Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Singapore, Copenhagen, Nairobi and New York City. She has won the Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Award, named National Artisan Leader by Nest<>Hermés, and received a Pittsburgh Style Week Designer of the Year award.

Tereneh Idia’s writing has appeared in Pittsburgh City Paper, StarTrek.com, AfroPunk, Public Source, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Tender, a book edited by Deesha Philyaw and Vanessa German. She has won the prestigious Billy Manes Award from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, the Sally Kalson Courage in Journalism award, the Golden Quill and the Vann Award for excellence in journalism from the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation. Tereneh Idia will be traveling to Senegal to take part in the Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation Thread Senegal residency in 2023.

Amina 3000, by Anire Mosley

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Flying African

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VA Regiment

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VA Regiment, continued

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Akiatonharónkwen

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John Vashon

John Bathan Vashon, Seaman, and Abolitionist. https://aaregistry.org/story/john-bathan-vashon-seaman-and-abolitionist/

William J Switala. (2008). Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania Second Edition by Stackpole Books.

Joe William Trotter Jr and Eric Ledell Smith. (1997). African Americans in Pennsylvania Shifting Historical Perspective. editors: Joe William Trotter Jr and Eric Ledell Smith The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and The Pennsylvania State University Press. 1997

Heinz History Center Archives

Great Migration

Isabel Wilkerson. (2011). The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration Vintage Publishing.

Peter Gottlieb. (1997). Making Their Own Way: Southern Black’s Migration to Pittsburgh, 1916-1930 University of Illinois Press.

‘Bold Improvisation : 120 Years of African American quilts. Oral history project and exhibit’ Call number: 2009.0084. Heinz History Center Archives Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania

August Wilson and the Great Migration to Pittsburgh.

https://www.hartfordstage.org/stagenotes/piano-lesson/migration-to-pittsburgh/ Chuck Biedka.

Black migration making great impact on Pittsburgh region https://triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/black-migration-making-great-impact-onpittsburgh-region/ Kalonji Johnson, Director of the Office of Policy, Pennsylvania Department of State. (2019).

The Philadelphia Tribune and The Pittsburgh Courier: Two historic African American Newspaper with roots in the Great Migration Thaddeus Mosley Sr.

Peter Gottlieb. (1987). Black miners and the 1925–28 bituminous coal strike: The colored committee of non-union miners, montour mine No. 1, Pittsburgh Coal Company, Labor History, 28:2, 233-241, DOI: 10.1080/00236568700890131

African American Coal Miners: Helen, WV. https://www.nps.gov/neri/planyourvisit/africanamerican-coal-miners-helen-wv.htm

African American Workers and the Appalachian Coal Industry. https://wvupressonline.com/african-american-workers-and-the-appalachian-coal-industry

Stephen Starr. (2022). The forgotten history of the US’ African American coal towns https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20221023-the-forgotten-history-of-the-us-africanamerican-coal-towns

Black Steel Workers, Erased. https://thebraddockinclusionproject.com/black-americansteelworkers-erased/

Blacks help drive steel revolution in Pittsburgh. https://pittnews.com/article/30520/ archives/blacks-help-drive-steel-revolution-in-pittsburgh/

John Bodnar, Roger Simon and Michael P. Weber. (1983) Lives Of Their Own: Blacks, Italians and Poles in Pittsburgh, 1900-1960 University of Illinois Press

WWII Veteran

Nelson Henry Jr., World War II vet who fought racism in Army, dies at 96. https://www.inquirer.com/obituaries/pa-nelson-henry-veteran-army-blue-dischargediscrimination-appeal-philadelphia-20200511.html

“Blue” Ticket https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/blue-and-other-than-honorable-discharges. htm#:~:text=During WWII, to cut costs,African Americans, and LGBTQ servicemen.

The Blue Ticket Discharge: A Color that has Stained the Lives of WWII-Era Veterans for Over 75 Years

https://mvets.law.gmu.edu/2019/05/17/the-blue-ticket-discharge-a-color-that-has-stainedthe-lives-of-wwii-era-veterans-for-over-75-years/

Coming Out Under Fire: The Story of Gay and Lesbian Service Members. https://www. nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/gay-and-lesbian-service-members

Black Arts Movement

Elizabeth Nesbit Collection at the University of Pittsburgh Library: Black Arts Movement. https://pitt.libguides.com/c.php?g=12504&p=3296158

(2017). Archival Collections Document the Black Arts Movement in 20th-century Pittsburgh. https://www.pitt.edu/pittwire/features-articles/archival-collections-documentblack-arts-movement-20th-century-pittsburgh

Rebecca Giordano. (2021). “The Art of Living”: Selma Burke’s Progressive Art Pedagogies from the New Deal to the Black Arts Movement

Bill O’Driscoll. (2022). https://www.wesa.fm/arts-sports-culture/2022-04-29/exhibitfocusing-on-artist-romare-beardens-activism-comes-to-pittsburgh

August Wilson and the Black Arts Movement https://wqed.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ aug15.ela.lit.blackarts/wilsons-bs-baraka-black-arts-movement/

Hip Hop

Greg Tate. Flyboy in the Buttermilk and Flyboy 2 Greg Tate. (2003). Everything But The Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture

Jeff Chang. (2005). Can’t Stop Won’t Stop. The Motherlode 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop Joan Morgan. (2000). When Chickenheads Come Home To Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down Straight from the Source; An Expose from the Former Editor-in-Chief of the Hip-Hop Bible by Kim Osorio

Amina 3000

Seneca Iroquois National Museum. https://www.senecamuseum.org/ Maria Diaz-Gonzalez. (2020). The complicated history of the Kinzua Dam and how it changed life for the Seneca people. https://www.ehn.org/seneca-nation-kinzuadam-2644943791.html

Landback Movement. https://landback.org/ https://bookshop.org/lists/sovereigntysolidarity-the-land-back-movement Nnedo Okorafor.(2019). Binti Trilogy

WWII Veteran, continued