New Yarn Store, For Ewe, Of fers Creative Community for POC in Oberlin

Sierra Colbert

Senior Staff Writer

On March 11, Afrikan Heritage House hosted Soul Session Allstars: The Alumni Edition as a continued celebration of Black History Month. For the past few years, Black History Month programming at Oberlin College and Conservatory hasn’t extended beyond the month of February, but this year, events have been organized running up through the end of March. A plethora of events have already been hosted around campus, from lectures to fashion shows, all in an effort to highlight and celebrate Black voices and the Black community at Oberlin.

Soul Sessions in particular is a monthly event hosted by Afrikan Heritage House that seeks to foster community and showcase Black talent. In a typical session, students and faculty members are free to perform songs and poems, freely expressing their creativity in an open, welcoming environment.

See Soul Session, page 12 Soul Sessions, a monthly event hosted by Afrikan Heritage House, fosters community and showcases Black performers.

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

New Yarn Store, For Ewe Offers Creative Community for People of Color in Oberlin

Lisa Whitfield, OC ’90, will open her yarn store, For Ewe: An Inclusive Fiber Community, in mid-April. Photo Courtesy of Emerald Goldbaum

Emerald Goldbaum

For Ewe: An Inclusive Fiber Community, a new yarn store located at 181 West College Street Suite 23, will open its doors in mid-April — in time for Local Yarn Store Day on April 30. The owner, Lisa Whitfield, OC ’90, is a Conservatory alumna and Oberlin resident. Before the store opens, it will also host a Yarnie Happy Hour from 2–4 p.m. on March 20.

Whitfield has been knitting and crocheting since childhood but only got involved with the fiber community in 2017 after the death of her mother. She used fiber arts as a way to grieve; in the month after her mother died, she completed 52 projects.

“The knitting started to bring me joy,” Whitfield said. “It started to give me purpose in my grief, and I wanted to share that with other people who wanted or needed to knit, touch yarn, crochet, or something, because it had done so much for me personally. I wanted to give that gift to other people to get them through hard times.”

As a Black woman, Whitfield was inspired to open the store to include more people of color in the fiber arts community. Whitfield noted fiber artists of color began to speak out about discrimination that they had faced as minorities in white-dominated spaces, often not being treated like serious customers in shops. In 2019, a vocal participant in the discussion spoke at an event that Whitfield’s friend organized. Following the event, Whitfield started to think seriously about opening her own store.

“It was the first time I actually said out loud to anybody other than my husband that I wanted to open a yarn shop and it was really well received,” Whitfield said. “People were like, ‘That’s awesome, you should do that.’ It was the first time I felt supported in the idea.”

After that, she began working for her friend’s yarn store, Around the Table Yarns in Shaker Heights, OH where she picked up the experience needed to run her own store.

“Pam Berskon and her partner Beth Billings gave me invaluable experience,” Whitfield said. “I watched them do everything. … I’m so grateful to them — they were incredible business mentors.”

Whitfield envisions For Ewe as a space where everyone in the Oberlin community feels welcome.

“I know that inclusivity means different things to different people,” Whitfield said. “I come from a diverse background, and my family is diverse. I’m a Black woman, I’m married to a white man. I have biracial children, one of whom is gay and the other of whom has autism. I understand a few things about diversity. … I want everyone to be comfortable. I don’t care if you’re old or young. I wanted to have affordable yarn so people who don’t have a lot of money can buy something pretty.”

Sunday’s Yarnie Happy Hour event will be a “yarn tasting,” at which patrons can take small samples of yarn and “taste” them by knitting or crocheting a swatch with all materials provided. There will also be knitting and crocheting kits, knitting needles, crochet hooks, and skeins of yarn for sale.

Whitfield stressed the importance of trying different materials to find the right fit and sniffing her yarn to make sure she likes it. She expressed hope that both the College and town’s sizable fiber arts communities will find space to intermingle at her store.

“I want students to come,” Whitfield said. “I want them to come here and feel comfortable. Aside from these two rooms [of the main store] I also am renting the room across the hall, where I’m going to put a table, so people can just sit and knit. I’m gonna put some books in there so they can find patterns and read and just chill. If students want to just come and chill for an hour between classes … they can decompress.”

There are a lot of resources on campus for students to knit or crochet together, but few connect student crocheters and townspeople. Lila Sanchez, a first-year College student and crocheter, said that while they mostly crochet on their own, there are many groups on campus that they believe to be welcoming. The opening of For Ewe marks the first yarn store in town since the closing of Smith’s Knitshop, and students are excited to have access to a yarn store that’s closer to campus.

“Over Winter Term, I know [the College] had this stitching group that met like twice a week, and there are some more unofficial ones,” Sanchez said. “I know that Ben Franklin’s and Ginko Gallery are the places to get yarn, but I guess I kind of found that out on my own.”

In town, there is also growing interest surrounding the store’s opening. Eboni Johnson, the outreach and programming librarian at Oberlin College Libraries, as well as a member of City Council, mentioned that the sense of community in knitting mostly stopped during the pandemic.

“It’s hard … because I like to be with people — I think lots of us like to be with people — but it’s kind of hard to sit and knit and talk to people when you’re six feet away,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t feel as community-ish.”

As the town prepares for the opening of For Ewe, fiber artists are hoping to see the revitalization of a once thriving artisan community.

Tickets for Yarnie Happy Hour can be found on For Ewe’s website.

Soul Session Offers Students Safe Space to Connect in Times of Need

Continued from page 11 This month’s Soul Session was unique and included an alumni host, DaQuan Williams, OC ’20. College third-year Jillian Sanford, a residential assistant of Afrikan Heritage House, explained that the addition of Williams’ voice was very important, especially as the community attempts to revitalize the popularity of the event’s popularity after the COVID-19 shutdown.

“Bringing him back, the hope was to engage newer students with the House and explain to them what the history of Soul Session is and why it’s important to us,” Sanford said.

The return of Soul Session is not a responsibility that Williams took lightly. During his time at Oberlin as an RA of Afrikan Heritage House, Williams saw the organization of Soul Sessions as one of his primary duties.

“Usually that’s a part of the job description — to bring folks together as often as you can — and Soul Session is the best way to do that, especially given how Oberlin works,” said Williams. “There’s always something happening in terms of events and things like that, so Soul Sessions are a good way for the Black community to just come together, have a moment to express ourselves, and be in community with one another.”

For Williams, another important aspect of the event is inviting all Obies into the space to share in the experience, and he feels that it is immensely important for non-Black students to take the opportunity to listen and appreciate Black voices.

“We encourage you to engage with us in this way because this is what we’re doing for us, this is what’s keeping us happy and sane and going on this campus,” he said. “It really does mean a lot when students show up, but it also means so much more when you take the time to engage with us to learn about our culture and learn about the things that we want to see non-Black people at Oberlin continue to do.”

It is this commitment and appreciation for the tradition of Soul Session that Afrikan Heritage House Director and Faculty in Residence Candice Raynor says made Williams the obvious host of this year’s Black History Month session.

“I definitely chose him for a reason,” said Raynor.

Williams wanted to center this Soul Session around three themes: love, joy, and peace; beginning with a meditation seemed like the best way to get in touch with those themes. This was something that Raynor found particularly powerful.

“[We’re] seeing an uptick in students in crises this year,” she said. “And then for third- and fourth-year students who were here over the summer, they’re on semester four in a row, so DaQuan felt like it was something he wanted to do. … I thought it was different and a nice way to start out with a calming breath to get everyone in a nice, calm space to just breathe for a minute.”

Of course, the main event of a Soul Session is the performances. From musical performances to spoken word, Soul Session provides a space for students to express themselves. However, Raynor explained how this form of community-building and artistic expression is more than just entertainment.

“It’s therapeutic in a lot of ways for students who are going through stuff that they’re not really speaking about publicly to hear from someone in their community that, ‘Hey, I’m going through this also, I’ve gone through it and I’ve come out the other side,’” she said. “I think that can be encouraging, so I think it’s a very therapeutic space.”

Perhaps the best example of the connections built in this space is the tradition of audience members throwing a shoe when a particular performance speaks to them. The sole of the shoe symbolizes the soul of the thrower. To Williams, this tradition symbolizes what Soul Session is all about.

“I like to call them offerings,” Williams said. “When someone is getting up to perform, it’s a very vulnerable space that they’re in. It’s a time where all your walls have to come down, and you have to be present, and when you’re singing into the abyss, you don’t have that feedback, that call and response from the audience, but the offerings are there to just reestablish that trust between the audience and the performer.”

In terms of revitalizing the Soul Sessions after COVID-19, Sanford feels optimistic about the impact of Friday’s event.

“At the end of Soul Session, we were all very proud of how it went,” she said. “We had a great turnout — younger students, older students, a wide variety of people, a lot of talent that happened … the energy was really, really good.”

Williams hopes to see a rise in turnout to Soul Sessions, and offers a message to students who may take up the torch in leading the events.

“I want to see more students who have the ability to host Soul Session, and things like that in the Black community, take on that leadership position, because it’s a great way to explore different talents,” Williams said.

As on-campus activities begin to reemerge, Sanford is looking forward to the future of Soul Sessions.

“While last year we were really struggling with COVID and were trying to find community and build community, this year we’re really trying to continue to build on that and continue to bring back traditions that have been lost,” Sanford said. “Soul Session is not a new thing, it’s a long-standing tradition, and it’s really one of our main events that helps build community and helps showcase different Black art forms at Oberlin.”

Oberlin Chabad Hosts Frat-Themed Purim

Erika Scharf Staff Writer

On Wednesday, Chabad at Oberlin held a celebration for Purim, a Jewish biblical holiday often involving masquerading in costumes, donating to the poor, and making hamantaschen cookies. The holiday is a celebration of the deliverance of the Jewish people, specifically when Esther saved the Jews from a genocide.

“[Purim] commemorates when Queen Esther stood up to the evil powers who wanted to kill the Jewish people and ultimately saved the Jewish people for all of history,” said Purim host and Chabad Rabbi Shlomo Elkan. “Every year on the Jewish calendar, we commemorate the holiday with big celebrations.”

College third-year and Chabad board member Theo Canter explains that, despite its history, Purim is a joyous event.

“Theoretically it’s a scary thing, but the fact that [we were] saved not only serves as a relief but as cause for celebration,” Canter said. “The idea is that the date is celebrated with costumes, standing on your head, eating, and drinking.”

The Chabad event consisted of a large feast, readings from the Book of Esther, and even a comedy sketch retelling the story of Purim written by a Chabad board member. One of the customs of the holiday is dressing up in costumes; this year’s theme at Oberlin’s Chabad house was “Fake Frat.” Rabbi Shlomo explained that while the religious holiday doesn’t require a theme, Chabad comes up with one every year to get people in the festive spirit.

“Over all the years that Chabad has done a Purim party at Oberlin, we always have had a theme,” Rabbi Shlomo said. “A couple of years ago we did Roaring Twenties; we’ve done a Harry Potter theme, Purim in the tropics. Together with our student leadership team every year, we always think of a fun theme. This year, we leaned into the party culture a little bit ironically because Oberlin does not have a fraternity culture.”

Purim celebrations also include acts of charity. Rabbi Shlomo explains that this year, given the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, the funds are being donated to aid Jewish Ukranians.

“This year in particular, because of everything going on in Ukraine, all of the funds that we’re collecting are going to help the Jewish community of Ukraine,” he said.

Canter also added that there is a plan to visit Jewish inmates at the Grafton Correctional Institution in Grafton, Ohio.

“Some of us are going with Rabbi Shlomo to celebrate with Jewish inmates,” Canter said. “We’re gonna sing, dance, eat, and read with them.”

While Rabbi Shlomo underscored the importance of preserving a space for Jewish students, he also invites all students to join in learning about the holiday.

“The Jewish community at Oberlin is the primary audience,” Rabbi Shlomo said. “But of course anyone who wishes to join in learning is always welcome.”

Photo by Khadijah Halliday, Photo Editor

Kathleen Kelleher

Arts & Culture Editor Photos Courtesy of Eva Sturm-Gross

This past Wednesday, I chatted with College fourth-year Eva Sturm-Gross, a Studio Art and Religion major with a special interest in Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism. Eva is a talented multimedia artist; their works feature strange animal-like creatures and domestic scenes of breadmaking and shabbos tables. We met in the print lab and talked over a light table illuminating their most recent work in progress, a print of a person in a Purim mask walking over water with a giant fish in it. I watched as they meticulously made tiny dots of ink in perfect lines, one for each scale on the fish. Eva was preparing this piece for their trip to the Southern Graphic Council conference in Madison, Wisconsin with YeoPress, where it would serve as a part of a print exchange. It was the eve of Purim, a Jewish holiday celebrating the rescue of the Jewish people from Haman.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell me about what you’re working on these days.

In the summer and fall, I was working on a series around tables. I made some prints and sculptures of tables, and then I built a full-scale table. Through that process, I was trying to explore the table both conceptually and materially. Now, I’m kind of trying to figure out what I want to do next.

What does the table mean to you?

In Judaism, after the diaspora — the destruction of the temple — the home was considered the temple and tables, the altar. So the table, to me, was this really interesting intersection between a masculine, spiritual thing and a more feminine material and domestic space. I saw it as a ritualistic convergence site. But it could be so many things; it could be decked out in so many ways.

How did you start working with wood?

I started working with wood when I was six years old. I got my first pocket knife and I carved a lot as a kid. I carved a lot of spoons, and then I learned joinery and got into making wooden puppets; I made one with joints, and I made one with just hands and a head. I took a sloyd class, which is a kind of Swedish greenwood carving, with Professor of English DeSales Harrison over Winter Term. Then I took a joinery class with Professor of Studio Art and Africana Studies Johnny Coleman, who just retired — he’s really awesome. That gave me a lot of tools to be able to make furniture and things involving joints. With my printmaking, I work with wood a lot, too — I think there’s something about trees that’s very enduring.

At Eva’s most recent exhibition, a part of the Half-Time senior studio art show, I was struck by the way Eva’s pieces filled up every part of the space. The table they made was central, standing in the center of the collection of works, with a wooden spoon hanging over it by waxed wool yarn. Eva’s corner truly belonged to them and no one else; even some of the frames around Eva’s pieces were made by them. I expressed this to Eva; they laughed and nodded, now deep in focus on the task of etching deep textured lines into the fish’s tail, with what looked like a stained, old, flathead screwdriver.

That’s something that’s very important to me. I made a lot of the things that I hung works on; I put together the thread that put the puppets together — I actually spun it out of sheep’s wool from my neighbor’s sheep and then coated it in beeswax. That’s been a material that I’ve been really into, this wax-coated wool. You know how sinew binds things and restricts it, holding it in place a bit? It almost does that, but it’s not like sinew.

I’m working on this print right now for Purim; hopefully I’ll be able to give an artist proof of it to Rabbi Shlomo. I’ve been really into fish recently, because I keep dreaming about them. And Adar — the month that we’re in according to the Jewish calendar — is connected to fish, which are also connected to good luck. They’re also about concealment, because they’re under the surface — like the truth that’s concealed. That’s what Purim is about, the concealment that’s revealed, which is ultimately the divine.

It seems like you work a lot in reproducible media, especially in prints. Does that mean something to you — the ability to create the same image over and over again?

I generally like working with things that are very process-oriented, and I like working reductively, so printmaking is good for that. There’s also something about having an object that is then able to produce an infinite amount of works. When you make a painting, it’s this very precious art object without a pure functional role; it’s just a painting. When you make something like a table, there’s a function to it, and then it makes sense why there’s only one of them. But for something that’s just visual, I kind of wonder why make it singular, when you want more people to see it, or have it, or interact with it?

The first piece of Eva’s in my collection was a card about the Song of Songs. Eva had cut up a large print — in essence mutilating their own art. I had one fragment of it, and at every YeoPress sale, I acquired another; pieces of a puzzle in the corner of my room. It feels appropriate to own this one piece in fragments, never truly uncovering what the full piece looks like. At the most recent maker sale, I also bought a print Eva had made of hands kneading bread rather than finally purchasing the full form of the Song of Songs piece. I feel I must continue collecting it in fragments.

I have your prints in my home. Many of them, five now.

That’s the dream, you know. Eva’s father, James Sturm, is a cartoonist and founder of the graduate school program Center for Cartoon Studies. Eva says that growing up immersed in the comic world helped them see beyond superhero comics or Little Lulu; instead, they see comics as a versatile and reproducible medium that works well as a format for communication for visual processors like themselves. After COVID-19 struck, when Eva wasn’t attending Oberlin classes, they filled their time with work and study at the Center for Cartoon Studies, where they learned the tools to dive deeper into comic work.

This display from Eva’s junior show over the summer features three separate pieces. In the center is a doll with a ceramic head, hands, and feet made by Eva, and its midsection made up of a cloth print of a bowl. The doll is strung upside down, its feet tied to a wooden spoon, which is in turn tied to the ceiling by wax yarn that Eva spun themselves. Eva described how the archetype of the upside-down man seeking wisdom comes from a Talmudic, or perhaps Midrashic, story about a rabbi who ties himself upside down to gain wisdom, along with a similar Norse story and the Hanged Man card in Tarot. Behind the hanging doll are three identical scroll boxes rolled up to different lengths, which are set out with the sephirot, also resembling a Shabbos table.

This marionette-style doll has a human body with a bird head, mostly because Eva doesn’t like depicting human faces. Eva says the hybrid bird-doll is unfinished, and that it serves mostly as a place to experiment with joinery. They foresee making clothes for the doll, or maybe even creating a mechanism that will allow it to move. Eva motioned to holes in the doll’s palms where leather runs through, using their own ink-stained hands as a visual reference while they described the way dowels and leather straps fasten its joints together.