Napoleon Jones-Henderson

Diana Baird N’Diaye, Ph.D.                                                                                                                                    Lead Curator, African American Craft Initiative                                                                                                              Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

It’s May! My favorite month—and not just because my birthstone is an emerald—shout out to the jewelers in our growing AACI network. Spring is a season across the country when the consciousness of the natural environment is high, and conversations about protecting, celebrating, and advocating for community-driven environmental causes reinvigorate. 

The work of AACI is grounded in collaboration and community building towards sustainable change and opportunity within the craft ecosystem. In line with that mission, we are excited to host a Think Tank Reconnect for African American craft organizations at the end of this month. With the help of artists/organizers Marvin Sin and Kathleen DeQuence Anderson, we are developing a framework for planning committees that will shape the agenda and align with a discussion on AACI’s recent activities and plans. 

In other news, we are pleased to be a curatorial partner with the New Medina on their Ahlan 2.0 program. The program will work with chefs and creatives from the United States to explore culinary heritage, climate, belonging, and food diplomacy in Sousse, Tunisia. We look forward to working with them and developing stronger ties with our craft and creative colleagues in Tunisia. Esteemed artist and cultural activist Napoleon Jones Henderson (our featured maker for May) will participate in this program—and we can’t wait to see what other opportunities come from this collaboration.

Enjoy spring,       

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Maker Highlight: Napoleon Jones-Henderson 

As an image-maker, my overarching desire is to create work(s) that stimulate the senses and acknowledge, honor, and connect generations of people through aesthetically nourishing and spiritually uplifting creative interactions. My career as an image-maker has been the pathway for opportunities to travel and live across the world. These experiences are the sustenance for my creative work(s).  

My studio practice engages both intellectual and aesthetic concerns alongside elevating cultural authenticity. My actual studio is my sacred space, a space that encourages my image-making. Moreover, the medium of textile weaving and various other textile manipulations I use has been my voice and vehicle for many lifelong collaborations in pursuit of a more humane society.  

Growing up in Chicago, I often observed the textile practitioners such as seamstresses, milliners, tailors, shoe cobblers, and jewelers who surrounded me. These skills (crafts) were practiced as professions and in daily life activities. I recall my Big Mama always crocheting and knitting things like blankets, scarves, and doilies to adorn living room and dining room tables, fireplace mantels, or to be given as unique gifts for special occasions. Textiles were, in a sense, “sacred stuff.” 

AACI has provided young and seasoned creators—keepers of the African American cultural landscape—the opportunity to gather in community. Dr. N'Diaye's leadership, collaboration, and collegiality with many of us in the field nourished and spawned AACI. Thus, AACI is an incentive and freeway for great things to come. The future is ours! 

Presently, I am working on a few series. One is a series I began twenty years ago titled “Requiem for Our Ancestors” and is now on exhibition. The 50-year retrospective exhibition of my work, titled I AM AS I AM: A MAN (on display at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston), has one gallery dedicated to the series.  

The works in this series are structures based upon traditional Black Southern “common” architecture—small-scale houses of clapboard siding and shingle roofs without doors or windows. These structures are dwellings for the spirits of Africans who died—violently or otherwise—on their sojourn throughout the western hemisphere. The untold numbers of Africans who met death under the above circumstances, are spirits who cannot rest in peace unless we perform an observance of their passing. These “Shrine Sculptures” seek to represent a “rest in peace” abode for the weary soul. Each sculpture signifies its rightful inhabitants. 

Website: https://www.napoleonjoneshenderson.com/

ICA-Boston: https://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/napoleon-jones-henderson-i-am-i-am%E2%80%94-man

     https://www.icaboston.org/video/artist%E2%80%99s-voice-napoleon-jones-henderson

     https://www.icaboston.org/video/studio-visit-napoleon-jones-henderson