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A Juried Exhibition of Fabric Art from
The Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture
April 7 - May 3, 2009
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Teresa Vega
Madre de Agua
Art Quilt
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Pam "Suji" Woollis
Fiona Merangel
Art Doll
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Enslaved Africans along the coast of South Carolina brought some of
the first tales of mermaids and merwomen to America. Many of these
folktales were stories of African ocean and river goddesses.
Because of their rich oral traditions few if any of these stories were
written until they were recorded by collectors of folk tales toward the end
of the 19th century.
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Some of the water spirit folk tales that
evolved from within the storytellings of
enslaved Africans depict vengeful
mermaids who summon powerful
storms upon the hapless communities
of the Carolina coastal islands, while
others represent the mermaid as a
benevolent, wish-granting fairy
godmother*. The dual natures of
creation and destruction, sympathy and
retribution, are co-equal in the
character of African-derived feminine
water spirits.
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Deborah Grayson Bailey
Olokun Kept Us
Art Quilt
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This exhibit offers diverse interpretations of such universal themes;
femininity, fertility, maternity, mystery and independence of the spirit are
just a few. So universal are these elements that Mami Wata and
Yemaya, the pervasive pan-African mermaid-goddesses, have been
appropriated by modern religious worshippers in the Western
hemisphere, from the United States and the Carribean to South
America.
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