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Symposium November 12–13, 2010 Director’S Statement, Camille Giraud Akeju Exhibitions

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Symposium November 12–13, 2010 Director’S Statement, Camille Giraud Akeju Exhibitions Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum GENEral INFORMATION 1901 Fort Place SE Washington, DC 20020 202.633.4820 Monday–Friday Lorenzo Dow Turner makes recordings in African village Lorenzo Dow Turner Papers, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, 202.633.1000 Saturday–Sunday Smithsonian Institution, 202.287.3183 Fax Gift of Lois Turner Williams HOURS Open daily 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Closed December 25 ADMISSION FREE TOURS For group tours, call 202.633.4844 PARKING Museum parking lot and on-street parking Accessible to people with physical disabilities anacostia.si.edu Photograph by John Francis Ficara The mission of the Anacostia Community Museum is to challenge perceptions, broaden perspectives, generate new knowledge, and deepen understanding about the ever-changing concepts and realities of “community.” Connecting the Worlds of the African Diaspora: Cover Image: The Living Legacy of Lorenzo Dow Turner Lorenzo Dow Turner, 1917, the year he graduated from Harvard University with a master’s degree Lorenzo Dow Turner Papers, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Lois Turner Williams Symposium November 12–13, 2010 Director’s Statement, Camille Giraud Akeju Exhibitions The Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum welcomes you to Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner “Connecting the Worlds of the African Diaspora: The Living Legacy of Connecting Communities through Language Lorenzo Dow Turner,” a two-day symposium that is part of the public August 9, 2010–July 24, 2011 programming related to the major exhibition Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Anacostia Community Museum Dow Turner Connecting Communities through Language. The symposium is a powerful opportunity for learning and exchange. It explores the ways in Until the 1930s in the United States it was believed which Turner’s seminal investigations in language inspired the research of that African Americans had not retained any diverse scholars (including historians, linguists, and anthropologists) in knowledge of the culture and language of their Photograph by John Francis Ficara connecting various communities within the worlds of the African Diaspora African enslaved ancestors. Scholars dismissed (Sierra Leone; Caicos; Bahia, Brazil; Mexico; and Texas). Turner’s research, Gullah, the language spoken in the Sea Islands mostly done in the 1930s and 1940s, is still being used today and is highly relevant to an understanding of along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, as community identity and continuity. The persistence of Turner’s legacy is a tribute to an African American “baby talk” or “bad English.” Professor Lorenzo scholar who went unheralded for a long time. Dow Turner, considered the first African American Left: Lorenzo Dow Turner (detail), 1917; Lorenzo Dow Turner, PhD, was a man of many accomplishments: a son of North Carolina whose passion linguist, changed that notion through his Middle: Doing the ring shout in Georgia, ca. 1930s Lorenzo Dow Turner Papers, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, for education and academic success led him as student and teacher to the preeminent universities of his breakthrough research. His pioneering studies proved Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Lois Turner Williams day; a popular professor of English and linguistics; a pioneering linguist with a passion for people and that Gullah was a Creole language with words and Right: Mary Moran sings Mende funeral song (detail) fieldwork; a world traveler and cultural explorer; an advocate of following one’s curiosity and imagination. a distinctive grammar derived from African languages. Courtesy Herb Frazier, Charleston, South Carolina In many ways, Dr. Turner is one of the twentieth century’s most influential scholars—and you have rarely This exhibition traces the life and work of Turner and heard of him. “Connecting the Worlds of the African Diaspora” will increase your understanding and his enormous contribution to American scholarship and change your perceptions of Turner’s work and the longevity of his inspiration. linguistics, his lifelong quest to bring knowledge of Africa Beginning with his studies of the origins, structure, and living use of the Gullah language in the 1930s to America, his journeys through the worlds of the African Diaspora, to the 1949 publication of his seminal volume, Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect, to his trips to Africa in and the relevance and significance of his work eight decades later. the 1950s and subsequent lectures based on that work, Lorenzo Dow Turner has influenced the growth and development of: the academic discipline of Creole studies; linguists and linguistics; Gullah studies; comparative anthropology; African Diaspora studies; and comparative studies of world music and culture. Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art His data and analysis of the contributions of formerly enslaved Africans to the history, language, and June 23, 2010–November 28, 2010 culture of America undergird the contemporary investigations of renowned linguists and anthropologists. National Museum of African Art His stature and enduring reputation as a professor and teacher continue to inspire young linguists—black and white—who study and work with local communities around the globe. By tracing the story of the beautiful coiled basket We thank all the scholars who join us for the symposium. Alcione Amos, Herb Frazier, Thomas Klein, on two continents, Grass Roots demonstrates Livio Sansone, and Kevin Yelvington bring to us their particular insights and personal encounters with the enduring contribution of African peoples Turner. We are especially grateful for the presence of our keynote speaker, Emory S. Campbell, himself a and cultures to American life in the southeastern pioneering activist in the preservation and understanding of the Gullah culture and heritage. United States. On view are approximately 200 objects, including baskets made in Africa and the We acknowledge the absence of two individuals who have done much to keep alive the life and legacy American South, African sculptures, paintings of Lorenzo Dow Turner. Historian Joseph Opala of James Madison University, primarily known for his from the Charleston Renaissance, and historic research on the Gullah connection between the Sea Islands and Sierra Leone, is now coordinator of the photographs and videos. The exhibition also Bunce Island Project, which will conserve and interpret the Sierra Leone slave castle of Bunce Island Calabash cover made with grass and synthetic fiber, reveals how a simple farm tool, once used for Ramata Sy. Toucolor. Boundam Est, Senegal, Late 20th Century, and establish a museum of the Atlantic slave trade in Freetown. We also miss the presence of the late American Museum of Natural History, NY processing rice, has become an important tool Photograph courtesy of National Museum of African Art, Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis, whose full-length biography, Lorenzo Dow Turner: Father of Gullah Studies, Smithsonian Institution. provides much of the framework for the Word, Shout, Song exhibition. We hope this symposium reflects the for making coiled baskets in the South. scholarship of these eminent researchers as well as the lasting inspiration of Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner. Program Symposium Participants Alcione M. Amos is a museum research specialist at the Connecting the Worlds of the African Diaspora: Anacostia Community Museum and the curator of the exhibit The Living Legacy of Lorenzo Dow Turner Word Shout Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Communities through Language. Parallel to her work as a librarian, Mrs. Amos Friday, November 12, 2010 maintained a career as an independent scholar studying post- 9:00–10:00 AM Registration Check-in and Continental Breakfast slavery societies. She co-edited in 1996 a book, Black Seminoles: 10:45 AM Opening Remarks by Camille Akeju, Director History of a Freedom Seeking People, about Gullah fugitive slaves 11:15 AM Kevin Yelvington, “Constituting Paradigms in the Study of the from South Carolina and Georgia who joined the Seminole African Diaspora, 1900–1950” Indians in Florida and became part of the tribe. She also 12:10 PM Lunch researched extensively the history of Afro-Brazilians who, after Photograph by Susana A. Raab 1:25 PM Livio Sansone, “Lorenzo, Franklin, and Melville in the Gantois: obtaining their freedom, returned to West Africa and established The Making of the American Black Family in Bahia. communities in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, and Benin. In 2007 she 2:20 PM Keynote Address: Emory S. Campbell, “Gullah/Geechee Culture: published in Brazil a book titled Os Que Voltaram: a História dos Respected, Understood, and Striving—Sixty Years after Lorenzo D Retornados Afro-Brasileiros na África Ocidental no Século XIX Turner’s Masterpiece” (Those Who Returned: The History of the Afro-Brazilian Returnees in 3:45–5:15 PM Docent-led tour of Grass Roots, an exhibition on the African origins of West Africa in the 19th Century.) In 2007 Mrs. Amos volunteered at the sweetgrass baskets made by Gullah communities in South Carolina. Anacostia Community Museum to help process the Lorenzo Dow Turner Shuttle transportation r/t to National Museum of African Art papers. After working with the collection for a year, she was offered the opportunity to curate the present exhibit on Turner’s life and work. In 2009 she joined the staff of the museum on a permanent basis. Saturday, November 13, 2010 Mrs. Amos holds an MSLS degree from the Catholic University of America. 9:00–9:30 AM Continental Breakfast and Registration 9:30 AM Opening 9:45 AM Herb Frazier, “Behind God’s Back: Gullah Memories of Cainhoy, Wando, Huger, Daniel Island, St. Thomas Island, South Carolina” Herb Frazier is a freelance writer and public relations consultant 10:45 AM Thomas Klein, “Sounds of Africa in Gullah and on Middle Caicos” based in Charleston, South Carolina. He grew up in the 11:45 AM Alcione Amos, “Black Seminoles: The Gullah Connections” Ansonborough public housing projects in Charleston and at 12:30 PM Summation the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As a reporter 1:00 PM Closing Remarks for his hometown newspaper, The Post and Courier, he covered stories in Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa.
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