American Craft Podcast

This is a rebroadcast of a podcast from June 10th, 2022 presented as an encore for anyone who missed it.  During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the in-between spaces of immigrant life were made more acute for Bukola Koiki than ever. Searching for the feeling of home during the seemingly endless isolation of that time, she found herself comforted in abstracted forms and shapes of houses. The Pull was made in response to her yearning for Nigeria and beloved family members. American Craft Podcast thanks our guest, Bukola Koiki, See more of her work at bukolakoiki.com and follow @bukolakoiki. See this Object at craftcouncil.org. American Craft Podcast also thanks our host and producer Sarah Rachel Brown from perceivedvaluepodcast.com. Follow @sarahrachelbrown. Music is produced by Hamilton Boyce. Find him at hamiltonboyce.com and follow @hamiltonboyce. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. American Craft Podcast is property of the American Craft Council at craftcouncil.org. Your support through membership and contributions is appreciated. Subscribe, rate, and review the American Craft Podcast wherever you listen.

This is a rebroadcast of a podcast from May 25th, 2022 presented as an encore for anyone who missed it.   “I wonder where is all my relation. Friendship to all and every nation.”  —David Drake   Ancestry and family are profound values in Baralaye's life, but the terms also have a degree of opacity. An understanding of “one’s people” touches on broad ideas of community, history, place, and value that shape a sense of belonging and being. We ultimately belong less to those broad entities than to the specific people and the distinct faces, voices, and bodies, known and unknown, chosen and unchosen, that compose what the 19th-century potter David Drake, enslaved in South Carolina, calls our “relation.”   As a part of a diaspora removed since birth from Nigeria and its culture, Baralaye sees “my relation” in the faces of the family members he knows but also in the imagined faces of those on his family tree whom he has yet to meet or never will. All My Relation: I gives distinct features to this unknown segment of Baralaye's relation while acknowledging that they are both unclear and persistent in his mind.   American Craft Podcast thanks our guest, Ebitenyefa Baralaye. See more of his work at baralaye.com and follow @baralaye. To view the Object visit the American Craft Council here. American Craft Podcast also thanks our host and producer Sarah Rachel Brown from perceivedvaluepodcast.com. Follow @sarahrachelbrown. Music is produced by Hamilton Boyce. Find him at hamiltonboyce.com and follow @hamiltonboyce. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. American Craft Podcast is property of the American Craft Council at craftcouncil.org. Your support through membership and contributions is appreciated. Subscribe, rate, and review the American Craft Podcast wherever you listen.

Originally published in late April we want to make James' work and interview available to new listeners as well. Enjoy this encore presentation.   In fashioning the object, Morel Doucet pays homage to the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who came from humble beginnings. Morel's piece commemorates Mr. Moïse's legacy and the fragments of his vision for the Haitian people. The butterflies that grace the face of the object are symbols of transformation and hope. The stark white porcelain head pays homage to Morel's grandfather's cup of coffee he would casually drink after his evening work on the farm.  To view the object visit the American Craft Council by clicking here. American Craft Podcast thanks our guest, Morel Doucet. See more of his work at www.moreldoucet.com and follow @moreldoucet. American Craft Podcast also thanks our host and producer Sarah Rachel Brown from perceivedvaluepodcast.com. Follow @sarahrachelbrown. Music is produced by Hamilton Boyce. Find him at hamiltonboyce.com and follow @hamiltonboyce. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. American Craft Podcast is property of the American Craft Council at craftcouncil.org. Your support through membership and contributions is appreciated.  Subscribe, rate and review the American Craft Podcast.  

Sonya Clark is a multidisciplinary textile artist, Professor at Amherst College and ACC Fellow. Hosted by ACC Honorary Fellow Stuart Kestenbaum, this interview is one in a series developed by Kestenbaum and  craftschools.us. You can find Sonya's work at https://sonyaclark.com/ and learn more about the artist at https://www.craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/connector.

Originally released in April we think it's worth inviting our new listeners to our conversation with Morel Doucet. In fashioning the object, Morel Doucet pays homage to the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who came from humble beginnings. Morel's piece commemorates Mr. Moïse's legacy and the fragments of his vision for the Haitian people. The butterflies that grace the face of the object are symbols of transformation and hope. The stark white porcelain head pays homage to Morel's grandfather's cup of coffee he would casually drink after his evening work on the farm.  American Craft Podcast thanks our guest, Morel Doucet. See his object at www.craftcouncil.org and follow @moreldoucet. American Craft Podcast also thanks our host and producer Sarah Rachel Brown from perceivedvaluepodcast.com. Follow @sarahrachelbrown. Music is produced by Hamilton Boyce. Find him at hamiltonboyce.com and follow @hamiltonboyce. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. American Craft Podcast is property of the American Craft Council at craftcouncil.org. Your support through membership and contributions is appreciated.  Subscribe, rate and review the American Craft Podcast.  

The Willys Jeep, very common in Baracoa, Cuba, is something Quintero has represented many times in his work through his sociocultural project titled Transportarte a Baracoa (transport yourself to Baracoa). When Quintero started this project, he wanted to reflect the reality that surrounds those in Cuba. The Willys has been used to carry packages and help with moves. During World War II, it was employed by the military on the Guantánamo naval base, where the strong and brave vehicle proved its value more than once. American Craft Podcast thanks our guest, Leandro Gómez Quintero. View Quintero's object here. See more of his work here. Read about Leandro in the New York Times.    American Craft Podcast also thanks our host and producer Sarah Rachel Brown from perceivedvaluepodcast.com. Follow @sarahrachelbrown. Music is produced by Hamilton Boyce. Find him at hamiltonboyce.com and follow @hamiltonboyce. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. American Craft Podcast is property of the American Craft Council at craftcouncil.org. Your support through membership and contributions is appreciated. Subscribe, rate, and review the American Craft Podcast wherever you listen.

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the in-between spaces of immigrant life were made more acute for Bukola Koiki than ever. Searching for the feeling of home during the seemingly endless isolation of that time, she found herself comforted in abstracted forms and shapes of houses. The Pull was made in response to her yearning for Nigeria and beloved family members. American Craft Podcast thanks our guest, Bukola Koiki, See more of her work at bukolakoiki.com and follow @bukolakoiki. See this Object at craftcouncil.org. American Craft Podcast also thanks our host and producer Sarah Rachel Brown from perceivedvaluepodcast.com. Follow @sarahrachelbrown. Music is produced by Hamilton Boyce. Find him at hamiltonboyce.com and follow @hamiltonboyce. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. American Craft Podcast is property of the American Craft Council at craftcouncil.org. Your support through membership and contributions is appreciated. Subscribe, rate, and review the American Craft Podcast wherever you listen.

“I wonder where is all my relation. Friendship to all and every nation.”  —David Drake   Ancestry and family are profound values in Baralaye's life, but the terms also have a degree of opacity. An understanding of “one’s people” touches on broad ideas of community, history, place, and value that shape a sense of belonging and being. We ultimately belong less to those broad entities than to the specific people and the distinct faces, voices, and bodies, known and unknown, chosen and unchosen, that compose what the 19th-century potter David Drake, enslaved in South Carolina, calls our “relation.”   As a part of a diaspora removed since birth from Nigeria and its culture, Baralaye sees “my relation” in the faces of the family members he knows but also in the imagined faces of those on his family tree whom he has yet to meet or never will. All My Relation: I gives distinct features to this unknown segment of Baralaye's relation while acknowledging that they are both unclear and persistent in his mind.   American Craft Podcast thanks our guest, Ebitenyefa Baralaye. See more of his work at baralaye.com and follow @baralaye. American Craft Podcast also thanks our host and producer Sarah Rachel Brown from perceivedvaluepodcast.com. Follow @sarahrachelbrown. Music is produced by Hamilton Boyce. Find him at hamiltonboyce.com and follow @hamiltonboyce. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. American Craft Podcast is property of the American Craft Council at craftcouncil.org. Your support through membership and contributions is appreciated. Subscribe, rate, and review the American Craft Podcast wherever you listen.

Burn It All Away depicts an idyllic nature scene catching fire under the rays of a burning sun while an anthropomorphized gazing pool smiles in witness to this circumstance. Wet footprints step away from the pool, suggesting the departure of the reflected subject, or perhaps of the reflection itself.... ....The pool smiles because the physical body it was reflecting is free of the pain and confines of a disorder people often think of as an unabated self-love at the expense of those who interact with the narcissist, when in fact the narcissist lives in a state of unseen suffering. See Alex's object and read his full statement and the curator's statement here.  Recommended reading by the artist:  Narcissism: Denial of the True Self by Alexander Lowen Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristin Neff American Craft Podcast thanks our guest, Alex Anderson. See more of his work at www.alexalexalexalex.com and follow @100alexanderson. American Craft Podcast also thanks our host and producer Sarah Rachel Brown from perceivedvaluepodcast.com. Follow @sarahrachelbrown. Music is produced by Hamilton Boyce. Find him at hamiltonboyce.com and follow @hamiltonboyce. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. American Craft Podcast is property of the American Craft Council at craftcouncil.org. Your support through membership and contributions is appreciated. Subscribe, rate, and review the American Craft Podcast wherever you listen.

With his object, James toiled with the notion of creating a tool that embodies sport, escapism, and self-defense; that expresses movement and stillness, a call and response between sporting leisure and creative labor. He attempts to fashion a tool that is multifunctional and dysfunctional at the same time. See James' object and read both his and the curator's statement here.  American Craft Podcast thanks our guest, James Maurelle. See more of his work at www.jamesmaurelle.com and follow @jmaurelle. American Craft Podcast also thanks our host and producer Sarah Rachel Brown from perceivedvaluepodcast.com. Follow @sarahrachelbrown. Music is produced by Hamilton Boyce. Find him at hamiltonboyce.com and follow @hamiltonboyce. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. American Craft Podcast is property of the American Craft Council at craftcouncil.org. Your support through membership and contributions is appreciated. Subscribe, rate, and review the American Craft Podcast wherever you listen.