Intricate design, brilliant color, sacred symbols. The Kente cloth exhibit —Wrapped in Pride: Ghanian Kente and African American Identity — which just opened at the Lafayette Natural History Museum, displays yards and yards of gorgeous hand woven and pieced fabric, traditionally worn by African royalty. Historically, the cloth was created in west Africa’s former Gold Coast, the kingdoms of the Asante and Ewe, now Ghana and Togo. Woven in strips which tell tales of family and religion, the cloth is used Pan-Africa for ceremonial and diplomatic occasions. The bright colors and patterns have caught on with American designers who have interwoven Kente cloth into everything from backpacks and sneakers to church vestments--imbuing fashion with an instantly recognizable symbol of African pride. The show is up through October 5, and will be free to the public on Saturday, September 13. For more information call 291-5544.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
Intricate design, brilliant color, sacred symbols. The Kente cloth exhibit —Wrapped in Pride: Ghanian Kente and African American Identity — which just opened at the Lafayette Natural History Museum, displays yards and yards of gorgeous hand woven and pieced fabric, traditionally worn by African royalty. Historically, the cloth was created in west Africa’s former Gold Coast, the kingdoms of the Asante and Ewe, now Ghana and Togo. Woven in strips which tell tales of family and religion, the cloth is used Pan-Africa for ceremonial and diplomatic occasions. The bright colors and patterns have caught on with American designers who have interwoven Kente cloth into everything from backpacks and sneakers to church vestments--imbuing fashion with an instantly recognizable symbol of African pride. The show is up through October 5, and will be free to the public on Saturday, September 13. For more information call 291-5544.
Subscribe to this comment's feed