A Short History Of Black Craft In Ten Objects by Robell Awake

with illustrations by Johnalynn Holland and an afterword by Tiffany Momon.

As Black History Month draws to a close, I decided to leapfrog past the other books in my schedule to make sure that I could provide coverage for this important title while the month is still ongoing. And this is a very important title, preserving and illuminating American history and the contributions of Black American artisans to the crafting traditions of this country, while presenting all its information in a highly accessible and engaging manner.

Robell Awake carefully chooses ten iconic items and succinctly discusses the artisans and traditions behind them. Whether discussing something as well-known and inarguably attributed to the Black community as the Gee’s Bend Quilts, to the equally famous wedding dress of Jacqueline Kennedy and its less publicized couturier Anne Lowe, to the very design of American porches, Mr Awake goes over the myriad ways in which enslaved people and their descendants made an outsized impact on American craftsmanship. Lamentably, too many of these contributions were either minimized or whitewashed, with white slave owners often taking credit for the work of those they exploited, as in the case of the furniture-maker who went by the single name Boston. Both he and the ceramicist known as Dave the Potter risked harsh punishment for even signing their works, in a time when it was illegal for Black people to be literate. As Mr Awake describes the items and the circumstances under which they were produced, he also paints a vivid picture of what it was like to be Black in America, and how that legacy is felt in and continues to the present day.

Johnalynn Holland’s art does a wonderful job of recreating many of the pieces described, as well as illustrating scenes of their crafting. I did bless the Internet for the ability to quickly search for photographs of the items that captured my interest, however. It’s one thing to read about works like Harriet Powers’ Bible Quilt or Philip Simmons’ namesake gates. While Ms Holland depicts them ably, actually seeing them, even in photographs, is a breathtaking experience. I’m already mentally planning a trip to see as many of these as I can, likely starting with James Hampton’s The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, the iconic work of yard show art currently on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

I don’t usually talk about author’s personal lives in my reviews, but I found it striking how Mr Awake discusses his own position as a artisan who never finished college in his introduction. Frankly, he’s done an exemplary job with this book of essays, rivaling anything I’ve ever read by writers more firmly rooted in academia. Genuinely the only thing I thought was missing here was a deeper interrogation of how race is used to cover up the relentless class warfare waged by wealthy Americans against the poor. While he does touch on it briefly when discussing the exploitation of enslaved cabinetmakers by white shop owners who claimed the designs as their own, he doesn’t point out the parallels with modern capitalism. Perhaps he doesn’t need to. Regardless, I understand how the subject may be well outside of the scope and intent of this book.

That said, I did appreciate how he talked about his own background as the son of Ethopian immigrants. The current conversation on who counts as Black in America is a truly thorny one that I don’t feel at all qualified to discuss, but I appreciate how he lays out his own origins so that others can make their own judgments on how to approach his work. This kind of transparency is refreshing, and a subtle rebuke to authors who try to obscure their own backgrounds in order to grant themselves greater authority on the subjects they’re discussing.

A Short History Of Black Craft In Ten Objects by Robell Awake was published February 4 2025 by Princeton Architectural Press and is available from all good booksellers, including