Like ticker tape, a red sign above the gallery door of Syracuse’s Community Folk Art Center reads: “CFAC Galleries film studios paint diaspora engage ceramic dance.”

The sign itself is a catchall for the mediums and goals nested within the center’s central mission — exploring the cultural impact and future of the diaspora by highlighting contemporary work from artists around Central New York.

The diaspora refers to the African diaspora, the dispersal of the African people around the world, which is a theme throughout the works of the center.

The center began as a collective in 1972 on the intersection of South Salina Street and Wood Avenue. It was founded by Herbert Williams, professor of African American studies at Syracuse University, and students from his AAS 361: “Art of the Black World” class.

Forty years later, the center maintains a relationship with SU. The center celebrated its 40th anniversary this spring and changed locations twice before settling at its current home on East Genesee Street in 2005.

“We were born out of that concept of struggle to get art out there, and to be known and to be seen,” said Helina Kebede, the center’s marketing specialist.

The center remains part of SU’s African American Studies program, which helps sustain the Community Folk Art Center through grants, said Kheli Willetts, executive director of the center.

Though accelerated by the slave trade, the diaspora narrative is ultimately larger than slavery itself, Willets said.

“Because of the transatlantic slave trade, the African people have put a foot on nearly every continent,” she said. “They interacted with the existing culture to create a new identity and a new art.”

The breadth of these collective experiences is the reason for the center’s multiple goals; an attempt to address a complex story that Willetts said is not limited to the work of black artists.

“You do not have to be black, but what you’re doing has to speak to people from the diaspora,” Willetts said.

For example, five years ago the center ran an exhibition featuring Hmong art. The Hmong people, a minority within the Asian diaspora, went through disfranchisement and loss of language like the African people, Willetts said.

“We’re here for humanity,” Willetts said of the center. “I like the fact that humanity has more in common than it thinks, and the opportunity to connect with young people on issues they don’t get to learn about in school.”

The diaspora’s absence in classroom discussions, Willetts said, can be attributed to its complexity, a lack of interest and schools that are often “ill-equipped” to teach it.

“If a teaching program doesn’t require a culturally specific study, it becomes very difficult to teach about the diaspora,” she said. “And when they do mention the diaspora, they only mention slavery instead of the significantly greater contribution of the people in the diaspora.”

The center now holds after-school classes for students in the Syracuse area from seventh to 12th grade as part of its Creative Arts Academy, said Kebede, the marketing specialist.

The Academy has 20 students in its dance and visual arts programs, which Willetts said boasts a 100 percent graduation rate.

Willetts said she has been at the center for half of her life, starting out as a college intern and later becoming its executive director in 2001.

She trained under Williams, the professor who helped found the center and who passed away in 1999. She called the experience “challenging” and “informative.”

Said Willetts: “He taught me what it means to commit to the caretaking of a cultural center.”

 

Published on November 29, 2012 at 1:12 am

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