Center for Craft, Asheville, North Carolina + Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, North Carolina, July 2021

Craft Ways 2021: Tending to Craft was co-presented by the Center for Craft and the MA in Critical Craft Studies program at Warren Wilson College. As program partners, this gathering exemplified the type of generative collaboration that builds intergenerational networks to recognize and support future craft practice, research, and scholarship.

Role: Program Speaker, In The Fray: Black Women and Craft, 1850 - 1910, Mellanee Goodman discussed craft as a tightly wound integrant in the history and heritage of Black women through an analysis geographically focused on the upper South, including the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Mellanee’s program recognizes Black women's undeniable contributions to American craft history, as craft was fundamental to Black women’s identity before, during, and after the American Civil War.