Of all the joys of strolling through the museum—studying Larry Rivers’s brush strokes, or seeing Yor

Of all the joys of strolling through the museum—studying Larry Rivers’s brush strokes, or seeing Yoruba beadwork up close comes to mind—the thing that always moves me is how museum objects show simple moments of human yearning. It could be the yearning to demonstrate power, or to invent new techniques of art-making, or to provide food for one’s family. But often, our objects demonstrate a yearning older than anything in this building: the desire to say something to the world about who we are. School Partnership Coordinator Adjoa Jones de Almeida has a long-standing interest in identity. She is a founding member of several collectives centered around creating opportunities for women of color, and has written about Afro-Brazilian identity in the context of education. Here at the museum, she is one of the project educators for the current show Zanele Muholi: Isobonelo/Evidence, which documents a black transgender and lesbian community in South Africa. A passionate advocate of trans rights, Adjoa is spearheading a series of talks and workshops in October for parents and children to explore gender identity. But for all the seriousness of Adjoa’s work—she is a former Fulbright scholar, after all!—she’s also a lot of fun. I can tell because my office shares a wall with the studio where she leads artmaking classes for students from around NYC. I can hear the rattle of kids laughing as they paint, and Adjoa switching fluidly between Spanish and English, holding her students enthralled. Any time I see her leading an eager line of first-graders into the galleries I know they’re in for a meaningful lesson. One of Adjoa’s favorite objects to teach from is an item you could also find at a beauty shop in the neighborhood: a bundle of hair, this one from ancient Egypt. She pairs it with fragments from a plaque depicting Queen Neferu having her hair done by her hairdresser. Adjoa, always bringing the object closer to home, poses the questions: “How does hair reflect cultural/ethnic identity? And what do these objects tell us about the cultural similarities and differences between ancient Egyptians and ourselves?” Posted by Sam Kelly -- source link

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