There must be tremendous pressure for you“ to get it right” with all the authenticity of the Sea Island culture immediately surrounding you, in regards to depicting diaspora fashion here in the Lowcountry.
Definitely, there was a little pressure because you want to make sure you represent the essence of the culture, especially being indigenous to the Sea Island- Lowcountry area. So I did my very best to incorporate many elements of the Sea Islands such as the sweet grass, the indigo dyed fabric and batik dyed fabrics. Last year we did a wonderful job of bringing in local artists who actually were basket weavers / sweet grass basket makers and fabric dyers. And this year although those particular people weren’ t able to be here, they definitely have been part of the history of Africa Fashion Week because they helped kick start Africa Fashion Week with our inaugural week. But we definitely incorporated many similar elements. We ensured that we had artists like Arianee King Colmer who uses a lot of natural dyed fabric from local artists. So the execution is very strategic, very orchestrated, and just very purposeful.
Which brings me to my next point: Having underlined the importance of the support of the local artists, you began the week at University of South Carolina-Beaufort with an opening reception with a repeating theme of community economics. Explain to me the importance and impact of community economics.
The inspiration behind the theme of community came solely from Ngozo Saba which is a set of African based principles. Typically we hear of them through the celebration of Kwanzaa. It was vital to incorporate that into this year’ s theme because of our communities— they’ re only going to thrive and get better when we start circulating our dollars more purposefully into our communities.
So making sure that we had local vendors, making sure that we promoted local artists and local vendors was so important to get beyond just the pomp and circumstance and get down to the heart and the root and the meaning of being able to come together in unison and support one another in a very collective, purposeful way. And to make sure that it continues beyond Africa Fashion Week. For instance, the community market is held every single 4th Saturday of the month, no different than the Farmer’ s Market that is held every single Saturday in Port Royal. You know that those people are supporting that effort faithfully. So we need to be interested in the exact same thing and get back to that essence of being supportive and making sure that our dollars circulate in our communities.
Tying into the theme of community economics, charities also played key roles in AFWLC. You chose between two charities, one of which was Gullah Daughters of Purpose which will host its Teen Girls’ Summit on this Saturday, September 17th. What was the deciding factor for how you made your selection?
Oh, that’ s a wonderful question! I really appreciate you asking me that. When AFWLC was founded, it was really important to me that it was not just about fashion, but that it’ s about giving back to the community. This( AFWLC) is a mechanism to inspire the community to aspire for excellence, aspire to greatness, and give back in a charitable way. So this year we actually ended up celebrating and recognizing three different charities. The idea was to celebrate and recognize one local and two global charities. I found out about Gullah Daughters of Purpose earlier this year, and I really admired the work of Nakeisha Thompson, the director of the organization, because working with our kids is the key to our future.
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