Join the Center for Craft and Berea College Student Craft for a special Craft Research Talk: The Poynors - A Legacy of Black Chairmakers with furniture makers, educators, and Craft Research Fund Artist Fellows Robell Awake & Charlie Ryland on Thursday, February 22, from 6:00 to 7:30 pm ET. 

For the past year and a half, as part of their 2022 Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship, Awake and Ryland have researched ladderback chairs created by the Poynors, a multigenerational family of free and enslaved craftspeople working in central Tennessee between the early nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From this research, Awake and Ryland have created objects that explore, reinterpret, and reimagine what the field of furniture-making today would look like had the history and legacy of the Poynors been celebrated rather than hidden.  

Tune in for an intriguing presentation with Awake and Ryland as they discuss the Poynors's legacy and the objects they created from their research, with students at Berea College Student Craft. An audience Q&A will follow their discussion.  

This program will be live streamed as a webinar by Zoom for audiences to attend remotely or you can join in person at the Berea College Carter G. Woodson Center for Interracial Education. Free and open to the public. A link to the live stream will be made available closer to the program date.

This event is held in conjunction with the recently opened exhibition Hammer & Hope, featuring the objects created by Awake and Ryland from their research, on view now through July 13, 2024, at the Center for Craft’s John Cram Gallery.

This event is presented in partnership with Berea College Student Craft, and Berea College’s Carter G. Woodson Center for Interracial Education.