Jagged Path:

The African Diaspora in Western NC in Craft, Music, and Dance

Blowing Rock Art and History Museum

April 30 – October 22, 2022 | Fort Gallery

This exhibit will illuminate the obscured history of African contributions to craft, music, and dance in Western North Carolina. Drawing connections from the 17th through 21st centuries, the Jagged Path will demonstrate how African traditions that survived the Middle Passage have helped create the culture of Western North Carolina through interviews, performances, historic artifacts, artist residencies, and more.


Curatorial Team:

Marie T Cochran, has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from University of Georgia. She is the founder of the Affrilachian Artist Project and a scholar in African American art. Through exhibitions, events and dialogue, the Affrilachian Artist Project explores the unique perspective of people of color in Appalachia. The goal is to create an inter-generational and interdisciplinary collective of socially active individuals and organizations dedicated to creating a sustainable network of support in the region. Ms. Cochran has curated numerous exhibitions throughout the Appalachian region on behalf the Affrilachian Artist Project, most recently she curated the exhibition adVANCE! Modernism, Black Liberation + Black Mountain College at BMC+AC in Asheville. Ms. Cochran is currently the Lehman Brady Visiting Professor at Duke University through the Center for Documentary Studies and UNC-Chapel Hill through their Department of American Studies, where she is teaching the course “Arts & Culture of Black Appalachia: Race, Place, Community and Resilience.” Ms. Cochran will serve on the curatorial committee and use her expertise as founder and curator of the Affrilachian Artist Project to curate the craft component of the exhibition.


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Laurie Goux, will serve as project dance curator. Laurie Goux has been performing, choreographing and producing since 1981. She is an alumna and former faculty member of Columbia College Dance Center where she taught Modern Dance as a part of the core curriculum. Laurie has performed and taught at the Augusta Festival at D&E since 2010, teaching Blues, West African, Afro-Brazilian and Caribbean dance and lecturing on the African influence in Appalachian culture. Goux has performed in the works of Loretta Livingston, June Finch, Shirley Mordine, XSight! Performance Group, Jan Erkert, Robin Lakes, Kate Kuper, Lin Shook, Tommy Gomez, Carol Bobrow’s “Hiroshima Trilogy,” Claudia Gittleman’s “Amartia” and Martha Clarke’s “Haiku” performed by Mordine & Company trio with Tim O’Slynne and Brian Jeffery. She produced “Suite Chicago Blues” featuring Max-A-Million’s rendition of Willie Dixon’s song, “My Babe” in collaboration with the DuSable Museum and Chicago Blues Museum exhibit and choreographed and performed in the Nation of Islam’s First Saviors Day musical production of “Trials of a Queen,” directed by Donna Farrakhan. Her dancing has shared the stage with many celebrated international music artists, including Max-A-Million, Youssou N’Dour, Mori Keba Kouyate, Queen Asabia and Rafo International Combo.


The Jagged Path: the African Diaspora in Western North Carolina through Craft Music and Dance is made possible by support from Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, North Carolina Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. As well as SouthArts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the Jagged Path exhibition, do not necessarily represent those of Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, SouthArts, North Carolina Humanities, North Carolina Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, or the National Endowment for the Arts.

Learn more: https://www.blowingrockmuseum.org/see/jagged-path

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