Thursday, January 16, 2014

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR! If you read my monthly blog posts, then I haven't wished you a Happy New Year yet! I hope it's going well! The hardest thing about New Years is starting back up after all of those winter off-days.  When I received the itinerary for the January MJ, I thought, "Oh, right! I do have a MJ this month.Time to study." Perks of getting back on track, right? After hours of research, my class and I discovered that we were to research African trade beads, often called slave beads.  These beads were used between the sixteenth and the twentieth century as currency. African trade beads are trade beads given to Africans in exchange for slaves, goods, and services. The goods included ivory, gold, palm oil, and other items the Europeans wanted.  These beads were made to make the European passage in Africa easy.  African trade beads were successfully used because Africans place high intrinsic value on decorative items. They had not seen such items before and they were easily impressed. The Africans used the beads as currency, as a store of wealth, to beautify themselves, and as a sign of social status. Today, African trade beads are used to make earnings, necklaces, and other jewelry.  
Before we ventured to find African beads, we went to a place in Dupont Circle called Kramerbooks & Afterwards to do more research on the beads.  This is an independent bookstore and cafe in DC.  Kramerbooks & Afterwords was opened in 1976 by Bill Kramer, who had previously managed his father's store called Sidney Kramer Books on I Street, which closed in 1997.The store came to national attention in 1997 during the Lewinsky scandal, when it successfully fought a subpoena from Kenneth Starr to disclose which books Monica Lewinsky had purchased. 

I called the store before we went to make sure they had books about our specific subject, but they only had about five.  Seeing as we researched the beads beforehand, the five books weren't a problem, and we visited them anyway.  The bookstore was super cute! At first glance, it looks like a very small corner store but when you enter the mini-library, walls are lined with books as far as eyes can see! They even had the newest "Diary of a Wimpy Kid!" At the far back of the store, was a quaint cafe.  We picked up some books, and we spent about an hour and a half in Kramer's.  
We also researched different African Cultures such as the Khoisans and the Kemites.  They used these trade beads. Khoisan  is a unifying name for two groups of people of Southern Africa, who share physical and assumed linguistic characteristics distinct from the Bantu majority of the region. Culturally, the Khoisan are divided into the foraging San or Bushmen and the pastoral Khoi, previously known as Hottentots. They were known to hunt and gather, as well as farm. Kemetism is Egyptian Neopaganism, the contemporary revival of Ancient Egyptian religion which also spread throughout Europe in the Late Antiquity, emerging from the 1970s onwards. Followers call themselves Kemetic(s). The religion has an organised presence in the United States, France and the Czech Republic.
After visiting the bookstore, we went to Bedazzled! A cute beads store literally next door to Kramer's. We spent 30 minutes finding African Beads and also admiring the other beautiful beads in the store. We also found a timeline of beads of African, which was awesome!
While looking for lunch after Bedazzled, we got a chance to gaze at the precise architecture of Dupont Circle. The area's rowhouses, built before 1900, featured variations on the Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque revival styles. The luxurious mansions and large freestanding houses, that line the broad tree-lined diagonal avenues that intersect the circle,are rare. Many of these larger dwellings were built in the styles popular between 1895 and 1910. Striver's Section, described as a “community of Negro aristocracy,
is an area in Dupont Circle that embraces its historical architecture as some of its original homes still exist. Strivers' Section was historically an enclave of upper-middle-class African Americans, often community leaders, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has long been associated with Negro leaders in business, education, politics, religion, art, architecture, science and government.   The area was envisioned as part of the capital city by Pierre Charles L’Enfant's (Lol, now the L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station makes sense!) 1791 plan; by 1852, plans were drawn up for 11 squares subdivided by streets, but the rural landscape remained largely uninhabited until the later half of the century. Development began in the 1870s, encouraged by a north-south streetcar line along nearby 14th Street, and thrived from about 1890 to 1910. Early residents included working-class people and professionals, African Americans, and whites. But the area became most strongly identified with the African American elites who were attracted by public transit and the nearby Howard University. Edwardian Architecture, the style of Striver's as well as Dupont's, is a less ordinate version of the Victorian Culture. They took ideas from medieval times. Because of the new use of gas and electric lighting, walls were brighter and clearer. Decorative patterns were less complex, achieving a look of little clutter and cramped spaces. A popular black leader who lived in Striver's Section was Frederick Douglass. He built the three southern buildings in which to live and later when he died, he gave them to his son who lived there until his death in 1908. We visited and took some pictures there! 
Oh, I almost forgot! We did another street performance and attracted awesome attention! We were only supposed to collect $25 dollars, but ended up with $50! Although a drunk man wanted to show us his rap skills (eh, he should get a new day job), we had an awesome time performing! A passer-by loved us so much that he overcame his fear of singing in public and sang with Eliza- Jane. You can here her sing here
It was a great experience to know that we were influencing so many people. Although this Metro Journey wasn't my favorite, it was really cool getting to research a culture that I didn't know of before. It really broadened my view of Africans, and it gave me a new respect for their skills! Can't wait the until next one!