By the Book Author Series | Fashioning Black Womanhood: How African Americans Influenced the Fashion Industry and Fought for Equality

Date: Thurs., Oct. 7, 2021

Time: 6:00pm

Program Description

From slavery to the present day, fashion has served an important means for Black women to express their identities and to fight for racial equality. This coming panel, concurrent with the exhibition Amanda Wicker: Black Fashion Design in Cleveland, will discuss how Black women carved themselves a space as fashion experts and influencers and how the industry became an avenue to claim freedoms in Cleveland and beyond.

Speakers include Patricia Edmonson, Museum Advisory Council Curator of Costume and Textiles at WRHS, Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, a fashion historian who will discuss her new book Dressed for Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism, and fashion designer and entrepreneur/owner of Dru Christine Fabrics & Design, Dru Thompson.

About the Presenters

Einav Rabinovitch-Fox

Dr. Einav Rabinovitch-Fox teaches American and Women’s and Gender History at Case Western Reserve University. She examines the connections between fashion, politics, and modernity, and her writing appeared both in scholarly journals and books as well as venues such as The Washington Post, PBS, and The Conversation. Her book, Dressed for Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism explores how women used fashion to challenge race and gender identities and to promote feminist agendas in the late 20th century.

Patty Edmonson

As the Museum Advisory Council Curator of Costume & Textiles, Patty Edmonson curates a collection of over 40,000 objects that tell the stories of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. She received an MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and has worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Her fashion exhibitions in the Chisholm Halle Costume Wing include Political Fashion Statements (2016), Wow Factor: 150 Years of Collecting Bold Clothes (2017), Mad for Plaid (2018), Si Jolie! French Fashion in Cleveland (2019), and Amanda Wicker: Black Fashion Design in Cleveland (2021). In addition, she curated the exhibit E. Theophilus Caviness: Church Community, Cleveland, and is actively working to create a more diverse textile collection that represents all walks of life in Cleveland.

Dru Thompson

“Dru” Thompson began sewing at the age of 13. Being inspired by the likes of Byron Lars, Thierry Mugler, and Gianni Versace, she went on to pursue and obtain a degree in fashion merchandising at the University of Akron. Soon after, Dru moved to Los Angeles, serving as a stylist and costume designer. She returned to Cleveland in 2001, and after taking on various roles at major fashion retailers, she decided to forge her own path and start a fashion business, now known as Dru Christine Fabrics & Design.

Having resided in some of Cleveland’s most historical and renowned communities, Dru has developed a diverse clientele across the growing city. She also shares her expertise by hosting fashion, style, and sewing workshops in her store, teaching fashion classes at the Cleveland School of Arts, and serving as the Arts and Fashion Writer for Cool Cleveland.

Dru Thompson has established herself as a well-recognized leader in the region’s fashion industry, public speaker, educator, mentor, and a model for small business success. Dru’s passion lies in offering designs for the bold and eclectic; preserving a studio that fosters creativity, ingenuity, and inspiration; and sharing her experiences with aspiring fashion designers and entrepreneurs.

To stay updated with Dru Thompson:

Official Website: www.druchristine.com
Facebook: Dru Christine Fabrics & Design
Instagram:@druchristine
LinkedIn: Dru Thompson
Twitter: @druchristine
Wordpress: “Hustle & Sew” www.druchristine.wordpress.com

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By the Book Author Series

This event is presented as part of the Cleveland History Center’s By the Book Author Series. For more information about the series, including a full list of topics, please click here.

By the Book Author Series | Fashioning Black Womanhood: How African Americans Influenced the Fashion Industry and Fought for Equality

Date: Thurs., Oct. 7, 2021

Time: 6:00pm

Program Description

From slavery to the present day, fashion has served an important means for Black women to express their identities and to fight for racial equality. This coming panel, concurrent with the exhibition Amanda Wicker: Black Fashion Design in Cleveland, will discuss how Black women carved themselves a space as fashion experts and influencers and how the industry became an avenue to claim freedoms in Cleveland and beyond.

Speakers include Patricia Edmonson, Museum Advisory Council Curator of Costume and Textiles at WRHS, Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, a fashion historian who will discuss her new book Dressed for Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism, and fashion designer and entrepreneur/owner of Dru Christine Fabrics & Design, Dru Thompson.

About the Presenters

Einav Rabinovitch-Fox

Dr. Einav Rabinovitch-Fox teaches American and Women’s and Gender History at Case Western Reserve University. She examines the connections between fashion, politics, and modernity, and her writing appeared both in scholarly journals and books as well as venues such as The Washington Post, PBS, and The Conversation. Her book, Dressed for Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism explores how women used fashion to challenge race and gender identities and to promote feminist agendas in the late 20th century.

Patty Edmonson

As the Museum Advisory Council Curator of Costume & Textiles, Patty Edmonson curates a collection of over 40,000 objects that tell the stories of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. She received an MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and has worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Her fashion exhibitions in the Chisholm Halle Costume Wing include Political Fashion Statements (2016), Wow Factor: 150 Years of Collecting Bold Clothes (2017), Mad for Plaid (2018), Si Jolie! French Fashion in Cleveland (2019), and Amanda Wicker: Black Fashion Design in Cleveland (2021). In addition, she curated the exhibit E. Theophilus Caviness: Church Community, Cleveland, and is actively working to create a more diverse textile collection that represents all walks of life in Cleveland.

Dru Thompson

“Dru” Thompson began sewing at the age of 13. Being inspired by the likes of Byron Lars, Thierry Mugler, and Gianni Versace, she went on to pursue and obtain a degree in fashion merchandising at the University of Akron. Soon after, Dru moved to Los Angeles, serving as a stylist and costume designer. She returned to Cleveland in 2001, and after taking on various roles at major fashion retailers, she decided to forge her own path and start a fashion business, now known as Dru Christine Fabrics & Design.

Having resided in some of Cleveland’s most historical and renowned communities, Dru has developed a diverse clientele across the growing city. She also shares her expertise by hosting fashion, style, and sewing workshops in her store, teaching fashion classes at the Cleveland School of Arts, and serving as the Arts and Fashion Writer for Cool Cleveland.

Dru Thompson has established herself as a well-recognized leader in the region’s fashion industry, public speaker, educator, mentor, and a model for small business success. Dru’s passion lies in offering designs for the bold and eclectic; preserving a studio that fosters creativity, ingenuity, and inspiration; and sharing her experiences with aspiring fashion designers and entrepreneurs.

To stay updated with Dru Thompson:

Official Website: www.druchristine.com
Facebook: Dru Christine Fabrics & Design
Instagram:@druchristine
LinkedIn: Dru Thompson
Twitter: @druchristine
Wordpress: “Hustle & Sew” www.druchristine.wordpress.com

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By the Book Author Series

This event is presented as part of the Cleveland History Center’s By the Book Author Series. For more information about the series, including a full list of topics, please click here.

By the Book Author Series | Virtual Book Discussion: A Choice of Weapons

Date: Thurs., Nov. 18, 2021

Time: 6:00pm

Program Description

This virtual discussion will focus on several of the major themes that Gordon Parks explored in his 1966 memoir, A Choice of Weapons.  Among other things, the discussion group will consider Parks’ Kansas roots, his challenging young adult years, his early work as a pianist, his foray into professional sports, his family life, and his discovery of professional photography – the weapon that would transform his life forever.

For more information on books by and about Gordon Parks, please click HERE.

Please note that this is a virtual discussion. Participants will receive access information upon registration.

About the Presenter

Dr. Regennia N. Williams

Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the Distinguished Scholar of African American History and Culture at the Western Reserve Historical Society and President of the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Fulbright Association.  An award-winning historian, she is also the founder, president, and director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (The RASHAD Center, Inc.). This nonprofit corporation creates, supports, and promotes arts and humanities programs in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area and in the state of Ohio through performances of Black sacred music, producing popular and scholarly publications, and conducting research for the Praying Grounds Oral History Project.  Williams has also conducted oral history research in Newport News, Virginia; Washington, DC; Ile-Ife Nigeria; Macau, China; and Free State, South Africa. Her published works include books, book chapters, and articles in scholarly journals, newspapers, and magazines, and she is the founder and editor of The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs and the Traditions & Beliefs newsletter. Her chapter on “Race, Religion, and Reconciliation: Academic Initiatives, Leadership Development, and Social Change” was published in Leadership for Change: Developing Transformational Student Leaders through Global Learning Spaces (2021).

For more information on Dr. Williams’ publications and oral history research, please click HERE.

 

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By the Book Author Series

This event is presented as part of the Cleveland History Center’s By the Book Author Series. For more information about the series, including a full list of topics, please click here.

By the Book Author Series | Black Politics and Black Power in Ohio, 1837-1860

Date: Thurs., Nov. 11, 2021

Time: 6:00pm

Program Description

In the 1840s and 50s, a remarkable cadre of Black leaders built electoral and political influence within Ohio’s rapidly shifting partisan terrain. Taking advantage of state Supreme Court decisions recognizing as “Caucasian” any man claiming he was “preponderantly white,” thousands of African American men voted throughout the state by the 1850s.  A fiercely contested 1856 congressional race between Lewis Campbell and Clement Vallandigham was one of many instances where Black voters were seen as crucial, and the Republican Salmon P. Chase was repeatedly derided as a “Negro Governor” whose election depended on their support. Finally, on Election Day 1860, the New York Herald, the country’s leading newspaper, proclaimed that Congress should invalidate Lincoln’s election because of Ohio’s “fourteen thousand negro voters.” Learn more about the power of the Black vote in Ohio in a panel discussion, led by Dr. Van Gosse, Professor of History at Franklin & Marshall College; Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Distinguished Scholar of African American History & Culture at WRHS; & Dr. John Grabowski, Krieger Mueller Chief Historian at WRHS.

Note: A 30-minute Q&A session will follow the presentation.

About the Presenters

Van Gosse

Van Gosse (he/him) is a Professor of History at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He is the author of numerous articles and books on post-1945 politics and social movements, including Where the Boys Are: Cuba, Cold War America, and the Making of a New Left. More recently, he has written on African American politics in the antebellum era, including his 2021 book, The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America, From the Revolution to the Civil War. He is also co-chair of Historians for Peace and Democracy (www.historiansforpeace.org).

Dr. Regennia N. Williams

Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the Distinguished Scholar of African American History and Culture at the Western Reserve Historical Society and President of the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Fulbright Association.  An award-winning historian, she is also the founder, president, and director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (The RASHAD Center, Inc.). This nonprofit corporation creates, supports, and promotes arts and humanities programs in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area and in the state of Ohio through performances of Black sacred music, producing popular and scholarly publications, and conducting research for the Praying Grounds Oral History Project.  Williams has also conducted oral history research in Newport News, Virginia; Washington, DC; Ile-Ife Nigeria; Macau, China; and Free State, South Africa. Her published works include books, book chapters, and articles in scholarly journals, newspapers, and magazines, and she is the founder and editor of The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs and the Traditions & Beliefs newsletter. Her chapter on “Race, Religion, and Reconciliation: Academic Initiatives, Leadership Development, and Social Change” was published in Leadership for Change: Developing Transformational Student Leaders through Global Learning Spaces (2021).

For more information on Dr. Williams’ publications and oral history research, please click HERE.

Dr. John J. Grabowski

Dr. John J. Grabowski holds a joint position with the Historical Society and Case Western Reserve University and serves as the editor of the online edition of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. His areas of expertise include local, national, and global migration and immigration, sports history, Cleveland history, the development of museums and archives, and the study of historical memory and its role in shaping an understanding of the past.

 

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By the Book Author Series

This event is presented as part of the Cleveland History Center’s By the Book Author Series. For more information about the series, including a full list of topics, please click here.

By the Book Author Series | Chief Thunderwater: An Unexpected Indian in Unexpected Places

Date: Thurs., Nov. 4, 2021

Time: 6:00pm

Program Description

In his presentation, Dr. Gerald Reid will focus on his recently published book, Chief Thunderwater: An Unexpected Indian in Unexpected Places, which tells the story of Chief Thunderwater (Oghema Niagara), a Cleveland-based Indigenous activist who played a vital role in the political revitalization of Hodinöhsö:ni´(Haudenosaunee/Iroquois/Six Nations) communities in Canada in the early twentieth century. He will discuss the development of his interest in Thunderwater’s story, present a synopsis of Thunderwater’s life, and offer a consideration of his political influence and legacy. Reid will highlight the importance of the CHC/WRHS collections for understanding and telling the Thunderwater story.

About the Presenter

Gerald Reid is Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. His scholarly interest focuses on cultural and political development and revitalization among the Hodinöhsö:ni´ (Haudenosaunee/Iroquois/Six Nations) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His published work includes Chief Thunderwater: An Unexpected Indian in Unexpected Places (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021), “’To Renew Our Fire’: Political Activism, Nationalism, and Identity in Three Rotinonhsionni Communities” (in Tribal Worlds: Critical Studies in American Indian Nation Building, State University of New York Press, 2013), and “Illegal Alien? The Immigration Case of Mohawk Ironworker Paul K. Diabo” (American Philosophical Society Proceedings, Volume 151, No. 1, 2007).

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By the Book Author Series

This event is presented as part of the Cleveland History Center’s By the Book Author Series. For more information about the series, including a full list of topics, please click here.