There’s wonder everywhere you look — especially the places you overlook. Maybe, in the apartment next door, there’s a library of 3,000 zines, as in Michelle Millette’s Sherwood Forest Zine Library in Austin, Texas. Perhaps, that canal that cuts through your town is the site of an upstream odyssey, as it is for Z Behl and Kim Moloney, who are spending six hours a day paddling up 350 miles of the Erie Canal.
Speaking of overlooked wonder, let me introduce you to our Craft Archive Fellowship! In partnership with the Center for Craft, we offer $5,000 awards to support research on underrepresented craft histories around the United States, and publish fellows’ scholarship afterward.
Today, I’m proud to present the first piece in our series. Bilphena Decontee Yahwon’s passion, care, and personal stake in exploring the shared origins of Liberian basket weaving and Gullah sweetgrass basketry came through so clearly in our conversations. “I could hear Liberia in the way people spoke,” she writes of her first visit to St. Helena Island, off the South Carolina coast, five years ago. Here, she teases out how fannuh baskets serve as both cultural tool and cultural memory across continents.
—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor
How Fannuh Baskets Connect Liberia to the US Lowcountry
I first visited St. Helena Island off the South Carolina coast in 2021. Like Louisiana, it was one of the few places I had traveled in the United States where I could hear Liberia in the way people spoke. I do not know how to fully explain it. It was in the rhythm of Gullah speech, what my mother would call “sing-songy.” It was in the syntax and cadence. As my mother would say, “my ears could hear it.”
It was also on St. Helena Island, at the historic Penn Center, where I first saw an image of two women fanning rice. I immediately thought of so many women I had seen in Liberia, standing over harvested grain with woven baskets in hand, separating rice from chaff through sweeping motions. Woven from local grasses, palmetto, and other plant materials found across the Sea Islands off the coast of the Southeastern US, these baskets have become one of the defining craft traditions of Gullah Geechee culture in the Lowcountry, a region along South Carolina’s coast. To me, they felt like something I already knew. | Bilphena Decontee Yahwon
Affordable Art Fair New York Fall 2026 is back!
Affordable Art Fair New York returns for its Fall edition from September 16-20 at the Starrett-Lehigh building in Chelsea. You’ll find over 90 galleries showcasing thousands of artworks all priced from $100-$1200. Find your next favorite artwork!
News
The Minnesota State Fair removes a crop artwork containing an anti-Trump slogan at the artist’s request, after she was doxxed, harassed, and threatened by right-wing agitators.
Features
Inside the 3,000-Zine Library in a Texas Living Room
Michelle Millette’s Sherwood Forest Zine Library in Austin is part of a growing culture and community surrounding the self-published, easy-to-distribute booklets. | Shahrzad Rasekh
The Artists Paddling 350 Miles Up the Erie Canal
As part of “Mule’s Passage,” artists Z Behl and Kim Moloney are paddling six hours a day and camping for five weeks. | Taliesin Thomas
An Unprecedented Look at Renowned Photographer Peter Hujar’s New York in “Hujar:Contact”
The Morgan Library & Museum presents “Hujar:Contact,” currently on view through October 25.
Guide
15 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This Fall
Carmen Lomas Garza’s tender scenes of Chicanx community, Huguette Caland’s life in lines, Indigenous artists on fire and stewardship, photography of trans mutual aid, and more. | Matt Stromberg
Member Comment
—Elaine Maisner on “What the Art World Doesn’t Want You to Know About Yayoi Kusama“
From the Archive
Louise Bourgeois’s Life Was as Monumental as Her Art
Writing one of the first comprehensive biographies of a major artist could prove daunting, but taking on Bourgeois’s long life in art might be called heroic. | Bridget Quinn
Opportunities This Month
Residencies, fellowships, grants, and open calls from the Gulf Coast Journal, the Harry Ransom Center, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Vermont Studio Center, and more in our monthly list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers.
