Women of the Calabash
Poster
1991 (made)
1991 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Women of the Calabash were an ensemble vocal and percussion group, inspired by music and instruments from the African diaspora, the Caribbean and the Americas. Founded by Madeleine Yayodele Nelson (1949-2018) in Pennsylvania, 1978, she formed the three-piece group with Marsha Perry Starkes and Mayra Casales. Often crafting their own instruments from wood and gourds, a calabash is a type of gourd also known as a long melon or bottle gourd. This was one of the world's first cultivated plants grown not primarily as food, but for use as containers and instruments for example. The group was New York based so the poster incorporates the Empire State Building. The photograph of the woman in the background was reused in other posters by the Greenwich Mural Workshop between c. 1985 and 1993, (eg. E.119-2011 and E.479-2013) presumably as it had been set for screen printing and kept as a option for others to use in future designs at the community printing workshop.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Women of the Calabash (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Non-laminated poster |
| Brief description | Community print shop poster by the Greenwich Mural Workshop entitled 'Women of the Calabash'. Great Britain, 1991. |
| Physical description | Community print shop poster in purple, white and orange, advertising an event at Borough Hall in Greenwich entitled 'Women of the Calabash'. The background is largely made up of a close up photograph of an African woman's face with two lines of white painted around the forehead and down the bridge of the nose. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Marks and inscriptions | Greenwich Entertainment Service presents
Women of the Calabash
Close-knit harmonies from Urban America
Fri 25th jan 8pm
Borough Hall
Greenwich
Royal Hill SE10
(Lettered in orange) |
| Credit line | Given by Greenwich Mural Workshop |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Women of the Calabash were an ensemble vocal and percussion group, inspired by music and instruments from the African diaspora, the Caribbean and the Americas. Founded by Madeleine Yayodele Nelson (1949-2018) in Pennsylvania, 1978, she formed the three-piece group with Marsha Perry Starkes and Mayra Casales. Often crafting their own instruments from wood and gourds, a calabash is a type of gourd also known as a long melon or bottle gourd. This was one of the world's first cultivated plants grown not primarily as food, but for use as containers and instruments for example. The group was New York based so the poster incorporates the Empire State Building. The photograph of the woman in the background was reused in other posters by the Greenwich Mural Workshop between c. 1985 and 1993, (eg. E.119-2011 and E.479-2013) presumably as it had been set for screen printing and kept as a option for others to use in future designs at the community printing workshop. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.128-2011 |
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| Record created | January 25, 2013 |
| Record URL |
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