Imani Setting Your Intentions for A Sacred Year with AAMP
On this seventh and final day of Kwanzaa, AAMP will celebrate not only the New Year, but the principle of Imani (Faith), which means "to believe with all our hearts in our people and the righteousness and victory of our struggle,” with a yoga and meditative breathing session to reset and reflect on the New Year.
Kuumbaa - Invincible Identities: Crafting Your Alter Ego with AAMP (2)
On the sixth day of Kwanzaa, AAMP will celebrate the principle of Kuumba (Creativity), which means “always do as much as we can to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it,” with an alter-ego and superhero character workshop, inspired by art in AAMP’s current exhibition, Rising Sun: Artist’s in an Uncertain America.
Kuumbaa - Invincible Identities: Crafting Your Alter Ego with AAMP
On the sixth day of Kwanzaa, AAMP will celebrate the principle of Kuumba (Creativity), which means “always do as much as we can to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it,” with an alter-ego and superhero character workshop, inspired by art in AAMP’s current exhibition, Rising Sun: Artist’s in an Uncertain America.
We are looking forward to an AAMP-mazing New Year with you all! AAMP will be closed today, December 31st and remain closed through New Year's Day. Happy New Year to our F-AAMP-ily and Friends, and we look forward to seeing you in 2024.
Stay tuned for more information on our 2024 Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Celebration. You can find updates and ways to register for the event at: https://ow.ly/M5az50Qkjzo
#BlackMuseums #BlackCulture #AAMPMuseum #F-AAMP-ILY
Evening Bazaar at Franklin Square
Enjoy an evening of Kwanzaa Quizzo and shopping at the Evening Bazaar at Franklin Square.
Earlier this month, AAMP had the pleasure of kicking off College Fest (@campusphilly) with a Black Hippie Art 🎨Workshop (@blackhippieart). Inspired by our Rising☀️Sun exhibition and Renee Stout's (Museum@reneestout5) "Hoodoo Assassins" series. Museum guests imagined their "assassin" alter-egos.
🦸🏾🦹🏾🦸🏾♂️🦹🏾♂️🦸🏾♀️🦹🏾♀️
It was a blast, and we look forward to hosting another workshop in the near future! 😀
#thingstodoinphilly #AAMPEvents #CollegeFest2023
Want to view some art over your lunch break? Why not join AAMP for Art Break? Every third Thursday for one hour at noon, the museum hosts Art Break, a monthly program encouraging visitors to unpack the layered content of a featured exhibition by engaging in informal discussions with curatorial and programming staff and invited guest speakers.
Morgan Lloyd, Lead Gallery Guide/Program Coordinator, will lead this month’s discussion, “The Warmth of Future Suns," to analyze how AAMP’s contemporary Rising Sun Artists connect to contemporary conversations on Afrofuturism to answer the exhibition's question “Is the Sun Rising or Setting on the experiment of American democracy?”
#ArtBreakatAAMP #PhillyEvents
Let’s walk to school! 🚶🏿♀️🚶🏾♂️🚶🏽📙📚
This Saturday, September 16th, lace up your sneakers, pack a water bottle, grab your notebook, and join AAMP as we host the immersive 1838 Black Metropolis’ Philadelphia mile-walking tour.
The nonprofit is offering four custom routes with themes complementing our new exhibition, Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America.
The title of the walking tour emerged from the Pennsylvania Abolition Society’s 1838 Black Census, which reveals a thriving metropolis of almost 19,000 🤯free Black Philadelphians nearly 200 years ago.
Sign up and learn more: risingsunphilly.org 🙌🏾🙌🏾
📸: Dominique Nichole
#AAMPEvents #1838blkmet#19thcentury #18thcentury #philly #discoverphl #visitphilly #phillyevents #blackhistory #blackjoy #historical #walkingtour
AAMP is SO proud of our intern Nah’Shon for his intensive research on the Davis Sisters!
During Nah’Shon’s time here at AAMP, he was curious to learn more about Philly’s Black-Gospel tradition—with a special focus their famous Philly-based family.
After weeks of digging through records, he eventually stumbled upon their descendant, Mr. Coleman. They met at the museum to exchange undertold stories, walk through the museum, and sing some of the singers greatest hits!
#aampmuseum #thedavissisters #gospelmusic #gospel #research #historian #phillyhistory
A Conversation with Dr. King
A Conversation with Dr. King
Museums have to be places that go beyond just collecting history, but they must operate as sites where history happens! In areas of Public Programming, we hosted a Super Bowl Party “to watch history” as two African American Quarterbacks competed for the Lombardi Trophy. #packedhouse #FlyEaglesFly
Highlights from this weekend’s MLK Celebration. Empowering the next generation of Dreamers. #ThePowerofDance
Philadelphia Ballet 🩰
Living Our Purpose through Vision & Spirit
On the fifth day of Kwanzaa, we celebrate the principle of Nia: Purpose which means “to make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness”.
Day 7: Mumu Fresh (@mumufresh)
Maimouna Youssef, known as Mumu Fresh, is of Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee heritage. You may recognize her as a Grammy-Nominated, Indigenous Music award-winning, Musical Ambassador for the U.S. State Department, elected governor of The DC Chapter of The Recording Academy & an Ambassador of The Black Music Collective.
Youssef was born in Baltimore but moved to Philadelphia when she was ten. Partially homeschooled by her theatrical parents, she learned how to handle a mic, practice her nation's traditional medicines, and attend powwows. Youssef grew up singing traditional Native American, Jazz, and Gospel music alongside her 14 siblings.
She attended the prestigious Duke Ellington High School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., where she further honed her craft and sharpened her artistic purpose. Her style of music is socially-conscious mixed with spirituality.
Mumu often plays a supporting vocalist role for artists like The Roots, Tobe Nwigwe, Erykah Badu, Common, Supaman, and many other big names in music.
Mumu Fresh has released 2 solo L.P.s, 2 group L.P.s, 1 solo E.P.s, 1 Mixtape, and countless singles and features with super producers such as Dj Jazzy Jeff, Salaam Remi, D.J. Dummy & 9th Wonder. Mumu Fresh's music and philanthropic endeavors have been featured in publications such as Variety, Ebony, Essence, BET & more.
Thank you for joining us for AAMP's Afro-Indigenous Heritage month series

#BlackandIndigenousSolidarity #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #IndigenousHeritage #BlackHistory
Richenda Rhoden
Outside of our Museum is a stunning statue named Nesaika; it has been in front of AAMP since our founding day on June 19, 1976. The Artist John Rhoden was a phenomenal sculptor, but today, we would like to uplift the legacy of his wife, artist Richenda Rhoden.
Richenda Rhoden was born in Aberdeen, Washington State, on April 4, 1917. Her father was of the Cherokee Nation, and her mother was from Menominee. Richenda was given the Menominee name Paytoemahtamo which means great woman.
Richenda enrolled in Columbia University, where she studied Asian Art. It was at Columbia where Richenda met John Rhoden. The two would begin building a long life together. While John was studying at the American Academy in Rome in 1954, the two married, and she would be the muse for several of Rhoden’s pieces.
Richenda, like her husband, dedicated herself to art and the community. Richenda was a painter and taught painting at Stuyvesant High School in the evenings as a part of their adult programming. Her entire life, she welcomed the community into her home. The Rhoden's regularly hosted holiday parties, community events, and house tours.
Images and facts about of Richenda Rhoden sourced from PAFA’s John Rhoden Digital Archives
Dr. Kyle T. Mays
(Saginaw Chippewa)
Dr. Kyle T. Mays is an Afro-Indigenous writer and scholar of US history, urban studies, race relations, and contemporary popular culture. He is an Associate Professor of African American Studies, American Indian Studies, and History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in Indigenous North America (SUNY Press, 2018), An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States (Beacon Press, 2021), and City of Dispossessions: Indigenous Peoples, African Americans, and the Creation of Modern Detroit (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022). He contributed a chapter, “Blackness and Indigeneity” to the New York Times bestseller, 400 Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, Keisha Blain and Ibram Kendi (eds.), (New York: Random House, 2021).
Mays’ work broadly explores three questions. What is the relationship between blackness and indigeneity? How does dispossession in cities shape the lives of Black and Indigenous peoples? And finally, how can we imagine and put into praxis a world in the aftermath of settler colonialism and white supremacy?
To Learn more about Dr. Kyle T. May’s writings, please visit his website www.kyle-mays.com
#AAMP #BlackandIndigenousSolidarity #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #IndigenousHeritage #BlackHistory #NativeHistory #AfroIndigenous
Kali Ko Reis “K.O. Mennquinonoag”
(Cape Verdean + Seaconke,Nipmuc, Cherokee)
Over the last 3 days, we’ve enjoyed sharing some amazing Afro-Indigenous histories. Today, we would like to introduce you to someone who is making history:
Kali Ko Reis is a Two-Spirit, professional boxer and actor of Cape Verdean ancestry, descending from the Seaconke Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Cherokee nations.
Born and raised in Rhode Island, Reis was active in her formative years, playing basketball, volleyball, softball and competing in powwows. At 14, she enrolled in boxing class; this new passion would later develop into a successful amateur career.
She incorporated her Native name, 'Mequinonoag' (meaning 'many feathers' or 'many talents'), into her boxing nickname, 'K.O. Mequinonoag. She is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBA female light welterweight title since 2020, the WBO and IBO female light welterweight titles since 2021, and the WBC female middleweight title in 2016.
Reis, an activist for the Missing Murder
ed Indigenous Women and Girls movement (MMIWG), recently co-wrote and starred in the movie 'Catch the Fair One' which discussed the MMIWG crisis. Her film debut resulted in an Award for Best Actress from the Newport Beach film festival and a nomination for Best Female lead at the 387th Independent Spirit Awards.
We look forward to seeing Reis in the upcoming film 'Black Flies' and on season four of 'True Detective: Dark Country'!
#AAMP #BlackandIndigenousSolidarity #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #IndigenousHeritage #BlackHistory #NativeHistory #AfroIndigenous
Day 3: Martin Luther King & the Poarch Band Creek Indians
(Black & Indigenous Solidarity During the Civil Rights Movement)
Though this week focuses on Afro-Indigenous identities, we’d like to share one of the many instances where our communities gathered together in pursuit of equal rights:
Martin Luther King & the Poarch Band Creek Indians
In the late 1950s, King worked with tribal leaders of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians working to desegregate their schools in South Alabama. The tribe had reached out to King after learning of King's desegregation campaign in Birmingham, so he willingly helped.
At the time, Native children were allowed to ride school buses to previously all-white schools, but dark-skinned Native kids from the same band were not allowed to ride the same buses. With King's assistance, the problem was resolved, and Native kids from the same band were allowed to ride on the same buses, marking a major step toward desegregation.
At the 1964 March on Washington, Native Americans showed up in full force. King's civil rights movement had, in part, motivated the Native American rights movement of the 1960s. In fact, the Native American Rights Fund was modeled after the NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund.
By 1900, the Native American population in the U.S. had dwindled down from tens of millions to just 237,196, per census bureau numbers. According to King, the genocide of American Indians was "national policy."
#AAMP #BlackandIndigenousSolidarity #civilrightsmovement #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #IndigenousHeritage #BlackHistory #NativeHistory #AfroIndigenous
Native American Heritage Month Day 2: Edmonia Lewis
Day 2: Edmonia Lewis
Happy Indigenous Heritage day! Let’s keep the momentum going with Day 2 of our Afro-Indigenous Appreciation Posts.
Edmonia Lewis was the first sculptor of African American and Native American (Mississauga) descent to achieve international recognition. Lewis had little training but overcame numerous obstacles to become a respected artist.
Her mother was Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indigenous, and her father is speculated to be Samuel Lewis, an Afro-Haitian man of Taino heritage. Orphaned at an early age, Lewis grew up in her mother's tribe, where her life revolved around fishing, swimming, and making and selling crafts.
With the support and encouragement of a successful older brother, Lewis attended Oberlin College in Ohio in 1859, where she emerged as a talented artist. She traveled to Boston and established herself as a professional artist, studying with a local sculptor and creating portraits of famous antislavery heroes. Moving to Rome in 1865, she became involved with a group of American women sculptors and began to work in marble.
Lewis did all her own stonework out of fear that if she didn't, her work would not be accepted as original. In addition to creating portrait heads, Lewis sculpted biblical scenes and figural works dealing with her Native American heritage and the oppression of Black people.
You can learn more about Edmonia in AAMP's timeline gallery!
#AAMP #IndigenousHeritageDay #BlackandIndigenousSolidarity #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #IndigenousHeritage #BlackHistory #NativeHistory #Ojibwe #AfroIndigenous
Black-Indigenous Appreciation Post Day 1 of 7
Day 1: Crispus Attucks
(Black & Wampanoag)
As we enjoy this evening with our loved ones, let us take pause to remember the dual meaning of this day. For the Indigenous community, especially the Wampanoag Nation, this day evokes a deeply hurting wound. We send them our thanks and solidarity as they maintain sovereignty, joy, and resilience during these times.
In honor of The National Day of Mourning, we’re kicking of this series with a Wampanoag hero:
Crispus Attucks was born into enslavement around 1723. His mother, Nancy Attucks, came from the island of Nantucket and belonged to the Wampanoag nation in Massachusetts. The word "attuck" in the Natick language means deer. His father, Prince Younger, was born in Africa and was brought to the colonies as an enslaved person.
Attucks spent most of his early life enslaved, but by the age of 27, he escaped. Attucks made his way to Boston, where according to the New England Historical Society, he became a sailor, one of the few trades open to a non-white person.
Crispus is known as the first patriot martyr to die in the Boston Massacre. According to witness accounts. Attucks was at the front of the mob that went to confront the invading British soldiers.
In death, Attucks was afforded honors that no person of color—particularly one who had escaped slavery—probably had ever received before in America. Attucks became a symbol in the 1840s for African American activists in the abolitionist movement, who promoted him as an example of a Black citizen and a patriot, and that image stuck.
Did you know one of the statues outside of our museum celebrates the life of a Black-Wampanoag man?
Check out “The Whispering Bells of Freedom” to learn more about Attucks’ legacy.
#AAMP #blackandindigenoussolidarity #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #IndigenousHeritage #BlackHistory #NativeHistory #nationaldayofmourning #wapanoag
