Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity

Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity was a project that only Doran, and likely the Fowler, would have had the desire, or drive, or, frankly, the appetite to undertake. He envisioned it as an exhibition centered on a singular genre of art, presented through dynamic perspectives that explored the cloth's lived contexts and meanings. It was an exhibition built in part on a year-long high school course on kente and the arts of West Africa, taught by the museum director and director of education, and engaging those very students as curators and cultural historians. And it was an exhibition that encouraged venues to which it traveled to re-curate its final section to reflect kente in their local communities. For Doran, this was the way—perhaps the only way—to tell the many stories that kente had to tell. In the final chapter of the accompanying publication, Doran wrote, “Fundamentally,...