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50
original weavings created by 13 Somali elder women who have come to
America as refugees have been on display in the McKnight Lobby Gallery
in Minneapolis since February 2008.
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Spotlight on The Confederation of Somali Community of Minnesota’s East African Women’s Center |
The East African Women’s Center
The
East African Women’s Center is a program of the Confederation of Somali
Community in Minnesota (CSCM), a community-based organization
established in 1994. Late in 2004, CSCM was offered the opportunity to
rent space in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of south Minneapolis—the
heart of the Somali community in the Twin Cities. In response to our
communities’ wishes that CSCM use the space to serve our community’s
most vulnerable members (our elder women, girls, and mothers with small
children), CSCM established the East African Women’s Center.
To
encourage participation, the Center started by offering sewing classes.
Over time, programming has expanded to include Somali weaving (Textile
Collective), childcare for mothers, so that they can attend our ESL
classes, family literacy, Girls’ Group, and cooking/nutrition
education. The East African Women’s Center’s mission is to fill gaps in
service and provide education and support to East African women and
their families. Serving approximately 175 women and children, it is a
bridge between women in refugee and U.S. communities and facilitates
cultural adjustment and integration.
With support from our
Office of Refugee Resettlement grant as well as grants from various
foundations in Minnesota, CSCM’s East African Women’s Center fills
service gaps through innovative learning strategies including:
• Contextual language learning programming – sewing, cooking, and gardening.
•
Our “legally unlicensed” childcare room that provides care and
learning for infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers while their mothers
attend ESL classes.
• Activities for mothers and
children around child development/family literacy and school readiness
and parenting in the U.S.
• The Textile Cooperative, which has expanded to include sewers as well as weavers.
• Our Girls’ Group for girls aged 8-12 years of age.
•
The Women to Women Connection—activities that provide
opportunities for mainstream and East African women to learn from one
another.
• Support for women in navigating social
service and healthcare systems from one of direct service to one of
referral.
Recent Events: Somali Weavings on Display
 50 original weavings created by 13 Somali elder women who have come to America as refugees have been on display in the McKnight Lobby Gallery in Minneapolis since February 2008. To celebrate the artists
and their work, the McKnight Foundation hosted a gala event on Friday,
May 9, from 3-7 PM in their offices. 200+ East African and members of
the larger community enjoyed traditional East African food prepared and
served by the women from the East African’s Women’s Center. Saeed
Fahia, the Executive Director of CSCM, also shared information about
how traditional weaving was used in Somalia.
Since
1994, with McKnight support, the Confederation of Somali Community of
Minnesota (CSCM) has helped more than 50,000 Somalis contribute to
their new community while preserving their historic culture and
heritage. This exhibit, From Somalia to Minnesota—Reviving Textile
Traditions, is one more such effort. Together, CSCM and its East
African Women’s Center and McKnight are recognizing the age-old Somali
tradition of twined weaving and the elder women who create it.
“This
display of intricate twined weavings from the East African Women’s
Center represents an important step for local Somali women to reclaim
and pass along a valuable artistic tradition. In gorgeous textiles that
bind cultures and generations, the collected works also provide
opportunities for greater understanding and connection to our broader
community. In partnership with the Women’s Center, The McKnight
Foundation has been proud to host this vibrant, historic exhibition,”
offered Kate Wolford, President of the McKnight Foundation.
When
the Women’s Center opened, we did not plan on including weaving in our
program; in fact, its start-up could be called “serendipity.” One day,
a Somali woman saw yarn through one of the windows of the Center and
came in to ask how much it cost. A staff member asked her what she was
going to make, and to everyone’s surprise, she pulled a beautiful
weaving from her bag. Through this happy accident, the staff at the
Center learned that there were elder women in the Twin Cities who still
remembered how to create the twined weavings of Somalia. The Women’s
Center started providing these weavers with materials, connecting them
with each other, and finding them opportunities to display their work.
Stories in the Cloth, the first of several exhibitions of the weavers’
work, was presented at The Textile Center of Minnesota in 2006.
 “This
display of intricate twined weavings from the East African Women’s
Center represents an important step for local Somali women to reclaim
and pass along a valuable artistic tradition. In gorgeous textiles that
bind cultures and generations, the collected works also provide
opportunities for greater understanding and connection to our broader
community. In partnership with the Women’s Center, The McKnight
Foundation has been proud to host this vibrant, historic exhibition,”
offered Kate Wolford, President of the McKnight Foundation.
“Not
only are the hangings beautifully made, but they are also a touchstone
to seeing how that beauty is manifested in the women themselves.
Knowing how the objects are created (on the artist’s lap, without a
loom) and how they help provide a sense of community for immigrant
women enhances their splendor even more, said” Kerry Morgan, Director
of Galleries and Exhibitions at Augsburg College.
For More Information, Contact:
Confederation of Somali Community of Minnesota’s East African Women’s Center
420 15th Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414
Doroth Mayer doroth@earthlink.net or Saeed Fahia fahias@puc-mn.org
612-332-8402 (Doroth) or 612-559-9023 (Saeed)
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