In episode 228, Kestrel welcomes curator and writer Catherine McKinley to the show. The author of Indigo, a journey along the ancient indigo trade routes in West Africa, and The Book of Sarahs, a memoir about growing up Black and Jewish in the 1960s-80s, Catherine has taught creative nonfiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. Her newest book, The African Lookbook, A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women, draws on her extensive collection of photos to tell a different visual narrative of African women.
“In most of the societies, cloth is just, it’s essential, it’s considered something that contains the human spirit and it’s the layer next to the skin — you know, it has all those meanings. And cloth is essential from what you’re wound in the moment of birth to what you’re wound in at the grave.”On this week’s show, Catherine shares more on what led her to have an interest in writing, cloth, photographs and fashion. Through our conversation, she reminds us of the layers of meaning that can be embedded in cloth - from culture to identity to wealth to power and beyond.
Catherine also explains more on why she highlights the sewing machine and the camera as the two most important machinery for African women in her book — as she calls them, “steadfast instruments that offered a powerful means to author one’s own life.”
”I’m really driven by this idea of holding onto things from the past and things that are disappearing or are ephemeral in some way.” -Catherine
Seydou Keïta, photographer
Malick Sidibe, photographer
Okwui Enwezor, Catherine studied with him
The Walther Collection, Catherine worked here in the past
“And then I started feeling competitive in a way — these enormously wealthy men who could just acquire and acquire and acquire — you know, every amazing photo document that was coming in, and I started to take it a little bit more seriously. I started doing it in earnest and my collection is primarily women’s photos and I really felt like it’s not theirs, you know. It’s not theirs — I don’t have the access that they have, but to the extent that I can collect, I’m going to collect and I’m gonna claim this and I’m not gonna let it just be our object — I’m gonna think about its use and value to other people, beyond just sitting on a gallery wall.” -Catherine
“I was at a dinner with a group of men in the art world — I was the only female there, I was the only non white person there … it was a very male conversation about photography, and I think I blurted out this thing about the sewing machine and the camera, and everybody looked at me like I was crazy — you know, to say they were the most important machinery for African women." And then, I went home and I still felt like this thing is right, I’m right about this, and I don’t have evidence, but … it was kind of what finally organized the book for me — it was like ok how now am I going to prove this argument to these men in particular? Not that I was all that interested in whether they agreed or not, but it just seemed like this really outrageous claim, so how now am I going to make good on it?” -Catherine
“Cloth certainly has been one of the absolutely most important commodities for women — if you had access to buy one or two pieces of cloth and put that on your head and walk the street and try to sell it, it was small capital to build up more and more and more.” -Catherine
The McKinley Collection, Catherine’s archive representing African photographers from 1870 to the present
The African Lookbook
Follow Catherine on Instagram >
Nadia Bunyan of Growing A.R.C. on how cultivating community led to the collective cultivation of the flax plant for linen
S06 Episode 279 | Jono Salfield of Afends on DIY hemp farming for textiles & why hemp rules (from both a farming & carbon-capture lens)
S06 Episode 278 | Why we must approach waste holistically & how Material Library Of India is reimagining & documenting neglected materials while advocating for systems change
S06 Episode 277 | Questioning how we *value* garments & respecting the limits of partnership across fashion with Jesus Herrera
S06 Episode 276 | Fashion psychology, contextualizing our buying behaviors amidst today's *speed* & how shopping is not equal to happiness
S06 Episode 275 | The Or Foundation's take on their recent agreement with SHEIN, how these grant funds are/will be used within the Kantamanto community & extended producer responsibility (EPR)
S06 Episode 274 | What are biosynthetic dyes & could they replace the toxic petroleum-heavy ingredients in today's predominant indigo garment dye?
S06 Episode 273 | Kesiena Onosigho on slow art as a tool for liberation and why sustainability isn't passive – it's something you live
S06 Episode 272 | Revealing lipstick's dirty little secrets & questioning the beauty industry's lack of regulation with Angela Weinberg of Kolorete
S06 Episode 271 | Anuj Sharma on button masala and questioning cut & sew as the primary way to join garments together
S06 Episode 270 | Doctoral candidate Timnit Kefela on the rise of plastic fashion & the journey of microplastics that come with it
S06 Episode 269 | Ngozi Okaro of Custom Collaborative on fashion cooperatives & how they can shift power dynamics, counter overproduction, and support local economies
S06 Episode 268 | Venetia La Manna on the need to *Remember Who Made Them* (our clothes) & whether we should buy fast fashion secondhand
S06 Episode 267 | Sally Fox on breeding naturally colored organic cotton
S06 Episode 266 | The challenges of navigating supply chain minimums while intentionally building regional systems with Leah of Wol Hide
S06 Episode 265 | Summer Dean (@ClimateDiva) on slowing down influence & building community instead of obsessing about analytics
S06 Episode 264 | Greenwashing in fashion and the need for mandatory measures & regulation
S06 Episode 263 | Dr. Sandra Niessen on *sacrifice zones* & the layers of erasure in fashion
S06 Episode 262 | Roland Geyer on why we should we be focusing on LABOR, not MATERIALS in the quest to reduce fashion's environmental impact
S06 Episode 261 | Can fashion and degrowth coexist, and specifically — do high heels exist in a degrowth world?
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