African Textiles Workshop

Participants learn the history, technique, and symbolic meanings of the Adinkra cloths of the Akan people of Ghana, West Africa. Using the block printing technique and design elements such as color, lines, and patterned rhythms, they create their stories by combining the symbols and their truisms of wisdom.

Renee Miche'al Jones is a Dallas native with a bachelor's in Human Ecology from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied fashion and began her love for textiles. She holds a master's in Child and Adolescent Developmental Psychology from Northcentral University. Renee is a certified teacher teaching Costume Design and Construction at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She has worked as an artist and educator in the Dallas community for twenty-plus years, teaching theater, creative arts, apparel design, model behavior, and textile arts. As the founder of Roots for Youth, a cultural-based program providing opportunities for embracing African culture, she has conducted cultural arts workshops and residencies throughout the Dallas Metroplex, focusing on cultural identity through the arts. 

The African Textiles Workshop is supported in part by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs.