A gathering at the home of the author, with the artwork D’Glo in the back. — A gathering at the home of the author, with the artwork ***D’Glo*** in the back.

by Linda Crichlow White

guest contributor

During this quarantine, my husband Eric and I have continued to downsize. Using our wonderful neighborhood listservs from Petworth to Shepherd Park, we have given away or sold items ranging from fresh mint to be transplanted, a grill … and a special piece of sculpture.

We gave the sculpture to Sabiyha Prince, an artist, anthropologist and Shepherd Park neighbor who, after picking up some flower pots that we were giving away, said she is interested in “anything art.” I recalled that we had a very large steel sculpture that, after being a part of our household for over 40 years, was starting to deteriorate.

The sculpture is from the 1970s and is a mixed media using rubber and steel from Eric’s cousin, Stanley White (now Ayokunle Odeleye). Ayo said that most of the pieces he made back in 1975 with rubber have begun deteriorating, and this one is no different. The sculpture, named D’Glo, was originally part of a Ayo’s Master’s Thesis at Howard University in 1975. For his thesis in Fine Arts, Ayo produced a multimedia presentation that included music, dance, poetry and sculpture on stage at Howard’s Ira Aldridge Theater!

New Directions Magizine 1975 reduced size.jpg

Fortunately for us and Sabiha, the sculpture had been well documented in the July 1975 issue of the Howard University New Directions magazine, which my husband Eric and I had kept… along with so much other STUFF! Fortunately for us, the sculpture will take up residence with another artist who will love it and perhaps repurpose it!

The sculpture is described in the magazine (page 10) as “a rubber and and welded metal steel structure represent[ing] a water serpent from Trinidadian folklore. She has the face of a very beautiful woman and long hair which is actually seaweed that she strokes with a golden comb. Men are attracted by her sweet singing and the obvious value of the comb. In pursuit of the comb, they follow her below the surface of the water where they drown. She then returns to the surface for another lustful victim.”

Photo of the sculpture from New Directions magazine.

Reviewing that 1975 New Directions article revealed some letters to the editor about White/Black relations.

This week is a good week to remind folks that these kinds of dialogues are old… perhaps going back as far as 1619. The author of this passage was obviously a white person but was precipitated by a previous article about black folks being mistreated. The entire letter is in the magazine for those who wish to read it.

Thanks to the local email listservs, we’ve met a lot of interesting people during the quarantine. Thanks to Sabiyah for giving us a reason to pull out the article about D’Glo and cousin Ayokunle Odeleye.

Hopefully, some of you will read the article about Ayo as well as the “Letters” on page 3…

Good to look back in order to look forward!

Linda Crichlow White
Petworth native…
Ward 4 resident since 1950 (mostly)!
President, Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society
James Dent Walker Chapter-DC