WHAT: Natural Dye Initiative Community Juneteenth Indigo Talk and Dye Workshop with Kibibi Ajanku

WHERE: MICA’s Fred Lazarus IV auditorium and West parking lot at 131 W. North Avenue, Baltimore

WHEN: 1-6 p.m. Saturday, June 18, 2022

DETAILS: The event is free and open to the public, though sign ups are required. Please use this link to register.

BALTIMORE — The Natural Dye Initiative (NDI) — led by the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) — is pleased to announce a Juneteenth Indigo Talk and Dye Workshop, featuring well-known indigo cultural worker Kibibi Ajanku.

The NDI is a partnership working to build Baltimore and Maryland as centers of a natural dye propagation and processing ecosystem. The initiative is growing indigo and working with farming partners in Baltimore, the Maryland Eastern Shore, North Carolina and the South Carolina Low Country.

“After three years of research and demonstrations, we are expanding up and out, and building an ecosystem of teaching, growing, processing and selling,” Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Sheri Parks said. “The value of us being an educational institution and a non-profit organization is that we can surround the community’s economic development with the very rich history and cultural contexts of natural dyes. The enthusiasm of the community has been tremendous — people want to know more and how they can get involved — so we work to share both the fun, and the knowledge, of this highly meaningful art practice.”

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

• 1 to 3 p.m.
  Come to hear from Kibibi Ajanku speak about the heritage and practice of West African Dye traditions and the Africans who were enslaved to build an industry. Learn about the Natural Dye Initiative and how you can get involved, then stay for the still-rare chance to get your own hands in the dye by dying a T-shirt (provided)!
• 3 to 4 p.m.
  Prepare your T-shirt (tying with rubber bands)
• 4 to 6 p.m.
  Get a chance to see the Natural Dye Initiative-Arabber Indigo cart! We join the honored Baltimore tradition with an Arabber and his decorated horse drawn indigo vat. It is the first of a series of planned neighborhood Arabber-Natural Dye Initiative events.

ABOUT THE NATURAL DYE INITIATIVE 
The major partners involved in the NDI initiative are  MICA, the Upton Planning Committee, Kibibi Ajanku, the Neighborhood Fiber Company and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, with a number of other institutional partners.

In Baltimore City, the NDI is introducing drying, processing and use of the dye for retail and wholesale markets. The NDI has already incubated and spun off a Black woman-owned dye kitchen, Blue Light Junction, and will incubate more small businesses.

This workshop is made possible by the generous funding of the Maryland State Art Council.

The purchase and renovation of the Harriet Beecher Stowe school is made possible by major funding by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. Five acres of reclaimed urban land for farming and the facilitation of the Harriet Beecher Stowe purchase is provided by Baltimore City.

Additional generous funding has been provided by the Maryland Department of Commerce and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Learn more about Kibibi Ajanku and the Natural Dye Initiative here.