Chester Higgins Jr. to Present Pilgrimage to the Past: An African American's Lifelong Search for Identity At New York Arts Club.Business Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESSS WIRE)--Feb. 7, 2000 Archaeology Magazine is hosting a presentation by Chester Higgins Jr. at the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Arts Club on Thursday, February 17, at 8:00PM. Author of Feeling the Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa (Bantam 1994) and the forthcoming Elder Grace, The Nobility of Aging (Bullfinch bullfinch: see finch. bullfinch Any of several species of stocky, stout-billed songbird (family Fringillidae). Eurasia has six species of the genus Pyrrhula, all boldly marked. The common bullfinch (P. pyrrhula), 6 in. ), Mr. Higgins will present &uot;Pilgrimage to the Past: An African American's Lifelong Search for Identity.&uot; Ticket information is available by calling Archaeology Magazine at 212-732-5154, Ext. 24. In the January / February issue of Archaeology, Higgins recounts his 40-year personal odyssey to discover, understand, and embrace his African heritage, of which he knew little as a child growing up in rural southwestern Alabama in the 1950's. Mr. Higgins recalls how at the age of 10 he saw his first picture of a black doll, an Egyptian ushabti The ushabti (also called shabti or shawabti, with a number of variant spellings) answered the call to perform menial duties a deceased Egyptian was thought to be liable to in the underworld. , and realized the existence of black people in a place and time of which he had no knowledge. Years later, through friendships with African students at Tuskegee University Tuskegee University, at Tuskegee, Ala.; coeducational; chartered and opened 1881 by Booker T. Washington as Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. It became Tuskegee Institute in 1937 and adopted its present name in 1985. , Higgins came to appreciate the promise of Africa. He read works by Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, Ethopia's Haile Selassie, and others. Years later, during his first trip to Africa, Higgins learned to see beyond the stereotype of Africa as primitive and to discover the parallel black reality he had long nourished in his imagination. Higgins writes in Archaeology, &uot;I found I was most at home in West Africa. I look more like the people there, and the red clay of the Earth reminds me of the hills of Alabama. We African Americans suffer from collective amnesia. We know we came from Africa but most of us know little more. Now it is up to us to re-examine re·ex·am·ine also re-ex·am·ine tr.v. re·ex·am·ined, re·ex·am·in·ing, re·ex·am·ines 1. To examine again or anew; review. 2. Law To question (a witness) again after cross-examination. and reconnect with what was left behind so many centuries ago in Africa.&uot; Mr. Higgins' story is available online at www.archaeology.org. Archaeology Magazine, published for 50 years by the Archaeological Institute of America The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is a North American nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of public interest in archaeology, and the preservation of archaeological sites. It is based at Boston University. (AIA AIA - Application Integration Architecture ), is dedicated to providing the public with news and information about archaeological discoveries. The AIA also publishes Archaeology's DIG, an exciting new archaeology magazine for kids. Additional information on Archaeology's DIG is available at www.dig.archaeology.org. Editor's Note: Please cite Archaeology Magazine as the source for this material. |
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