Both classes are now SOLD OUT!

We hope you’ll join us though for an exciting FREE talk by renowned basketweaver, Martha Cayetano-Howard at 5pm as well for our rich lineup of other great creative events throughout the day! And feel free to continue to make donations to help keep Circle moving forward with other workshops…

Thanks to an inspiring trip to Charleston, SC, Circle’s team found just the right sweetgrass basket weavers to share the tradition with us here in the Hudson Valley.

Learn the basics of weaving these renowned baskets with three generations of Gullah Geechee women from South Carolina who have kept this family tradition alive from Senegal and Sierra Leone, Africa.

Mother Martha Cayetano-Howard, daughter Andrea Cayetano-Jefferson, and granddaughter Chelsea Cayetano are flying in to lead the daily workshops and talk:

SANKOFA: A Day Of Traditional Craft

presented by Circle Creative Collective and My Kingston Kids in honor of Black History Month Kingston.

Martha is a fifth-generation basketweaver. She was taught to weave by her mother Rosa Barnwell Graddick, who was taught by her mother Martha Barnwell. Martha Cayetano grew up weaving sweetgrass baskets with her siblings and sold them along Highway 17N in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. In the early 1980s, Martha got a booth in the Charleston City Market where you can still find her weaving most days along with her daughter, Andrea Cayetano Jefferson. Sweetgrass basket weaving is one of the oldest African art forms in the United States. The baskets are made from plants harvested by their family—including sweetgrass, bulrush, and long needle pine—and are woven together with strips of palmetto. The family’s work is on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Martha is now hand cutting and filing the traditional spoon handles for each participant to use for their small basket or hot plate. We are so honored to have her join us here in the Hudson Valley to teach us at Black History Month’s Sankofa event.

Materials will be provided.

Register HERE.

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Circle Creative Collective​ is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in the Hudson Valley that ​connects & inspires​ ​diverse communities by​ ​sharing and preserving​ ​traditional crafts & skills.

If you would like more information about this event, would like to interview our team for a story or live interview, or want to be a sponsor, please call our team at 845-323-1374 or email info@circlecreativecollective.org

Donations welcome of yarn, thread, fabrics, sewing and weaving supplies! Thank you!

By donation: Suggested $30-$150. Please Pay What You Can OR Pay It Forward