"From the Hands of Our Elders" Tonight at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva

Sept 10 at 7:00 PM at City Lights Bookstore Author M. Anna Fariello discusses the Art and Craft of Cherokee Basketry, including a reading and booksigning for "From the Hands of Our Elders".

A tradition that dates back almost ten thousand years, basketry is an integral aspect of Cherokee culture. In the mountains of Western North Carolina, stunning baskets are still made from rivercane, white oak and honeysuckle and dyed with roots and bark. Cherokee Basketry describes the craft's forms, functions and methods and records the tradition's celebrated makers. This complex art -- passed down from mothers to daughters -- is a thread that bonds modern Native Americans to ancestors and traditional ways of life.

Fariello reveals that baskets hold much more than food and clothing. Woven with the stories of those who produce and use them, these masterpieces remain a powerful testament to creativity and imagination.

Fariello, who associate professor at Western Carolina University, is also director of the Craft Revival Project, a website and digital archive at WCU's Hunter library dedicated to documenting the effort to revive handcrafts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To view the website and database, visit http://craftrevival.wcu.edu.