Bring the Kids!
Classes and World-Class Exhibits Abound at the Carver Museum
Words by Jess Hagemann Photos Courtesy Austin History Center
It was named for George Washington Carver, noted African American agricultural scientist and inventor, but it’s less an ode to an icon and more a commemoration of place: specifically East Austin.
Appropriately, artifacts from and even a bust of Mr. Carver decorate the Carver Museum’s spacious, stone-tiled lobby. Beyond its frosted double doors, however, await photos and names you’re equally likely to recognize—simply because you see them every day. E. M. Franklin and Ada B. Simond are streets in East Austin; but did you know they were named for famous Austin residents?
In 1979, a group of community activists, recognizing what stood to be lost to time and gentrification, decided to preserve East Austin’s history. They advocated for a museum that would showcase its citizens and its stories. That repository of cultural and historical records became the Carver Museum—now a time capsule honoring East Austin in particular, and African American history more generally.
Today, site coordinator Para LaNell Agboga says, the Carver is a “place of celebration, a gathering spot, and an opportunity to learn something that you didn’t know before.” Alongside a core exhibit that explores Juneteeth, the abolition of slavery in Texas, a new exhibit opening in early 2020 will highlight nineteenth-century African Americans in Texas, focusing on Reconstruction, black politicians, and the Jim Crow laws.
Still, according to Agboga, the Carver Museum’s most popular attraction is its youth programming. Between the Mommy, Daddy, & Me Book Club that meets once a month, weekly fitness and piano classes, regular cultural spotlight events (the last one featured Afro-Brazilian food and language) and a new after-school program coming Spring 2020, for the Carver, it’s all about engaging tomorrow’s leaders. “Here, it’s not just Black History Month in February—it’s all the time,” smiles Agboga. That’s important, she says, because “We all need to be educated about one another. The more we talk about our stories, the more we realize how much we have in common. And it starts when they’re babies in strollers.”
Classes, concerts, film screenings, and town halls round out the Carver’s commitment to community. “What we do,” Agboga affirms, “is [not only] honor the past, all the time, but we also respond to the issues of the day and look forward to where we’re headed.”
Genealogy Center
When the original Carver Museum opened in 1980, it was housed in a small square building now sandwiched between the current museum (built in 2005) and the George Washington Carver branch of the Austin Public Library. Since then, its high ceilings and hardwood floors have been restored, and today the historic building functions as a full-service genealogy center. As site coordinator Para LaNell Agboga explains, the purpose of the center is to “help African Americans, who have always had a hard time tracing their genealogy, get a family history going.” Inside, a bank of public computers offers free access to databases like Ancestry.com, and staff are on hand to assist with research questions.
Kwanzaa at the Carver
The George Washington Carver Ambassadors will host the Silver Bell Social, an evening of jazz for seniors, on December 14, and a free Kwanzaa celebration at 6pm on December 27. January 20 marks the MLK Community Festival on Huston-Tillotson campus, at which the Carver will have a children’s activity tent.
Contact:
(512) 974-3660
1165 Angelina St.
austintexas.gov
