Conversations About Jazz Looks At The Fashion Of Jazz On June 10
This month’s Conversations about Jazz & Other Distractions with Carl Anthony delves into The Fashion Of Jazz. On Thursday, June 10th at 7:30 pm (EST) Carl’s special guests will be fashion designer, educator and administrator Asanyah Davidson and fashion merchandising specialist, lecturer and author Alphonso D. McClendon. This virtual streaming event via Zoom is free for Hammonds House Museum members and $5 for non-members. Register today at hammondshouse.org.
Born in Clarendon, Jamaica, Asanyah Davidson has spent many years in Miami, FL and abroad. An Alumni of Design and Architecture Senior High, she calls Miami her base. Having attended some of the best schools in fashion from Fashion Institute of Technology in New York where she did her undergraduate studies, to her year abroad at Polimoda in Florence, Italy, and on to Central Saint Martins at University of the Arts London where she completed her Masters. After her love of teaching and knowledge of fashion took her to West Africa where she taught and assisted in developing programs at fashion schools in both Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana, she returned to South Florida where she is currently founding Chairperson of the Miami Fashion Institute at Miami Dade College. She hopes to impart her love of design to her students and build a program unlike any other in the United States.
Alphonso D. McClendon is Assistant Professor of Fashion Design at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. He teaches courses in sourcing strategies for the apparel and textile industry, fashion business practice and entrepreneurship, merchandise operations and management, retail analytics and digital design. He came to Drexel after fifteen years of corporate experience as a director of design, product development manager and accountant having worked with companies such as VF Corp., Nautica, Phillips-Van Heusen, Izod, Dow Corning and 3M. McClendon has traveled extensively in Taiwan, China, Japan and South Korea for retail analysis, design research, product development and manufacturing.
McClendon is the author of Fashion and Jazz: Dress, Identity and Subcultural Improvisation (Bloomsbury 2015). The book explores the social and political attachments of jazz and dress as well as key themes of race, class and gender. McClendon published the article “Black Male Identity and the Embodiment of Early Jazz Improvisation” in Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture (Intellect 2015) and “Fashionable Addiction”, a book chapter on the influence of the heroin chic aesthetic, in Fashion in Popular Culture: Literature, Media and Contemporary Studies (Intellect 2013). He has been an invited lecturer at the Museum of Modern Art of NYC, the Barnes Foundation, Parsons The New School, the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Hammonds House Museum is generously supported by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Fulton County Arts and Culture, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, The National Performance Network, AT&T and WarnerMedia.
Hammonds House Museum’s mission is to celebrate and share the cultural diversity and important legacy of artists of African descent. The museum is the former residence of the late Dr. Otis Thrash Hammonds, a prominent Atlanta physician and a passionate arts patron. A 501(c)3 organization which opened in 1988, Hammonds House Museum boasts a permanent collection of more than 450 works including art by Romare Bearden, Robert S. Duncanson, Benny Andrews, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Hale Woodruff, Amalia Amaki, Radcliffe Bailey and Kojo Griffin. In addition to featuring art from their collection, the museum offers new exhibitions, artist talks, workshops, concerts, poetry readings, arts education programs, and other cultural events throughout the year.
Located in a beautiful Victorian home in Atlanta’s historic West End, Hammonds House Museum is a cultural treasure and a unique venue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they continue to observe CDC guidelines, but look forward to welcoming in-person visitors soon! For more information about upcoming virtual events, and to see how you can support their mission and programming, visit their website: hammondshouse.org.
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