MY ARTIFACT, MY STORY Exploring and discovering our heritage through personal stories that shape who we are. Curated by Lynn Rizarri, Marcela Anguiano, Elbey Borrero, Ruthanne Greenwood and visiting anthropologist Marlon F. Hall.

This exhibition is a collection of family or cultural artifacts that tell the story of second grade students and their heritage. The students designed their own questions to ask a family member to talk about the artifact and what it means to their family’s anthropology.

Anthropology is derived from the Greek words anthropo, meaning "speaking of human" and logia, meaning "study." The number one tool an anthropologist uses to do her work is Participant Observation. Anthropologists participate in the culture they want to learn from by using their ears and eyes to be professionally nosey. Mrs. Greenwood reached out to Marlon to ask him to do a project with the “The best teacher group in the entire school…” the Second Grade Teacher Hub.

Little did she know that Marlon’s first job after his anthropological studies at Vanderbilt and Fisk University in 1996 was teaching Anthropology and Archeology to second graders at The Imani School. He felt a full-circle connection to the opportunity to work with the second grade teachers and students as apart of his Anthropological Residency at Awty. Because memory informs imagination, this exhibition is designed to be a cookie crumb trail that the students can use forever to trace them back to their heritage as a resource to imagine the contributions they can make in the future.