Ananse Center for Arts and Culture

In an atrium, a diverse group of kinfolk mill around talking among beautiful plants and art. Vibrant colors flow through the environment. You walk around talking to each person in the room. You see them and feel them. You meet a tall, dark, brown-skinned human being. And you feel their heart as they tell you, “I am so happy to be here. This is feeding my heart and soul. Bringing me back to life. It is a baptism.” You look around and see other people gathering around the conversation. They're sharing the same things, “I've come here to grow.” “To be reborn.” “To remember.”

It’s the work of Ananse—the trickster spider of West African and Diasporan folklore—who weaves webs of cultural memory, wisdom, and Black resistance to oppression. 

We continue Ananse’s legacy.

The Ananse Center for Arts and Culture is a place where descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States and Africans colonized in Africa use cultural and creative arts to heal intergenerational traumas of colonialism and slavery and learn how to be cousins again. The Ananse Center fosters collaborative relationships between Black artists and creatives around the world and provides them with the tools to make positive contributions as cultural organizers in the development of their communities.

Our mission is to spin social and cultural webs of connection between African people around the world by curating communal, restorative, and healing space for the cultivation, preservation, education, and development of the cultural and creative arts of people of African ancestry (e.g., performing arts, visual arts, musical arts, culinary arts, martial arts, textile arts, folk arts, spiritual arts, etc.) as tools for cultural organizing and sources of communal power. 

Our program includes:

Join us in birthing the Ananse Center for Arts and Culture in Akatakyiwa, Ghana by 2027. 

Every contribution is a strand of the web that builds freedom, memory, and legacy.

Help us spin this dream into reality. Donate today. 

Because when spiders unite, they can tie down a lion.

Trustee Circle Members

Kenyatta Andrews, Treasurer

Norma Harris, PhD, Chair

Nefertiti Macaulay, Member

J. Christopher Ifadadefumi Fasanmi Neal, Vice Chair

Renee Redding-Jones, Secretary

Nana H. Kojo Herukhuti Sharif Williams, PhD, Founder and CEO