Vocabulary Related to Aminah and Her Work
Embellish - make beautiful with decoration
Family tree - an illustration that shows the relationships between members of an extended family
Hogmawg - Aminah Robinson’s mixture of mud, pig grease, dyes, sticks, glue, and lime that she uses in her two- and three-dimensional work
Memory Map - Aminah Robinson’s art based on her memory and research of a particular place
Metaphor - a figure of speech that compares unlike things (the heart is a drum)
Middle Passage - the period between the 1500s and 1860s when millions of Africans were forced into ships and brought to the Americas as slaves
Pattern - a design system based on the planned relationship of parts
Primary sources - actual records that have survived from the past, such as letters, photographs, articles of clothing; sources created by people who actually saw or participated in an event and recorded that event or their reactions to it immediately after the event.
RagGonNon - Amianh Robinson’s word for a complex work of art that is never finished
Sankofa - from the Akan; the African concept of learning from the past
Secondary sources- Accounts of the past created by someone either not present when the event took place or removed by time from the event.
Simile- a figure of speech that compares unlike things using like or as (the heart is like a drum)
Spiritual - a religious song usually of deeply emotional character developed especially by Blacks in the southern United States
Symbolism - using an object to stand for another object or idea
Texture - the way something would feel if you could touch it
Two-dimensional- having height and width; flat
Three-dimensional - having height, width, and depth or the appearance of having them
Storyline - a story based on a particular timeline of events
Unwritten Love Letter - Aminah Robinson’s drawings and mixed media art on envelopes that she has steamed opened and dyed
