staff reports

The Elelloang Basali (Be Aware Women) Weavers, is on exhibit at the YMI Cultural Center through June 30, 2009. These are craft design textiles of Basotho women who weave mohair rugs, tapestries, bags, table mats, and knit mohair jackets. These select, beautiful, high quality weavings are washed, mothproofed, dyed, and then woven together using local hand-spun mohair.

Lesotho, the “Kingdom in the Sky,” is a land of beautiful sandstone buttes, fossilized footprints, traditional song and dance and scenic mountain vistas. The Basotho people have lived in southern Africa since around the fifteenth century. The Basotho nation now modern Lesotho emerged from the accomplished diplomacy of Moshoeshoe I, a ruler who gathered together disparate clans of Sotho-Tswana origin that had dispersed across southern Africa in the early 19th century. Most Basotho people now live in South Africa.

The designs celebrate the Basotho cultural heritage through the revival of Basotho Litema patterns, originally drawn into the walls of traditional Lesotho homes, which depict the ancient Bushmen rock paintings throughout the region and illustrate rural village life. This exhibit is made possible through a generous loan and cooperation of Brenda Macauley, owner of Aesthetic   Art Gallery in Asheville.

The YMI Cultural Center, located at 39 South Market Street in downtown Asheville, has honored and celebrated Western North Carolina’s diverse cultural heritage and history for more than a century. The Elelloang Basali (Be Aware Women) Weavers is co-sponsored by Grove Park Resort Inn & Spa and Buncombe County who are supporters of YMI Cultural Center. For tickets, group tours, and other information on this and other exhibits, call (828) 252-4614 or visit the YMI web site at www.ymicc.org.

The Elelloang Basali (Be Aware Women) Weavers will remain on exhibit through  June 30, 2009. Gallery Hours are Tuesday- Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.