A few days ago, Micah Ling took me into the archives of the Michigan State University Museum. (Check out Micah's music HERE) It was a treasure trove of historical artifacts, and I was basically freaking out the entire time. Micah showed me a few of her favorite pieces, and she let me pick random cabinets and drawers, carefully showing me their contents and sharing a bit of each item's provenance. We were blown away by the ways in which cultures overlapped... similar stitching in traditional scandinavian and peruvian garments, similar carvings from paupau new guinea and sub-saharan africa... etc. etc. There are of course probable explanations for these commonalities... but amid current debates of cultural appropriation this concept (which I had not previously entertained) has sparked my imagination. After exploring the archives, Micah and I went to hang out at Strange Matter Coffee where my friend Peter J. Hochstedtler was working (check out his music HERE).
