The February 4th Program Meeting of the Bead Society is going to feature the African Twilight. Some of you will remember that we had a Gala event back in 2019 with Alan Donovan from Africa introducing the video. We are celebrating Black History Month by revisiting this video! The two women, Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher traveled all over Africa for over 45 years. They produced 17 books about various aspects of their travels. We will be showcasing a talk the two women did in 2022 at the GLEX Summit (Global Exploration Summit). Their two volume book, African Twilight will be available to peruse!

We will be meeting both in person and on Zoom. 
Veterans Memorial Complex, Senior Center, Room C71, 7 pm
The Senior Center is at 4095 Overland Ave, Culver City, CA . It is just across the street from the Vets Memorial Building. Parking is available in the lot behind the building.  

​Feb 4th, 7 pm PT
Zoom information is Meeting ID: 899 883 2615, Passcode: Beads.
TBS Business meeting at 6:15 pm.  Join us! 

Some additional resources from YouTube and the web:

African Twilight: Vanishing Rituals & Ceremonies - Angela Fisher & Carol Beckwith
Cuyamungue Institute
An interview with the two women with staff from the Cuyamungue Institute and guests. 
2 hours, 23 minutes

Interview: Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher | National Geographic
A clever feast spares the lives of photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher during a harrowing trip to Surmaland near the Ethiopian-Sudanese border.
6.23 minutes

African Twilight GALA NIGHT OF THE CENTURY
The documentary by Reality media Online of he spectacular launch of the double volume book of the vanishing rituals and ceremonies of the African continent by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher, with a carnival of Music, dance, costume and fashion created from vanishing handwoven and printed textiles of African continent. African Heritage House, Mar 3, 2019. This was the documentary we viewed by DVD back in 2019. 
1 hour, 3 minutes

AFRICAN TWILIGHT: VANISHING RITUAL & CEREMONIES - Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher
GLEX Summit 2022
This is the video we watched during the meeting, 

Africa Online Museum
Würzburg, Germany

​You can find other interviews with Carol and Angela by searching by their names. 

​The Upper Midwest Bead Society (UMBS), TOHO Beads, The Japanese Beading Association, TeamTOHO, and Lotus Beads and Jewelry are joining forces to take the TOHO Peace Chain Project to new lengths by actually connecting them together and creating the longest beaded Peace Chain in the world!  UMBS is inviting us to participate! 

"There are many ways you can join our Peace Chain Project. We have a one-year goal. We would like everyone around the world to gather together friends, family, and new and old acquaintances to join us in this monumental effort by working together to make a one-mile-long beaded Peace Chain with the goal of promoting peace."

"We hope you will think peaceful thoughts as you enjoy making these rings, thereby infusing the rings themselves with calm and happy feelings."

"Your segments of chain will be connected to ours throughout the year to create 1 mile of chain. This chain will stretch all the way around the Mall of America! We invite you to come from all over the world to the Mall of America on August 6th, 2026, to bring segments of your Peace Chain with you and join us to commemorate the Day of Peace for a "Grand Connection." During this event, we will connect all of the remaining Peace Chain segments together."

So, the Bead Society is proposing that we have some Beading gatherings where we can work on the Peace Rings. Each ring is very small, and doesn't use a lot of beads. The directions are fairly straightforward. You don't need to know any elaborate stitches. There is even a YouTube video. The Bead Society has lots of colors of seed beads we can employ. If you are interested, you can contact Kay at kayd at beadsocietyla.org.  If you would like to host one of these events, let us know. 

The January 7th TBS Program Meeting will feature Margie Akin talking about Collecting from an Anthropologist's Point of View. Margie has an extensive background in teaching at UC Riverside, CSU San Bernadino and the University of Redlands. Margie is a Cultural and Linguistic Services Specialist. 

The event will be in person, and on Zoom. We will be meeting in the Uruapan room of the Veterans Memorial Building at 7:00 pm PT.  Zoom information is Meeting ID: 899 883 2615, Passcode: Beads.  

Beads have been collected since women and men walked the earth. "Beads were probably the first durable ornaments humans possessed ... " *

TBS Business meeting at 6:30 pm.  Join us! 

*Liu, Robert K, Foreword, The History of Beads: from 100,000 B.C. to the Present. Dubin, Lois Sherr. Abrams: New York, rev ed., 2009,