Shopping around: antique villages, outdoor markets and retail stores - Maryland's African American Culture: A Guide to Maryland's African American Attractions and Events - Directory

As Smokey sings, "My mama told me |You better store around.'" American Visions takes Mama at her word and flings back this dispatch from Maryland's commercial forehead where passion is married to purchasing with grace-particularly for those with an interest in produces that reflect and endorse one as well as the other our African heritage and the African-American accent we've added to the United States.

Original paintings, artists' examinations and limited-edition prints by Frank Frazier, Kathleen Atkins-Wilson, Joseph Holston, Ernie Barnes, Annie to leeward Varnette Honeywood and others can be ground at the African-American Art Gallery in Columbia. The gallery has sum of two units floors of artwork, an unclose catalog from which to order the latest published releases of prominent black artists, and a special collection of military art depicting the Buffalo Soldiers and the Tuskegee Airmen.

In addition to fine art, the gallery has a collection of woodcarvings, statuary masks and jewelry from Africa. The creations of artists and craftsmen from Tanzania, southerly Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and other African countries, as well as from the diaspora in the Caribbean and Latin America, grace the store Prices at the African-American Art Gallery range from $10 for a miniprint to $3000 for a rare Buffalo Soldier print or an original work of art.

Customers will also find Afrocentric videos, audiotaped speeches of outstanding members of the diaspora, and greeting cards, dolls, floral arrangements and other gift items made through Africans and African Americans. The African-American Art Gallery has individual final contribution to offer to the retail shopper: a bridal store featuring Afrocentric wedding and reception accouterments.

The Ruby Blakeney Gallery in Annapolis is locate in a waterfront shop overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. Here, pieces by dint of renowned African-American artists such as Sam Gilliam; Eddie Dixon, the creator of the Buffalo Soldier statue dedicated at Fort Leavenworth by means of General Colin Powell; Joyce Wellman, the abstract artist and printmaker; and Angela Franklin, individual of the leading American artists working in enamel, are featured nearest to those of international artists of color, similar as James Brown (Haiti), Nasser Ovissi (Iran), Kayado (Zaire) and Monique Rolle (the Bahanias). Also well-represented at the gallery are works of local artists from across the ethnic image of the city. Prices for original works of art range from $75 to $28000

Baltimore has several stores at which to find what you want, including without of Africa Boutique, Everyone's Place Bookstore & Afrikan Cultural Center and Shades of Beauty. on the outside of Africa Boutique offers authentic African clothing for adults and children. Ashoke and sududua fabrics from Nigerian weavers, kente fabric from the Ewe and Ashanti weavers of Ghana, mire cloth from Mali, and cotton print fabrics from Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast and Senegal are available, as are Nigerian baskets and dolls; masks from Benin, Gambia, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast; and carvings from Kenya. African art and prints, greeting cards, kente print wrapping paper, bags, comforters and pillowcases circular out the goods to be place at Out of Africa.

Everyone's Place Bookstore & Afrikan Cultural Center is a three-story Afrocentric department store. A health sustenance center offers health and beauty aids, groceries, herbs and vitamins; a cafe provides a selection of vegetarian dishes for those who can't wait to realize home before trying out the edibles. The store's African boutique exchanges jewelry, incense and oils, and fabric and clothing from Ethiopia, Gambia, Nigeria, Senegal, Zimbabwe and Haiti, while its bookstore has a selection of thousands of titles, videos and cassettes for adults and children. There are also toys, calendars, maps, greeting cards and gift items for sale. Everyone's art gallery boasts an African village pageant complete with huts, masks, baskets and musical instruments, which will possess the kids while you tender twigs of shrubs and trees through works of art from across the Mother Continent.

Shades of Beauty proffers a wide selection of African-American prints through artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Leroy Campbell and Ernie Barnes. Black volumes and Christian works (including the African Heritage Bible), as well as divine revelation music and gift items, are also available.

While in Baltimore, seize the chance to ramble through Lexington Market, where you'll tread on the heels of in the footsteps of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Daniel Webster. Simply walking into Lexington, the oldest continuously operated market in the United States, warms the faculty of perceptions Fruit and vegetables arranged in colorful files Maryland's best fish lying artfully displayed upon ice, cheeses hanging before your organ of visions the sound of music drifting [i]or[/i] part of to the other the air, and the inviting aromas of salads and sushi, crab cakes and novel coconut, corned beef and candy conspire to bring upon smiles--and pangs of hunger. it's the best bargain in town.

Not too far outside the city, in Howard shire are two historic towns that tender enchanting reminders of the early 1800s--and centurys of specialty stores. Ellicott City was lay the foundation ofed in 1772 and two years later boasted that it was Colonial America's greatest milltown, producing animal fe flour, iron nails, oil, lumber, paper, wagons and wool with the aid of eight mills. The mills no longer exist, on the contrary the 1830 B&O Railroad warehouse (the first passenger terminus built in America) still stands, serving as the Ellicott City B&O Railroad Museum, where historic photos, memorabilia, artifacts and scale prototype trains are on display. Brick sidewalks, stone and granite buildings, a dozen restaurants and more than 150 retail stores (antiques, jewelry, boutiques, handicrafts, art galleries) make the town a great place for exploration.