The Commercial Appeal - Go Memphis
‘Isaac Hayes: Black Moses Gives Back’
Through July 31 at the Museum of Science and History, 3050 Central.
Free with regular museum admission.
Movies & Mixers: “Shaft,” with Richard Roundtree, featuring Isaac Hayes’ score and Oscar-winning song, screens at 7 p.m. April 23 in the Giant Screen Theater. “Mixers” party begins at 5:30 p.m. MOSH reusable cup included. Tickets: $23.
Taste of Ghana: 6-8:30 p.m. May 7. Food, music, gifts, more. Tickets: $35 (adult); $20 (ages 3-12).
Visit moshmemphis.com.
On the cover
Isaac Hayes greets children from the Zion Day Care and Learning Center at the Hoopers Chapel AME Church on May 2, 2003, inside the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. The Isaac Hayes: Black Moses Gives Back exhibit at the Museum of Science and History showcases his dashikis collection as well as his work in Ghana.
A.J. Wolfe / The Commercial Appeal
“Hayes at a certain point of his life eschewed Western clothing and generally only wore dashikis,” said Raka Nandi, director of collections and exhibits at the Museum of Science and History at 3050 Central — the historic hometurned-attraction that many Memphians still refer to as “The Pink Palace.”
Working with the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Nandi has organized “Isaac Hayes: Black Moses Gives Back,” an exhibit that runs through July 31 at the Museum of Science and History (MOSH).
Nestled against a wall near the top of the escalators that connect the museum’s first two floors, the exhibit displays seven of Hayes’ trademark dashikis and two of his kufis.
A dashiki, generally, is a loose-fitting and often colorful pullover African garment with wide sleeves that covers the top half of the body, like a long shirt or tunic. The kufi is a complementary round cap, snug and brimless. The clothing is on loan from the extensive collection of Hayes memorabilia that was donated to the Stax Museum after the musician’s death in Memphis in 2008 at the age of 65.
“Black Moses Gives Back” is timed to coincide with this year’s Memphis in May International Festival tribute to Ghana, the coastal West African nation that is the festival’s 2022 “honored country.” Several of Hayes’ dashikis were acquired in Ghana, where the singer was made an honorary king of the Ada people, in recognition of his humanitarian work in the country, where he helped to build schools, promote literacy and fight AIDS. Ghana also is where Hayes met his wife, Adjowa Hayes, the mother of his 12th child, a son, Nana Kwadjo Hayes.
Hayes became interested in Ghana while on a 1992 visit to Africa to film a music video with singer Barry White. In an interview with The Commercial Appeal that year, Hayes said his life changed after that visit to what he called “the Motherland.”
“I felt reborn,” he said. “I felt all my life I was an orphan because I had no contact with where I came from. I’m not an orphan anymore.”
Hayes said he especially was moved when he visited castles built by the
Dutch in the 18th century to serve as holding points for slaves to be traded to America.
”You walk into those dungeons, and you see the tiny hole that was all they had to breathe or for light,” he said. ”You can see the death cells ... where those that had tried to escape were left to suffocate and starve. Every one of us wept.”
The dashikis on display at MOSH include old-school-crafted garments made from textiles in Africa and less traditional tunics created by the Nigeria-born Brooklyn designer known as Moshood.
“Here in America we tend to think that non-western clothing has to abide by certain notions of authenticity, that dashikis can only be made in certain patterns or have to be made of kente cloth, but in fact they are worn by all types of people for a variety of purposes,” said Nandi, who was a collections manager at Stax and at the National Civil Rights Museum before moving to MOSH. “They’re worn at weddings, but they’re also worn casually.
“A lot of Isaac Hayes’ dashikis, some are custom-made, but some he purchased, and he had a lot of fun with them. They range from polyester to raw silk. One is in the colors of the American flag, and another one is the (blue and gold) colors of Manassas High School,” where Hayes was a student. Several are emblazoned with a small African-style mask — the Moshood logo.
Of course, because this is an exhibit devoted to Isaac Hayes, music is on the menu: A large screen displays a montage of Hayes photographs to a soundtrack of 10 Hayes recordings. In addition, the museum will screen the 1971 movie “Shaft” at 7 p.m. April 23 in its Giant Screen Theater; mixers will be served in the lobby at 5:30 p.m.
Also, MOSH hosts “A Taste of Ghana” from 6-8:30 p.m. May 7. Co-hosted by the Ghanaian Association of Memphis, the event includes food, music by the Obruni Dance Band, and Ghanaian shopping.