Then Now Next: Crafters, Growers & Revolutionary Ideals
Farmers and craftspeople made the American Revolution possible and shaped the growth of American democracy. Tennessee growers and crafters have always been — and continue to be — part of this process. On February 28, 2026, Humanities Tennessee convened a panel of scholars and practitioners to discuss this history, current realities, and possible futures of the two fields at the East Tennessee Historical Society.
Dr. Torren L. Gaston, Associate Professor of History and Associate Director of the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University, began the afternoon with a presentation titled “The Continuums of Craft: 250 Years of African American Making.” Pulling on objects and themes included in the museum exhibit Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence, Gaston explored a main goal of the exhibition, which is to “have people toil with the question of what is freedom and how are individuals identifying freedom through the process of making” both during the Revolutionary era and through Emancipation. The exhibit is intended to perhaps raise more questions than it answers while asking visitors “to move outside [a] narrow focus of creation for utilitarian use [because] there’s oftentimes more valuable reasons that undergird the purpose for creation.”
Brooks Lamb, Special Advisor for Strategic Communications at American Farmland Trust, followed with the short lecture, “A Foundational Tension in American Agriculture,” which focused on the opposing agricultural ideas of Alexander Hamilton’s industrialization and Thomas Jefferson’s agrarianism. By tracing these tensions through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the present day, Lamb argued, “we are moving away from having any tension at all” and expressed concern “that we’ve shifted too far toward industrialism and too far from agrarianism” to the detriment of rural communities and society as a whole. However, there are contemporary farmers who provide hopeful examples of how to “tend to the land and tend to each other with love, while also striving for economic security and efficiency” through their stewardship and perseverance.
Farmer Ali Simpson and textile artist Wokie Massaquoi-Wicks joined Gaston and Lamb for the ensuing panel discussion. Simpson operates Kimberly Ann Farms, a small organic vegetable and livestock farm in Ten Mile, Tennessee, and serves as a board member of Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers. Massaquoi-Wicks is an award-winning textile artist based in Knoxville, where she carries on her family legacy and cultural traditions of her native West Africa.
Massaquoi-Wicks uses traditional tie-dying, batiking, and mud-clothing to create vibrant textiles. In her recent work, she creates sculptural heads using her fabrics to create braided and threaded hairstyles that communicate life experiences. She explained that her craft allows her to explore her “heritage, traditions, culture, and also have some admiration and respect for those who came before.” Through the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Folklife Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, she and her son “went through the whole year of creating and talking about history and why things are done a certain way.” She envisions a future of crafting where more young people are brought to the table and given a platform to express themselves through craft.
At 60 acres, Simpson considers her farm to be small-scale with produce sales occurring at the Knoxville Farmers Market and some local restaurants. She observed that regardless of a farm’s size, what makes growing special “is that everybody has to eat…there are so many things in this web and you are part of shaping the world at whatever scale you are, and it’s just essential.”
Her vision of the future of farming includes “agriculture that treats people well…[and] is part of the solution to climate change.” She also imagines a future culture “that prioritizes the education of younger folks and enables them to become growers on whatever scale – whether it’s a small garden or all the way up to commodity farming.”
A major theme that emerged during the discussion was the issue of accessibility. For farming and crafting to be viable pathways for younger generations as well as older adults in career transitions, there is a need for widely available skills-based education and access to raw materials – be it supplies for crafters or affordable land for growers. Additionally, the importance of doing meaningful work arose during the conversation. For Revolutionary era craftspeople and farmers, for Simpson and Massaquoi-Wicks today, and for future crafters and growers, there was and is a deep desire to pursue tangible work that matters personally and for the community. If that work can emerge from within a culture of care that encourages community connections, these vital professions will be sustainable into the future.
This panel discussion is part of By the People: Conversations Beyond 250, a series of community-driven programs created by humanities councils in collaboration with local partners. The initiative was developed by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Funding was also provided by the Tennessee Arts Commission.