Renowned Pomo basketweaver Susan Billy will give a free public lecture on Tuesday, March 5, as the final event in the Merrill College American Indian Colloquium Series 2002 at UC Santa Cruz. Billy's talk will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Baobab Lounge at Merrill College.
Billy, a California Pomo, learned basketweaving 29 years ago from her great aunt, Elsie Allen, in Ukiah. A teacher and leader of efforts to revive the art of basketweaving, Billy has been the featured weaver or guest curator at New York's Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution, the De Young Museum, the Mendocino County Museum, and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. She will discuss the history and tradition of basketweaving.
Admission is free and refreshments will be served. For more information or disability-related needs, please call (831) 459-5836 or send e-mail to conleth@cats.ucsc.edu.
Billy's appearance is part of Merrill College's colloquium focusing on "Knowledge and Creativity of First Peoples."
