Featured Workshops

SOAP MAKING

Cheryl Keys is the CEO and founder of Keys 4 Life, Incorporated. Cheryl uses her artistic creativity to create and design handmade bath and body products and hand-poured soy wax candles.

In her Melt and Pour 101 class, students will learn about the saponification process, the ingredients contained in soap and make a product for their personal use.

culinary arts

Star M. Bey serves as an educator in the Maryland Public School System. She is committed to serving children in diverse communities. She truly understands the value and importance of education.

Star is a proud member of the Kappa Omicron Nu (KON) National Honor Society for the Human Sciences, which promotes empowered leaders by using an integrative approach to enhance quality of living through excellence in scholarship, leadership, and research. She holds a B.S. in Family and Consumer Sciences, an M. Ed. in Career and Technical Education, and an Ed. S. in Educational Leadership and Administration.

She is armed with ammunition of determination, a shield of knowledge, and a desire to produce greatness in children. She firmly believes in Eagle Life Learning Foundation's mission.

Her Global Cuisines class is designed to help develop a sense of global food knowledge around the world, focusing on cuisines of the continent Africa. Students will study the food products of Africa, the tastes and flavors developed within the continent, as well as key aspects of food styles and cooking techniques.

The study of global cuisines allows students to understand the quality of food products and importance of food sourcing. Global cuisines also enhance the students' awareness of the importance of support of regional food source, the trail around Africa, and the adoption of those cuisines through the centuries and the continents.

jewelry making

Nsikan Edet, owner and creator of The Adiaha Eyo Collection is a native of Washington, DC, and was born to create and teach.

She has carried a strong passion for the arts and fashion since she was a small child. Nsikan made jewelry as a hobby for 15 years. In 2018, she decided to hone her creative skills and share them with the world.

Nsikan's ability to teach and desire to inspire productivity has allowed her to usefully learn the mantra that has inpsired her to create her dream business, Adiaha Eyo.

Nsikan and The Adiaha Eyo Collection have been featured on national television, at the African American Museum of Prince George's County in Maryland. She is excited and honored to share the beauty, business, and art of jewelry making with youth, families, friends, and all members of the Adiaha Eyo Village!

"If you have a purpose in which you can believe, there's no end to what you can accomplish." --Marian Anderson

Teach your child the meaning of purpose early on with this exciting class no matter where you are!

Adiaha Eyo is proud to provide a step-by-step bracelet-making class. In this class, we will walk your child through the process of creating two bracelets, one of which will be a personalized name bracelet. Your child will also learn the meaning of the stone properties in which they use to make the bracelets.

dance

Nyla Adina Murray, also known as NYLADINA, is a spiritual young woman, performing artist, student, and choreographer. She has cultivated her creative mind through dance and choreography, alongside her sister (Niambi Sala from OSHUN), since age six.

She was born in Atlanta, raised in the D.C. metropolitan area, and currently resides in Philadelphia. Nyla was raised by parents and grandparents of the Pan-African movement in America, a cultural and political worldview that recognizes the importance of solidarity for all people of African descent. Her awareness of herself and Africa as the cradle of civilization underpins much of her work.

At age 16, she began hosting her own hip-hop workshops. Prior to this exploration, she learned African dance from her mother and hip-hop dance through YouTube. She taught herself from ages 9 to 15, due to her inability to afford dance classes and lack of exposure to the hip-hop dance scene within her own community.

Currently, NYLADINA's dance and choreographic aesthetic challenges internal and external norms placed on black bodies by society--and explores rage, pleasure, and healing. She has just graduated from the University of the Arts with a BFA in Dance, and is very excited about her future.

In her African/Afro Movement Exploration Workshop, Nyla will begin by sharing the background of African dance. Together, we will explore the importance of African dance, the geographic origins of specific African movements, and how those movements have lived on through our ancestors and elders, onto us. We will explore this movement through percussion, imagery, sounds, and our collective imagination.

Bodily, we will explore multiple modes of African/Afro movement that are both familiar and unfamiliar. This workshop is meant to create and achieve a space of love, freedom, and safety. During these times of uncertainty, we will use dance as a way to pay homage and give gratitude, so we can firmly plant our feet on these ancestral grounds before we take flight.

african kente weaving

Kwasi Asare is one of the Africa’s most prominent and accomplished weavers; he is particularly known for Kente cloth, the highly prized Ghanaian cloth that has traditionally symbolized royalty, honor and leadership.

Kwasi Asare was born in a village called Apirede in Akwapim, about 11 miles from Ghana’s capital, Accra. He was destined to follow in the footsteps of his late father, A.E. Asare, who established Dento Mills, a Kente weaving center in Nsawam, Ghana during the 1950’s.

As a young child Kwasi was naturally drawn to carrying on his father’s tradition. By the time Kwasi was 5 he was playing with the shuttles in the loom. With the help of his father’s assistant, Opanyin Kwame Dappah, Kwasi was given in-depth training and by the age of 12 he was weaving some of the most intricate designs and adding his own unique and innovative color schemes. In between his formal schooling, Kwasi always made time for his loom and started creating some of his own designs.

After graduating from Ghana’s Achimota High School, Kwasi enrolled in the University of Hertfordshire in England, where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science w/ Honors degree in Mathematics; yet he always maintained his passion for weaving and his involvement with Dento Mills. Through sheer determination, vision and his boundless love for the craft, Kwasi revitalized his father’s dwindling weaving center by the time he was 25. Today Dento Mills employs 10 full-time weavers and several apprentices undergoing training.

Kwasi has held exhibitions in Africa and often travels internationally. As part of his cultural and educational presentations, Kwasi performs demonstrations on a traditional loom while also offering a hands-on workshop using his own unique small looms that he created to make Kente weaving an accessible experience for everyone. The workshops are a wonderful synthesis of art and mathematics – blending of pattern recognition, thinking in numbers, creative symbolism and mind-body activity.

Through his workshops and presentations, Kwasi is excited to see students of all ages develop a stronger mind-body connection by being absorbed in careful, detailed work with their hands.

This workshop helps students get in touch with the patience, creativity, vision and attention to detail necessary for creating something beautiful and valuable with one’s hands. The workshop is universal – it is educational, informative and attractive to virtually anyone from any age or background.