Robell Awake: Crafting change
Robell works to bridge woodworking’s opportunity gap and challenge the scope of “period” and “fine” furniture.Some of Robell Awake’s story sounds pretty familiar to most woodworkers. First, there’s the enduring itch to make. For him, it started in his early 20s when he dove into a DIY ethos inspired by his time as a bike messenger. After working various trade jobs, he homed in on carpentry and furniture work. Robell took an intensive hand-tool woodworking class at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, and he’s continued to expand upon his love for hand-tool woodworking back home in Atlanta.
But there’s more to him than just a passion for the craft. Robell, the son of Ethiopian immigrants, says, “As a Black woodworker, I’ve been overwhelmed by how white and male-dominated the woodworking community is. This is true in the pages of Fine Woodworking as well.” So it’s no surprise his story also includes a steadfast commitment to social justice, both in society at large and within the woodworking community.
Making more with makerspaces
One promising step towards effecting change is the emergence of more community-based makerspaces, like MASS Collective in Atlanta, where Robell is a member and teacher.
Makerspaces are multidisciplinary shops that operate on a membership basis. Often in large cities, they offer access to space and tools, both costly barriers to entry for a maker of any skill. As MASS Collective puts it, the organization is “dedicated to lowering the barrier of entry to manufacturing equipment and design resources.”
Robell is drawn to the potential of a good makerspace, both for himself and for the community at large. “If It wasn’t for a makerspace, a place where I could pay to have access to a fully equipped workshop, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to pursue woodworking as a career, or even as a hobby.”
Since joining, Robell has moved from member to teacher. He began with a semester-long class for a small group of high school students, leading them as they built a set of communal tables and benches for their school’s lunch room. From there, he moved on to fundamentals classes, like overall machine use and safety to router table 101.
Robell’s own education has been a mix of formal and informal. That aforementioned intensive class he took was at North Bennet Street School, which is celebrated for its traditional focus. Prior to that, Awake spent his days off from his carpentry gig helping out a local custom furniture maker, Kendrick Anderson. For a year or so, Kendrick showed Robell the basics of machine woodworking. NBSS served to complement this experience. “I knew the school’s Cabinetry and Furniture program would be a great place to learn the basics of hand-tool woodworking.”
It took plenty of work to afford the two weeks, but it paid off tremendously.
“I saved up for a while, doing construction work during the day, bartending on the weekends. The experience at North Bennet was transformative. Learning how to use and sharpen hand tools, cutting my first dovetails, and being able to live and breathe woodworking for two straight weeks changed everything for me.”
He brought that experience back home, including the skills, the sense of community, and, equally important, knowing the expense it took to get there.
“Makerspaces, like MASS and A Workshop of Our Own in Baltimore, get me really excited about the future of the craft,” Robell says. “They are crucial not only as incubators of creativity and community, but also to close woodworking’s opportunity gap. We need more shop spaces that are financially accessible, actively anti-racist, and prioritize the membership of Black, brown, queer, and women craft folk.”
Celebrating Black furniture
The second element in Robell’s combination of craft and justice comes via research, both academic and hands-on.
In his effort for a more representative and, he notes, “more accurate history of the craft,” Robell has turned to researching the work of woodworkers who’ve been erased from the predominant narrative surrounding period furniture. Unsurprisingly, Robell says, these stories are difficult to find in “period furniture’s one-sided conversation.”
“It’s really troubling that the discourse around period furniture almost entirely excludes the craftsmanship of enslaved Africans and their descendants.” He explains, “In 1865, there were around 100,000 skilled Black artisans in the South, compared with 20,000 white artisans. All plantations had Black furniture makers and carpenters. Often these highly skilled workers excelled at more than one trade. Historian Leonard Stavisky writes about how the enslaved woodworker was simultaneously a cabinetmaker, wheelwright, coffin and pattern maker, architect, cooper, sawyer, and on and on. Who were these brilliant people? Why aren’t their stories being told?” These erasures, he says, are glaring.
“There are so many untold stories and unrecognized traditions that I want to learn more about, and amplify in my own work,” Robell says.
Robell is also drawn to a chairmaking tradition from Ethiopia’s Jimma region, where chairs are hewn out of single Wanza tree trunks. “They are incredibly labor intensive because they are most likely made entirely with hand tools,” he observes. “The results are breathtaking.”
“It’s hard to date them, but many were made around the turn of the 20th century, if not earlier, and it’s unclear if they are still being produced,” he adds.
On a 2018 trip to Ethiopia to visit family, Robell was struck by the simultaneous public-private presence of these chairs.
“Most of the chairs that I encountered on my trip were in museums, but sometimes I would see them in random places, like the home of a relative or outside a restaurant’s bathroom,” Robell says.
“I’ve never seen two Jimma chairs that look anything alike. There’s a clear visual language and aesthetic, but within these constraints of tradition and material—one solid tree trunk—each chair is imbued with a freedom and idiosyncrasy that can only come from the most intentional of skilled hands. This is absolutely ‘fine’ furniture.”
Of course, as a maker, Robell has some hands-on intentions too. “I hope to go back to Ethiopia soon to do research on these chairs, see if there are any woodworkers in Jimma still making them, and learn from them.”
Robell has recently gotten into green woodworking to try and better understand how these chairs might have been constructed.
Working for justice
Robell’s itch to make persists, and he tried to parlay it into full-time furniture work. But paying the bills proved difficult.
“Pursuing a full-time woodworking career was really difficult. I bartended until 5 a.m. on the weekends to supplement my income, and I was constantly worried about where the next job was coming from. I was also disillusioned with the idea of making furniture that only people with means could afford,” Robell explained.
“These stresses and frustrations started to add up, eventually leading me to Habitat for Humanity, where I’ve worked for two years.”
Enter the third element of Robell’s mixture of justice and craft.
Robell’s a house leader with Habitat, no small role. One part of the job is managing construction, ensuring Habitat homes are built well and to code. The other part involves overseeing the organization’s fleet of volunteers.
The organization’s mission, which focuses on building quality affordable housing, resonates with Robell.
“I enjoy the ability to work with my hands while simultaneously doing work that feels more meaningful,” he says. “Housing is a human right, and in the world I’m fighting for, we wouldn’t need non-profit organizations to provide it.”
But moving to home construction hasn’t distracted Robell from furniture making. If anything, it’s enriched it. While he admits home building can feel like a world apart, it doesn’t need to.
“I’ve come to realize that ‘rough’ carpentry and ‘fine’ woodworking is somewhat of a false binary,” Robell says, “and it implies a value judgment that I don’t believe in. I’ve been amazed by carpenters who make quick and accurate work of mortising a door jamb with a dull chisel or using a $10 coping saw to cut seamless inside miters on base trim. Both realms hold equal value and importance to me and my work.”
If you follow him on Instagram, you’ve perhaps seen him teaching someone how to sharpen a chisel or glue up panels. Similarly, he will be teaching a class titled “Demystifying Dovetails” at Penland in the summer of 2021.
Robell loves sharing his passion with others and making woodworking less intimidating, another piece in his efforts to craft change.
Comments
While I support all woodworkers, of all backgrounds, I am not here to experience your woke politics.
When you see encouraging people of color, women or anyone else underrepresented in the craft (as Robell is doing) as a political threat, that's a good indication that your politics is based on exclusion.
This is a very well written reply and instead of saying something much ruder to the original commenter, I just want to say "well said" to you, BGoldenDesign
Show me where people of colour, woman etc are discouraged to woodwork.
Woodworkers love the craft, they love making. Regardless of gender, colour etc.
"its hard to make a living making furniture" thats got nothing to do with the fact you are black. Many businesses struggle to turn a profit regardless of their owners colour, gender etc. Issue with viewing everything through the intersectional prism is that personal responsability doesnt apply. If I fail its because of my gender/colour/ Whatever flavour of the month people are pushing...
99.9% of people dont care what you look like as long as your work is good. Plain and simple.
If you walk into a shop class and look different than everyone else in the room, you may feel discouraged. No one is saying there should be fewer white male woodworkers, only that more people who are not white males should be welcomed. Simply saying "most people don't care what you look like" is, 1. demonstrably false and 2. does not reflect the reality that if you change nothing, nothing changes. If you believe that woodworkers should look more like the population as a whole, you need to take active steps to encourage that. Otherwise nothing changes and it stays a field that is overwhelmingly white and male.
Interesting take.
If you think most people DO care what you look like I suggest you stop watching TV. In the real world people just want to get along, make a buck, feed their families and be happy.
"If you believe woodworkers should look more like the population as a whole"
I believe people should be free to pursue whatever endeavour they want without prejudice. This is the way most people think. If you think this is false please provide some evidence to the contrary and I am happy to learn something I didnt know.
Great blog piece. I would love to see an article and video later on Robell Awake's research and building of the Ethiopian chairs hewn out of a single tree trunk. I also like the idea of community work shops to open up opportunity for everyone. It really will carry the craft of woodworking forward.
You're only as good as the last perfect joint you cut on the piece you delivered on-time to a paying client. The rest of it is just a bunch of fluff.
My advice is to marry well. Behind every "successful" furnituremaker is a spouse with a good job, or perhaps an inheritance. Or both, if you're really lucky.
In lieu of an employed spouse or rich parents, might I also suggest cabinetmaking. Built-ins, kitchens, and the like are easily enough built to a high standard by most furniture makers with their existing tools. The margins are good, demand is out there, and the work can fill time between "fine" pieces for wealthier patrons.
It might not be the finest woodworking but cabinetry is a real way to get paid working in the crafts and does not necessitate the same privilege in background or situation as the studio arts generally, which includes furniture making.
While we should absolutely advance opportunities for underrepresented communities in woodworking, studio artists of the last century-plus have almost always had what TaunTonMacoute points out: inheritance, a spouse, or both. While working to break down the hurdles and barriers that exist in these careers, a wonderful entry for people of all backgrounds is to explore cabinetmaking.
OPEN QUESTION FOR TOM MCKENNA
I have never seen any content on FWW so strongly emphasizing such political/racial commentary. This is a change. I would openly ask Mr. McKenna if FWW has made a policy decision to broaden it's content to advocate a particular social and racial message. If so, please say so.
Mr. Robell's work can be featured and discussed without an accompanying ideological message. If folks wish to publish or read political, social and racial opinions there are plenty of other venues for that. Many FWW subscribers did not sign up for that.
None of us, so-called humans, are the same. But as human beings we all share certain characteristics, whether we like it or admit it. When I was coming of age in the 1950's under the watchful eye of my father in his shop the world was a much different place. Today the world is much smaller, socially speaking. Retreating to the sanctuary of what is now my shop is in reality not possible in today's age. I cannot respect those that look different from me until I acknowledge the difference and appreciate that difference, whatever it may be. And I will never know the possible similarities, commonalities until I am willing to have an ongoing, meaningful dialogue with all people around me.
I view this blog article as a snapshot of history in the USA. And I believe when we choose to forget history, because oft time HISTORY is painful, we are doomed to repeat that which we forgot.
Fine Woodworking has had articles that advocate for getting kids into woodworking, women into woodworking, etc. I'm not sure why you see it as such a change/threat for them to feature someone who advocates for the history and future of black woodworkers.
This interview with Robell does not in any way, impair your ability to read the several thousand articles about other woodworkers. It does not keep you from implementing the useful shop tips FWW provides. It does not even keep you from reading about the 400th different way to cut a dovetail. Including more voices doesn't exclude anything else the magazine does. And at no point does it ask you to vote a certain way, think a certain way or even woodwork a certain way. What it does do is present new ideas and new sources of woodworking inspiration. Which is exactly what I look to FWW for.
Of course new people, all people, contributing new ideas in FWW is a good thing. Raising issues of social justice or politics within that context has not been what the magazine has traditionally done. Those of us who raise that question should also be respected and not characterized as being narrow minded or threatened. Tolerance is needed all around.
Respectfully, it's hard not to read your response as threatened. You read politics into an interview where I can't see any. No mention is made of a political party, politician or government policy.
As for the issue of social justice, it's clearly central to Robell's woodworking. Much of what he does is to raise awareness of black woodworkers and get people of color into both woodworking and carpentry. How do you propose they would write his woodworking biography without talking about it? Would you prefer they not feature him at all, or that he not talk about what he does? FWW isn't running an editorial about the election, it's doing a woodworker biography-exactly has it has always done. I agree tolerance is needed all around, but your suggestion is that Robell's biography-essentially his life's story- is somehow unacceptable. You saw a black woodworker's biography and you demanded (in all caps) a response from the editor. Don't demand our tolerance while expressing your own intolerance.
"Don't demand our tolerance while expressing your own intolerance." You made my point better than I did. Let's stick to wood working.
Sorry, no. Tolerance of diversity and tolerance of entitlement are to very different things. You seem to feel entitled to be shielded from the biography of any woodworker that might have a different perspective on their work than you. You are the one asking FWW to filter their biography through your approved lens. Let's not kid ourselves about who is being intolerant here.
They can advance whoever they like. I don't need to read about their politics in a woodworking article.
I agree
I did NOT sign up for that. I don't want politics in my woodworking. Stop or I'll be force to leave.
That's a you problem, not an us problem, no one is forcing you to do anything. You made a choice to read the article and you are free to make the choice to not read another article. It's kind of ironic that you feel oppressed by an article about a black woodworker.
Sorry-point me to the politics here? Where did FWW mention a particular candidate or policy or ask you to vote a certain way? Robell's work is all about getting people of color into the craft. How should they have written his biography to avoid offending your delicate sensibilities?
Just read the magazine. December 2020, Page 10.
Tom introduced the FWW Ambassadors program to give the editorial team new perspectives that inspire and connect with the broader world of woodworking.
You can also read it here: https://www.finewoodworking.com/2020/09/21/announcing-fww-ambassadors
Take a look at the faces. They're noticeably less "a white man" than who typically writes articles (or worse, who holds tools in advertiser content).
If this is FWW's leap outside the core subscriber, it's a good start. Am I more interested in 16th century Roman workholding, The Soul of a Tree (or a Shaker), or the lost furniture of the American slave trade?
Hell yes, all of it.
I volunteer in City College of San Francisco's woodshop for furniture-making and cabinetry. Nobody is a professional woodworker except the semi-retired teacher. My local community college shop sounds a lot like Robell's.
"We need more shop spaces that are financially accessible, actively anti-racist, and prioritize the membership of Black, brown, queer, and women craft folk."
And guess who attends CCSF classes? That's 3/5 students. It would help to see more diverse people in the magazine, and it's not unusual for authors to comment on the relationship between their work and lived experience.
I guess it just hits differently if your idea of social/racial content is... what it is.
Tom and now Mike, you're doing a good job on editorial. Keep going further. This is interesting stuff.
Signed a 3rd-year hobbyist woodworker and Unlimited subscriber,
Brendan Falkowski
"Mr. Robell's work can be featured and discussed without an accompanying ideological message."
No, it cannot. The ideology of what he does is as important as the pieces themselves, as he clearly states in the intro. Profiling him while excluding this part of his work would be disingenuous.
Great article. Good for FWW for sharing the obvious. As a former woodoworking teacher (at 72 still tutoring folks in my shop) I taught people of all types. It would be impossible to know who made what. Wood tells its own story.
Great post!
Great blog post. And kudos to FWW for making the decision to highlight and celebrate folks who are underrepresented in the craft.
Yes! I've been following Robell for a while. His work is amazing, and his attitude is inspirational. The woodworking community is so fortunate to have him. Wonderful to see Robell in FWW.
It may just a coincidence but I wrote to Fine Woodworking several months ago suggesting Robell Awake as a woodworker with a good story. I really knew very little about him. He appeared in a blog by Jonah Klein for coming to Maine to help them set up their shop. He is pictured ripping by hand a 3 inch thick board about 10 feet long for a bench. It was awe inspiring. From that story, I learned he was working in Atlanta and taught classes at Mass Collective. I was looking something like that for myself and have been following him and Mass Collective ever since.
This story is great and fills in a lot details about Mr. Awake’s life and career. Even more, I want to take that class. Here’s hoping.
This is a great piece. Robell is super impressive. I'm a bit disappointed by the "all woodworkers matter" vibe I'm seeing in these comments.
Really enjoyed this post and appreciate Robell’s perspective and FWW for giving him a forum.
Wonderful article. I look forward to reading more about Robell in FWW.
Fantastic post
Great post, interesting and informative!
I live in Atlanta and was unaware of MASS Collective.
Great post. Keep up the good work
Great article and I'm delighted to see these points of view expressed and reported on. I first heard about Robell through the folks at M&T. It's nice to see the expansion of his story here. Keep it up please.
I found this article invigorating. This gentleman's enthusiasm for what he does, what he has learned, what he wants to have included in the craft has my heart all but racing with excitement. I wish I could meet him, learn from him, encourage him to bring lost and forgotten skills into - or back into - this craft and any other. Great piece. Nothing more needs to be said. It would only detract.
"As a black woodworker I was overwhelmed by how many white males blah blah blah"
Not interested.
We are all people, the cult of intersectionality is a cancer which is quickly spreading into every facet of life.
Divide and conquer is the aim of the elites to keep us dumb and divided. Sounds like fine woodworking magazine is going down that path.
I love woodworking, every culture in the world has some form of woodworking. I think we need to celebrate all craft from all over the world but let's do it in a way that focuses on the craft, not on the dividing part.
The goal of bringing more people from a variety of backgrounds into woodworking feels like a pretty unifying idea to me. Especially if they are people who might feel unwelcome in the first place. And what is the craft, if not a bunch of people with ideas making things?
As someone who is from a "varied background" the idea that I need people to actively encourage me into partaking in hobbies as if I am void of free will is offensive. Can you imagine any one from a minority group being turned away because they weren't a "white male"? I don't, when I got into it i could barely speak english but instead of seeing myself as a victim I just carried on as normal and was welcomed into the woodworking community with open arms.
Woodworkers are the most welcoming bunch of all. The best way to welcome everyone is to stop treating people of colour, females, latinos any differently to how you'd treat anyone else.
The sooner we stop boxing each other into groups and just start seeing each other as humans the sooner we will se real progress.
If the best way to welcome everyone is the way we've already been doing it, why are most professional woodworkers, hobbyist woodworkers, authors of articles on this website, and teachers at every woodworking school in America white men? No one is saying treat anybody differently. What's being advocated here is acknowledging a shortcoming in the field, saying it out loud, and finding ways to change the path going forward.
Maybe different genders and cultures have different interests? Would that explain why most nurses are females and most miners are males?
An entire profile on a woodworker without so much as one picture of his work. And no, one snapshot of a simple detail on a non-descript table doesn't count.
As one previous commentator pointed out, this is about intersectionality, and I might add, "social justice", with a transparently thin wood veneer on top.
There seems to be no escaping it in this day and age...
Crafting change? Shameful.
Great post about a fellow ATL woodworker. Thanks for challenging me to think about who has access to a hobby I love.
I too found this article to be invigorating - thank you #FWW. Most woodworkers in our area work alone in their shops, so it's heart warming to read about collectives and shared workshops that are offering a space for folks to express their interests in woodworking and furniture building. And also pairing that offering with teachers who are driven to share.
As another non-white, lifetime woodworker, not why I read FWW. Don’t doubt that Awake is a good person, but would he be in FWW if he was not black.
I don’t care about his politics, that he is black or how difficult woodworking is for him, where is the work good enough to be in FWW?
Of course, its political.
The racist and racialist nature of the dominant US society and culture is, so to speak, a huge black mark against that nation. There surely needs to be a series of efforts to reduce the many injustices and to promote those forced into a 3rd class citizenship in terms of their opportunities to become 1st class citizens.
But there is a problem if the promotion of a society without the white supremacism is to be done effectively. Racism is just a stupid prejudice with no justification of any kind. However, the real problem is racialism - the belief that the very idea of different human races is a legitimate or meaningful differentiator of people. Even if you ain't racist, hanging on to the notion that there are races is always going to provide the means for some to become racist - to demote whole groups of people from full citizenship based on their skin colour or nose shape .... and all the stupid assumptions about how such things somehow denote an inferior character, intelligence or whatever.
The problem is that those against whom the various racist prejudices operate tend also to accept racialism. They see themselves as a separate group - "black" people; "Latino" people"; "Asian" people. Having an FWW article that goes along with this racialism by describing a woodworker's activities and efforts in terms of some agenda to promote "his race" is an invitation to those inclined to be racist to continue to be so and to react with hostility. "Why should he get special treatment just because he's of "?
The article would better have the desired intent (of promoting equitable citizen status for every kind of US national) if it described only the woodwork without mentioning the race stuff. If racism and racialism are BOTH illegitimate, why employ the notions at all?
Robell Awake's woodworking activities promote the fact that skin colour is irrelevant. No one needs to make a case for "black" people, "pink" people or even the purple ones. Their behaviour, abilities, conduct and example are enough to say: anyone can be good at anything, given the chance, the character and the motivation. Skin colour doesn't come into it unless some fool keeps intimating that it does.
Lataxe
Word salad with a dressing of critical theory. Good work sir.
Lataxe, if memory serves me, aren't you living in either Australia or New Zealand? How does that make you an expert on anything in the US? I wouldn't dream of commenting on life in your country, no matter how much I have read about it.
The fact that this wonderful article drew so many racists out of the woodwork to post in these comments shows that there is much work to be done. I hope that FWW finds ways to bring many marginalized groups to the table, and ideally on staff as well.
Please show me 1 racist comment in this whole thread. Apart from people like you saying we need to treat non whites like we are unable to participate in society unless you give me a hand.
The way you parade the word racism around is proof that you have never been a victim of it. The way you use this horrific word to describe everyone who doesn't think like you do demeans everyone who has ever experienced racism.
Thank you for the profile on Mr. Awake. His philosophy and supporting actions cannot help but make the world a better place. Introducing his work to someone like me is a refreshing upgrade. Frankly, additive ingredients such as this is bringing me back to the magazine. Kudos, FWW.
As a fairly new woodworker I’ve been struck by how inaccessible the hobby is, requiring a large investment in tools, space, time, etc. I’ve also noticed just how old (and white) most everyone is, from those that write these articles, to the people shopping and working in the specialty stores. FWW has a voice in the community, and I feel it’s great they are using it to bring a more diverse group of people in, as otherwise the hobby risks dying out.
For those that are offended, if this were a young white man trying to highlight some lost style of Irish furniture building, would you have given it a second thought? These comments say more about their authors than the article.
All that said, it would have been nice to show some pictures of his work.
Can you imagine walking into a hip hop recording studio and saying: i've noticed how everyone is young and black, and how inaccessible the hobby is, requiring a large investment in recording equipment, space, time etc.
You would sound as stupid as you did with your original comment.
Has it crossed your mind that most young people don't have a heap of spare time and resources to set up a full functioning woodworking shop because theyre saving money to buy a house, feed a family etc? While the "old white folks" are generally retired and have more spare time to make saw dust for fun?
By the way I am not an white old person, I am a 35 year old immigrant that instead of making excuses like you seem to be I got on with life and worked hard and didn't listen to the 0.001% of people who are actually racist...
"Go Woke, go broke" is true. this article is truly Maoism rehashed.
“[Deleted]”
While he seems like a very thoughtful and sincere person, this type of politically-oriented article, along with the posted comments, is just another reason why I'm letting my FWW subscription run out in a few months. It would appear that he's only taken a two-week course, and not one of his pieces is shown, or even described, in the article (except for one close-up of a detail); how does this warrant his appearing in FWW? Certainly there are other people who have better earned that accolade. I read FWW for the woodworking content; I couldn't care less about the race or gender or sexual orientation of the author, but it seems that FWW certainly has an agenda to push. Maybe it's because they think that since so many of their subscribers are old and white, this is the only way to stay in business.
The article and many comments bemoan the fact that the greater majority of woodworkers are white and male; while true, it is meaningless, because there is a very simple explanation as to why this is (see the posts above). It's certainly not because of any overt action taken to deter others from woodworking.
Obviously, I could just avoid reading articles that either don't interest me or that seem to push some political agenda. However, the primary reason I'm dropping my subscription is that the overall content just isn't there anymore. Articles appearing in recent years (i.e., how to make a cutting board, how to use screws, etc.) illustrate just how watered-down FWW content has become over the years. I used to spend a few hours reading an issue of FWW from cover to cover, and now it's only 15-30 minutes.
BTW...why didn't Tom McKenna (or anyone else at FWW) ever respond to these comments when directly called upon to do so?
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