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By Ikuko Kiriyama My Visit to the California African American Museum The California African American Museum is a quiet place which provides nice atmosphere for their visitors to enjoy the full beauty of arts. To me, a Japanese who is not familiar with ethnic art in the U.S., it is also an exciting and interesting museum. Everything I saw had its own characteristic and remains in my memory vividly. However, when I try to recall the deep emotion I had, African features in some works and the message of one particular work comes into my mind. The museum has a small exhibition hall only for African masks. They are real African masks. First, I wondered why the museum has those masks because in my point of view, African American had been separated from Africa completely. I had focused on the fact that African Americans are American -- therefore, I believed that it was natural for them to have African American culture, not African culture. I had never thought of the influence of African culture on them. However, after I saw the features on the masks, I wonder why I did not notice that African Americans were people who were brought to this country from Africa against their will, and also deprived of their culture. I know their history, but I did not take that fact into consideration. In those objects, I found the attempt of artists to seek their African heritage. Art is not just a work to display and enjoy. It is also a mirror where a person who creates the work puts one's soul, expression of oneself and feelings. Real beauty only comes from such works. That is, artists create their other selves. Therefore, many artists would reflect upon their roots and create objects as part of the process of searching for identity. In this way, the themes of African culture often showed up in the exhibits, for example in the female cloth, musical instruments, and accessories. And these confirmed in me the artists' passion for their original culture. While I was enjoying my discovery in the relationship between Africa and African Americans, I stopped in front of one sculpture though I did not know the reason why. The sculpture was a shape of hand entitled "Hand Jive; Hand of Color, Rainbow of Fire." It was literally a colored rainbow. Not only because of the vivid color, I felt something else which made me feel the existence of the sculpture's intensely. I stopped and gazed it for a while. It was a strong, eloquent work. First, you cannot take your eyes off of it, but you think that it is because of the color. Then, the more you stare at it, the more you realize the energy which comes from inside of the work. I felt I was seeing an invisible person standing behind the sculpture and gazing back at me with a sharp look. He was telling me the variety of things he could do just with his hand. That was the message I received. I said before that the work was very eloquent. I think that hands are narrative. They are a mirror of a person's life. For example, a fingerprint is a valuable and notable code of each individual. It is carried within the hand. Hands are also the symbol of the hard labor which African Americans had been engaged in till the end of slavery. Hands make it possible to lay down train rails, weave lace, build homes, and cultivate land for agriculture. Although it is just a part of the human body, the hand is also a thick text which tells us a lot about people's contributions and role in this country. Hands also create the works of poetry and music. When I think about the relationship between music and hands for African Americans, I picture people singing Gospel to heal their wounds in the church -- clapping their hands. This may be my stereotype but imagining this picture enabled me to feel the strong energy and souls of African Americans. The author of this work writes that hands can express strength, spirituality, love, hope and other personal feelings in gestures that are universal. Expressive hands cross boundaries of race, tradition, geography and social order. Everyone says that all art is universal. If it is true, this sculpture is the real art. The true art can be the bridge to overcome difficulties we have in terms of racial divisions. The artist's hope which is shown in the message of this work guides us to the message in African American arts. It is understanding. No matter what prejudice, hate, inferiority, and superiority we face, I hope that we all can learn from this work. It is important to enjoy the beauty of art. But it is not enough. Understanding the message hidden behind the beauty is the true meaning of enjoying and appreciating art. If we try to do so, then, we will have a great opportunity to realize the beauty and understanding of people, even if a person is racially different. I really appreciated this museum because this visit opened my mind to something I had never known before. (Ikuko Kiriyama is a junior from Japan.)