Welcome to our new series, Cultural Heritage Traditions! This series will highlight shared cultural traditions through the people who practice and share them. We begin with a three-part feature on basketmaking. 

Meet Ms. Jennifaye Singleton, a Gullah Geechee basketmaker who has been creating sweetgrass baskets for 36years! Having learned the art from her aunt, she carries forward a tradition passed down through generations. Using materials such as sweetgrass, bulrush, pine needles, and palmetto leaves, she creates baskets that bring together practical knowledge, skilled artistry, and family heritage. Through her basketmaking and workshops, she shares both her craft and the cultural knowledge that gives it meaning.

Gullah Geechee communities have deep roots along the southeastern coast, from North Carolina to Florida and descend from West and Central Africans enslaved in the region. Many ancestors brought rice-growing knowledge from West Africa that enslavers exploited in the Lowcountry’s plantation economy. Coiled basketmaking traditions with West African roots became essential to rice processing and everyday life. Today, basketmaking remains part of a living heritage that also includes distinctive foodways, music, storytelling, and Gullah, an English-based creole language with strong African influences. Artists and teachers such as Ms. Jennifaye continues to sustain and share this heritage through their creativity and relationships with others.