Cascade Community Tour

“Chi Wara Sundial Lantern” is a commissioned piece by artist Ayokunle Odeleye in 2009 and installed in 2012. The “Chi Wara” is a mythical animal of the Bambara ethnic group of people in Mali along the West African coast. It is used as a headdress in special ceremonial harvest dances designed to pass on knowledge from wise elders to young people in the village.

By day, Odeleye’s work functions as a sundial to tell time; by night, it serves as a lantern to light the way for the Cascade Community. The plates marking the 12-hours have the names of some of the significant individuals from the Cascade area who have made political, spiritual and cultural contributions to the community and the city:

The Cascade Community Tour Digital Humanities Project allows us to add to the important stories of this neighborhood and Black Migration, ASALH’s 2019 National Theme, with oral histories of additional community members.