Oral history interview with Hendres E. Kelly
Object Details
- General
- Associated documentation, including partial transcripts, for this interview is available in the Anacostia Community Museum Archives. The textual transcripts are not verbatim of the audio recordings.
- Title created by ACMA staff using text written on sound cassette, contents of audio recording, textual transcript, and/or associated archival documentation.
- Interviewer
- Brown, Tamara, 1969-
- Names
- United States. Army
- Kelly, Hendres E.
- Collection Creator
- Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum
- Place
- Panama
- Canal Zone
- Panama Canal (Panama)
- Panama City (Panama)
- New York (N.Y.)
- Washington (D.C.)
- United States
- Occupation
- Artists
- Topic
- Afro-Panamanians
- Emigration and immigration
- Schools
- Education
- Language and languages
- Food
- Art
- Interviews
- Interviewer
- Brown, Tamara, 1969-
- Culture
- Panamanians
- See more items in
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records / Series 3: Oral History Interviews
- Sponsor
- Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
- Extent
- 2 Digital files
- 1 Sound cassette
- Date
- 1994 August 04
- Archival Repository
- Anacostia Community Museum Archives
- Type
- Archival materials
- Digital files
- Sound cassettes
- Citation
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
- Collection Rights
- Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
- Note
- The total playing time of interview recording is approximately 1 hour.
- Scope and Contents
- Hendres E. Kelly, a Panamanian artist, spoke about his father and mother, including their work in the canal zone and immigrating to Panama from Jamaica and Colombia, respectively; his father's work on the Panama Canal as an American contractor; his mother as the decision maker of the family; attending a private West Indian school and Panamanian public school, and working at the Hilton Hotel while taking art classes at night in Panama City; the many types of art techniques and media he studied and applied to his paid work; why he immigrated to the United States; being drafted by U.S. army in 1961, completing basic training, and being stationed in France, where he met and learned from artists; and living and working as an artist in New York City and Washington, DC. Kelly explained he was born in the canal zone but grew up in Panama City because only English could be spoke in the canal zone; the multi-cultural dishes he cooked because of the mixture of ethnicities in Panama; and differences between Panama City and the Canal Zone. He also spoke about family history, being bilingual, his language challenges while living in the United States, and capturing history, ancestry, place, and mixture of cultures and ethnicities in his artwork. Hendres E. Kelly was interviewed by Tamara Brown. Interview is in English. Digital audio files include loud white noise and static, and some background noise; interviewee's voice is soft in volume and difficult to hear at times. Additionally, there is some sound distortion at the beginning of the interview.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
- Record ID
- ebl-1712088000981-1712088003361-0
- Metadata Usage
- CC0