Robell Awake found his distinct design language through a very common chair, the “ladder-back,” with two posts connected by horizontal slats or dowels—like a ladder. But he references a particular version: “The Poynors were a multigenerational family of enslaved chair makers working out of central Tennessee,” he says, speaking from his 100-square-foot backyard studio in Atlanta. “They made what we think of as a modern ladder-back, which is pretty ubiquitous,” he says. “Of course, they get no credit for it to this day. A big part of my practice is uplifting that name.”

Awake’s parents moved to the United States from Ethiopia. He was born in Boston but grew up in the South. Over the years, the 38-year-old designer has worked in restaurants and coffee shops, as a bike messenger, a welder, and a construction worker framing houses. About a decade ago, he attended a woodworking class at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. “It focused on how to use hand tools, joinery techniques, and things like that,” he says. Something clicked. He found his medium.

Many of Awake’s works—all unique, collectible pieces—have the general structure of Poynor chairs, but their mismatched sloping legs and handmade perforated patterns put an expressive twist on the form. The designer uses green woodworking techniques that allow him to improvise shapes, a method inspired by Ethiopian Jimma chairs. “They’re carved out of single logs, and a lot of them have really abstract geometric carvings. They’re so idiosyncratic and funky. I’ve never seen two that look alike.”

The references run even deeper. In his studio, he holds up a blue chair with a field of stars carved into the back. The pattern nods to a quilt made by Harriet Powers in the 1890s, which commemorates the Leonid meteor shower of 1833. “Frederick Douglass journaled about it and Abraham Lincoln,” he says. “People thought this was the Rapture, that it was some sort of liberatory sign. It became a way to mark time for a lot of people in enslaved communities.” The lore influenced Powers even though the event happened years before she was born.

Awake will connect more dots in his forthcoming book, A Brief History of Black Craft Through 10 Objects, out next year from Princeton Architectural Press. Meanwhile, his chair-making continues, and his interests have expanded to traditional earthen construction. (He recently attended a workshop in North Carolina to learn a particular technique using mud and organic materials.) The premise of his book is simple and important: “Craft can be a radical pedagogy telling alternate histories that aren’t being told by the dominant culture.”

You can learn more about Robell Awake by visiting the studio’s website or on Instagram.

Top photo by Braylen Dion

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