What's New? Empire State Building Coffin
Our Item of the Week: Empire State Building Fantasy Coffin by Ghanaian Artist Eric Kpakpo Adotey
**Empire Skate Keeps Rolling!**
Now Open at Brooklyn Public Library's Central Branch!
**What's New in our Making A Museum Exhibit?**
The City Reliquary is taking visitors inside our processes of acquisition, research, and preservation of our collection. As we redesign our permanent collection and bring out some of our rarely exhibited holdings, we’re also adding new objects, studying their history. Every week we’ll be working on new additions, and we invite you to journey with us as we learn new stories of the city.
[Fantasy coffins](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ghana-novelty-coffins) - *abebuu adekai* or "proverb boxes" in the Ga language - are wooden coffins carved and decorated to look like an animal or object with particular significance to the deceased, reflecting aspirations (luxury cars, airplanes), careers (corn for a farmer, pen for a writer), hobbies (sneakers, guitars), or position (lions and eagles for community leaders). They [originated](https://theculturetrip.com/africa/ghana/articles/an-introduction-to-accras-fantasy-coffins/) with the ceremonial palanquins used by chiefs of the Ga ethnic group.
In the 1950s, a chief who had made a fortune in cocoa processing was buried in his cocoa bean-shaped palanquin. [This inspired](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/01/inside-the-workshop-that-produces-ghanas-fantastical-pop-art-coffins.html) local furniture maker [Seth Kane Kwei](http://www.kanekwei.com/past-events/) to build an airplane-shaped coffin for his grandmother, who loved watching airplanes and dreamed of flying in one. Symbolic coffins were rapidly [incorporated into Ga funeral tradition](https://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/artistry-departed-fantastic-coffins-ghana), and became popular throughout Ghana. Kane Kwei's work became known worldwide, and turned *abebuu adekai* into a [highly sought-after export](https://boingboing.net/2018/09/18/documentary-on-legendary-fanta.html), when it was featured in a [1989 exhibition at Centre Pompidou](https://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/magiciens-de-la-terre/) in Paris.
This Empire State Building-shaped wooden coffin, constructed and painted by Ghanaian coffin artist [Eric Kpakpo Adotey](http://eshopafrica.blogspot.com/2013/07/artisan-eric-adotey-naah.html), is on loan to the City Reliquary from its owner, Sarah Murray. Ms. Murray (who is still living; this is an *unoccupied* coffin) commissioned this coffin to represent her life with a symbol of great meaning to her: her favorite architectural work and an icon of the city she always aspired to, and now does, live in.
In the 1950s, a chief who had made a fortune in cocoa processing was buried in his cocoa bean-shaped palanquin. [This inspired](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/01/inside-the-workshop-that-produces-ghanas-fantastical-pop-art-coffins.html) local furniture maker [Seth Kane Kwei](http://www.kanekwei.com/past-events/) to build an airplane-shaped coffin for his grandmother, who loved watching airplanes and dreamed of flying in one. Symbolic coffins were rapidly [incorporated into Ga funeral tradition](https://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/artistry-departed-fantastic-coffins-ghana), and became popular throughout Ghana. Kane Kwei's work became known worldwide, and turned *abebuu adekai* into a [highly sought-after export](https://boingboing.net/2018/09/18/documentary-on-legendary-fanta.html), when it was featured in a [1989 exhibition at Centre Pompidou](https://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/magiciens-de-la-terre/) in Paris.
This Empire State Building-shaped wooden coffin, constructed and painted by Ghanaian coffin artist [Eric Kpakpo Adotey](http://eshopafrica.blogspot.com/2013/07/artisan-eric-adotey-naah.html), is on loan to the City Reliquary from its owner, Sarah Murray. Ms. Murray (who is still living; this is an *unoccupied* coffin) commissioned this coffin to represent her life with a symbol of great meaning to her: her favorite architectural work and an icon of the city she always aspired to, and now does, live in.
**See Empire Skate at Brooklyn Public Library!
And Save the Date: Special Event with Reggie Brown on January 30!**
If you missed your chance to see [*Empire Skate: The Birthplace of Roller Disco*](http://www.cityreliquary.org/empire-skate-the-birthplace-of-roller-disco/) at the Reliquary, or just want to revisit those days of disco, you're in luck! Brooklyn Public Library is now hosting [*Empire Skate*](https://www.bklynlibrary.org/exhibitions/empire-skate-birthplace) in its [Brooklyn Collection](https://www.bklynlibrary.org/brooklyncollection) room at the Central Library in Grand Army Plaza! The Brooklyn Collection room is open Tuesday - Saturday; check the [link](https://www.bklynlibrary.org/brooklyncollection) for times. (Disco tunes in headphones only, please!)
And: save the date for a special reception and talk with rollerskating ambassador Reggie Brown - featured in the hit documentary [*United Skates*](https://www.unitedskatesfilm.com/) - on [January 30](https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/empire-skate-reggie-brown-central-library-brooklyn-20190130)! It will be held in the Brooklyn Collection room at the Central Library at 6:30 p.m. Hope to see you there!
And: save the date for a special reception and talk with rollerskating ambassador Reggie Brown - featured in the hit documentary [*United Skates*](https://www.unitedskatesfilm.com/) - on [January 30](https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/empire-skate-reggie-brown-central-library-brooklyn-20190130)! It will be held in the Brooklyn Collection room at the Central Library at 6:30 p.m. Hope to see you there!
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