In this drawing, Nikko Washington presents The Old Maker, a traditional, African folkloric depiction of the creator of the universe, as a dancer in a spider’s web. The web is a reference to Anansi, another West African folkloric character known as the creator of the world, who is most commonly depicted as a spider with some human characteristics. Anansi is an intermediary between humans and the gods, and is known for tricking people, animals, and even the gods themselves by using their ways of thinking against them. The poses of the dancers in this drawing are similar to ones the artist used to see in a poster his sister had as a child for The Alvin Ailey dancers, an all-Black dance troupe founded in 1958. “Looking at that poster every day, I realized the power and athleticism in dance,” Washington says. As part of his effort to retell the stories of Black history, Washington saw the Alvin Ailey dancers as characters that could easily relate to cherubs, angels, and deities. “They point to my relationship with God,” Washington says.