IDA WOLDEMICHAEL www.eri-tees.com Ida Woldemichael traveled to Eritrea, Africa in the Summer of 2004. While there, she met a group of self-taught artists at Mai Nefhi University and promised to send art history books to them. Once she returned to America, she realized that she could do more than send books. The combination of her Eritrean heritage and love for design led to the birth of Eri-tees. Eri-tees is a line of t-shirts carrying messages about Eritrean culture and concerns. Proceeds from the sale of these t-shirts directly aid Eritrean artists and others in the community of this Northeast African country. 1991 marked the end of Eritrea’s thirty-year fight for independence, though it still faces struggles as a newly developing country. The designs are inspired by these struggles and seen from her Eritrean-American point of view. T-shirts serve as the outlet for her acts of celebration and protest.