We have lost a hero. Ailton (Nito) Correia, a rising star in Industrial Design at Massachusetts College of Art, a central member of our Handshouse family, a Capoeira performer, a Cape Verdean-American from Amherst, MA, an artist and so many things, most important of which being a very, very dear friend to so many, passed away in a car accident last week. Nito’s talents as a maker, mover, musician, thinker, inventor and human being stood out in everything he did. His authentic smile, and buoyant energy was notable to everyone who had the honor of encountering him. And his sharp wit invited countless bright conversations that could inspire a deep belly-laugh at one moment, or a meaningful exchange about culture, history, race, sustainable innovation, or the confounding experience of being human at the next. Like everyone who knew him, I can not count how many times, in the short span of years that I have known him, that our interactions left me pausing for a moment of quiet contemplation, smiling from delight in some whip-smart statement he had made, or feeling warm and full of food for thought, as if having just shared a delicious home-cooked meal. 

I first met Nito at the home of my family friends, Julien and Laura Ginsberg-Peltz in Amherst, MA where he was living and attending Greenfield Community College. He lit up the room when he entered, and I will never forget marveling when he brought out several remarkable wire sculptures he had made; objects whose intricacies and refinement of form and craftsmanship revealed the hand and mind of a stunning engineer.

Ailton transferred to Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and first entered the Handshouse community as a student in the Mass Art Banjo Project class in Spring of 2018. This was a duel-enrollment course, taught in double sessions each week with an Art History course examining the context of the early gourd Banjo taught by Ezra Shales, and a Material Culture course taught in the woodshop by Handshouse Studio Co-founders, Rick and Laura Brown. The studio portion of this class asked students to explore this little-known object of American history through the hands-on process of remaking early gourd banjos as accurately as possible, based on the few remaining historic images and records. Ailton dove into the work with the same passion and talent he brought to all his work. And he also brought a perspective that was deeply connected to this history through his personal experience growing up in Cape Verde, and his life-long practice of Capoeria; an Afro-Brazilian form of martial-art accompanied by music. 

Ailton offered to share his perspective with the class in a presentation. He brought in his Berimbau; an instrument made of calabash, stick, and steel wire, that is a percussively played mono-chord cousin to the early gourd banjo spike lutes of the Americas. But unlike the early gourd banjo, the Berimbau is still well-known because it survived the centuries as part of the Capoeira practice still widely performed in Brazil, Cape Verde, and indeed now around the world. The study of the nearly lost history of the early American Gourd banjo however is still so recent. The discoveries connecting the sounds of these gourd instruments is constantly evolving. Ailton’s exploration of its possible sounds through the cross reference to Berimbau is exactly the kind of restorative cultural studies happening among many musicologists and historians right now. 

We were thrilled that Ailton remained central to the continued research process of the Handshouse Studio Banjo Project ever since. 

Ailton joined our immersive Banjo Project workshop held in Norwell, MA in August of 2018 as a guest artist. He came with us as a Handshouse Leader to help us exhibit the Banjo Project hands-on as part of the “Sounds of the Revolution” Summer Exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia in August of 2019. And he lifted the Banjo project into a whole new realm of musical exploration with groups of enthusiastic children at the Children’s Museum in Boston in October of 2019. We got invitations to bring this project into schools, to share our generative and creative approach to reexamining this part of American history with broader communities. We were scheduled to offer a week-long immersive Banjo Project workshop in July 2020 at Montserrat College of Art (until the COVID 19 pandemic shuttered all in-person events of this kind.) In all these instances, Ailton was at the core. He was critical to the success, and fundamental to the project.

In short, Ailton’s talent, vision, and conviction was steering the Handshouse Studio Banjo Project’s future. But that was only a very small fragment of the enormity of his work in the world. Nito’s positivity, wisdom, creativity, and generosity of spirit left innovation, inspiration, awe, and lasting friendships everywhere he went. Handshouse Studio, Mass Art, the Capoeira community, the Western, MA community, his international Cape Verdean family and friends, and all those who met him along the his way, will forever be brighter for the all-too-brief moments we each had with Ailton (Nito) Correia.

If you would like to support Ailton’s family at this time, you can donate to their Go Fund Me. Please feel free to share this link with others.