About this item
Contemporary quilt artists trace the path of black history in the United States with 97 original works exploring important events, places, people, and ideas over 400 years. Arranged in chronological order, quilt themes include the first enslaved people brought over by Dutch traders in 1619, the brave souls marching for civil rights, the ascendant influence of African American culture on the American cultural landscape, and the election of the first African American president. Other quilts commemorate and celebrate cultural milestones and memories, such as the first African American teacher, the Buffalo Soldier, the first black man to play Othello on Broadway, Muhammed Ali, and Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The 69 artists who contributed works for this curated collection provide narrative explaining the important stories and histories behind the quilts.
About the Author
Carolyn Mazloomi is among the most influential African American quilt historians and quilt artists of the twenty-first century. Her desire to tell the African American experience in cloth fueled her exploration in appliqué and narrative quilts. Consistent with the African American folklore tradition of storytelling, Mazloomi is a "fabric griot."She frequently creates in series form to convey the multiple stories within her chosen subject - the Goddess series to explore the power of women, the Jazz series to connect her spirit and soul to the importance of music in her life, the War and Peace series to voice her opposition to the horrors inflicted by war, and the Ancestors Series to honor those who paved the way. Mazloomi's quilts evoke the warmth of family, the celebration of life, and the realities of social and racial injustice. Widely exhibited in the United States and internationally, Mazloomi's quilts can be found in the Smithsonian American Museum of Art, the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, the National Civil Rights Museum, the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, the American Museum of Art and design, and the Wadsworth Museum.In 1985 Mazloomi founded the Women of Color Quilters Network (which includes men), to promote inclusiveness in African American quilt making. As a veteran 1960's political activist, Mazloomi believes art should make people think about such historical and social conditions as slavery, and the treatment of dispossessed peoples throughout the world. She considers quilts "visual soul food" and a spiritual experience for the viewer. In addition to her artistic contributions to African American folk art, Mazloomi organizes African American quilters through a national outreach program to educate them about the cultural significance and monetary value of their artistic contributions, and to acknowledge their role as primary transmitters of cultural, political, social, and spiritual values.In 1998 Mazloomi published Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts to provide important insight into the narrative works of contemporary African American quilters. Her ethnographic interviews with the quilt makers, whose works appear in the book, give them a voice to tell their own stories. The study constitutes a challenge to scholars who without intending to denigrate African American quilters nevertheless adversely impacted the black community of quilt makers because their narrowly defined criteria for African American quilt aesthetics excluded the larger more diverse body of works. Mazloomi's work gave other African American "fabric griots" an opportunity to express ties to Africa, familial memories, healing and sacred connections, social and political protests, spiritual praises, and black female empowerment. Mazloomi's scholarship forces others to rethink notions of African American quilts and the black aesthetic.In 2004 her second major text was p
