Martin Luther King Jr. and his family eat their Sunday dinner after church on November 8, 1964. Photo credit: Flip Schulke/Corbis
Greetings All You Mavens of Cloth,
I hope you enjoyed a long, creative, holiday weekend, and were able to soak in the spirit of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in some way, shape, or form. I mentioned that this week's blog post would be dedicated to Lady Liberty in the run up to the inauguration. But I failed to factor for the MLK holiday at the time. So, I'd like this post to pay homage to Dr. King. And that's what it's going to do (blogs are nice this way: you really can be the queen of your own domain).
So, Lady Liberty will be on-hand next week, with some truly wonderful examples of her influence stitched in cloth, along with a feature on the upcoming Million Women March in D.C. (this Saturday, January 21), and marches happening in sister-cities across the U.S. that same day.
In the meantime, enjoy this collection of art in honor of Dr. King. And a few other quilt-related gems in solidarity with and celebration of our African American brothers and sisters.
See you on the way to the mountaintop.
A-
In Honor of Dr. King
Detail, 1968: President Lyndon Johnson Signs the Civil Rights Act, by Connie Horne, 2012. For a complete look at the quilt, and more information about the story behind it, visit the Bullock Museum's feature of Horne's piece, here.
"All we say to America is, 'Be true to what you said on paper.' If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop."
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from his "Mountaintop Speech," delivered April 3, 1968, Mason Temple, Memphis, TN.
A Tribute to the Civil Righters of Alabama Quilt, by Nora Ezell, 1989. Visit the site, Masters of Traditional Arts, profile on Ezell, including a gallery of her work, and a video of Ezell. It's worth a watch alone for the brief story she shares from childhood.
Yesterday: Civil Rights in the South, by Yvonne Wells, 1989. Visit Quilt House's wonderful online recap of their exhibition, Quilted Messages. The site includes a gallery of Well's work, detailed descriptions of its symbolism, and a video of Wells describing her artistic process.
Two Artists: One in Her own Words, The Other in Cloth
Quilt Meaning, Making, Metaphors, and Murals
(Left & above) Donald Gensler, Jane Golden, U. Penn. Students, ArtWorks! Students, and Urban Tree Connection, Holding Grandmother's Quilt, Philadelphia. "Sponsored by DHS and Ford Foundation, 2004. This project involved a unique group of neighborhood men called MASCO. Their organization has continued to maintain the park space in between the two murals." Sourced from his website, here.
One Final Note:
For anyone who missed the opportunity to reflect on Dr. King yesterday, I recommend meditating on this thought provoking episode, "The Spirituality of Peacemaking," produced by PRX, as part of their series, The Power of Non-Violence. It aired yesterday on my local NPR station. And I was so grateful to find myself at home hand-quilting an old top when it came on. The act of stitching while listening to people speak on the transformative power of what Dr. King referred to as SoulForce, was nothing short of a gift.
Banner Image: The New Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.
Thanks for visiting BLOCK!