ACKNOWLEDGING JUNETEENTH (Cheri)

I was planning to write a post on a different topic but realized that I have a whole series of pictures of quilts honoring black women (and a couple of men), so am able to honor them a day ahead of Juneteenth.

The quilt at the end was displayed at a show in South Carolina by the Mancuso Brothers, who produce regional shows all over the country.  (The best I've been to is the stunning Pacific International Quilt Festival, which is held annually in Santa Clara, in mid-October.)

I don't remember if I saw the remaining quilts in South Carolina or Virginia, but it could have been in any of a great number of places, as it was part of an 84-quilt exhibit, by quilters from seven countries, that toured for at least two years. 

The whole exhibit has also been published as a book.  It doesn't focus entirely on black women; I just pulled some pictures for this post.

I wish that this quilter had talked about how she created this quilt.  She must have painted it before doing the machine quilting.

I wish that the artist's notes about the Marian Anderson quilt were clear enough to read easily.

At first I thought this was Angela Davis, but then I know little about Nina Simone.  (I'm going to find her music and listen.)  I thought the use of African fabrics was not only thematically appropriate, but so appropriate visually.

Another strong use of African fabrics:

The portraiture of Barbara Jordan is so skillful.

The most skillful portion of this quilt is - appropriately - the names, which the artist machine-quilted.  Machine quilting is really difficult, and to be so good at it that the viewer can actually distinguish the artist's handwriting is remarkable!

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Another black woman, not featured here, that I'm going to learn more about is Pauli Murray.  Born in 1910, she was a:

• lawyer,
  
• civil rights and gender equality advocate,
• Episcopal priest,
• memoirist, and
• poet!
  

Ruth Bader Ginsburg actually named her as a co-author of a brief that Bader Ginsburg prepared in 1971 due to the extensive research on gender discrimination that Murray had performed.

I just stumbled upon Murray's life recently.  I enjoy listening to audiobooks through Chirp.  It sends out lists of bargain-priced books daily, and I bought Murray's second book, Song in a Weary Throat.  I haven't decided whether to continue listening, or to read it in print, but I know it will be fascinating.