Saturday, January 30, 2016

Ulrica

Greetings All,
Here is a photo of my latest piece titled Ulrica which is inspired by a role that was sung my Marian Anderson at the "Metropolitan Opera" in New York one and only one time.  When I looked at photos of her in costume she reminded me of a warrior queen.  The background fabric was dyed by an Marion A. Anderson and I felt that it was most appropriate for it to be in this piece.  Plus every time I looked at this fabric I could her singing "Deep River".

The musical note swirling about her is how I feel when I first heard her sing, they were moving and flowing in the air. The verbiage is a quote from her that reads "As long as you keep a person down, some parts of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might".  Powerful words from a powerful woman.


 






Monday, January 11, 2016

AAQC 2017 Fund Raiser.

Greetings All,
Marla Jackson the organizer
of the African American Quilt Museum needs our support with a fund raiser to bring the fame Faith Ringgold to the 1st African American Quilters Conferences coming 2017.   Please click on the link below and show your support.



https://www.booster.com/buy-a-t-shirt-to-help-support-the-african-american-quilt-museum-and-textile-academy?share=391452446702902


Sunday, January 10, 2016

ASWR - update

Greetings All,
Another great article regarding ASWR and this one includes Julius Bremer and his amazing piece.
With race relations in the United States at one of its most pivotal intersections in the past 50 years, an upcoming exhibit at Bruce Museum in Greenwich provides a terrific opportunity to promote understanding and harmony.

“And Still We Rise: Race, Culture, and Visual Conversations” uses the powerful medium of story quilts to narrate nearly four centuries of African American history.

The 40 quilts were curated by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, a former aerospace engineer who turned her focus to bring the unrecognized contributions of African American quilt artists to the attention of national and international art communities.

"As an artist, I strong believe art has the capacity to touch the spirit, engage, educate, and heal in ways that words alone cannot,’’ Mazloomi wrote on her website .
The exhibit narrates nearly four centuries of African American history, from the first slave ships to President Barack Obama, the first black President in the U.S. The exhibit reveals the stories of freedom’s heroes, such as Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, the Tuskegee Airmen and Jesse Owens.

“Quilts articulate a powerful language of familiarity through which they may speak to and about our experience as human beings,’’ Mazloomi says on her website. “I am drawn to vulnerable people – the disenfranchised, dispossessed, outsiders. The injustice and harsh realities of the daily lives of those in need motivate me to create artwork depicting their circumstances.”
Mazloomi published a book earlier this year with the same title. The book includes 97 quilts. Mazloomi’s own quilts have been exhibited extensively in venues such as the Mint Museum, American Folk Art Museum in New York City, National Civil Rights Museum and Museum of Art and Design.

Her pictorial narrative quilts make plain her personal themes: family life, women’s rights, political freedom, and musical legacy. Her own quilts have been included in over 70 exhibits and she has curated extensive exhibits of quilts made by members of the Women of Color Quilters Network.



The Owens quilt was made by Cleveland’s Julius Bremer, and captures the sprinter when he competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Germany. “I picked him because he’s an East Tech High School alumnus,’’ Bremer said in a story on Cleveland.com. Bremer is a 1971 graduate of the same school.

The exhibit runs through April 24. Click here to learn more the exhibit and click here to visit the Bruce Museum website.

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Greetings All,

I just had to share this great news about Marla A. Jackson.


Lawrence to host first National African American Quilt Conference in 2017

Lawrence quilt artist Marla Jackson is pictured before an 1890s quilt from an unknown artist at the African American Quilt Museum and Textile Academy, 2001 Haskell Ave. Jackson recently received a grant from the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission to renovate the museum space. Next to Jackson on the bench is a framed portrait of Maria Rodgers Martin, who was born a slave in 1831. Quilts made by Martin will be rotated through the museum.
Lawrence quilt artist Marla Jackson is pictured before an 1890s quilt from an unknown artist at the African American Quilt Museum and Textile Academy, 2001 Haskell Ave. Jackson recently received a grant from the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission to renovate the museum space. Next to Jackson on the bench is a framed portrait of Maria Rodgers Martin, who was born a slave in 1831. Quilts made by Martin will be rotated through the museum.
The African American Quilt Museum and Textile Academy may be small, but its founder and curator, Marla Jackson, has big plans for the unassuming room tucked away on the second floor of Independence Inc., 2001 Haskell Ave.
Jackson, along with her students at the textile academy, has been researching the story of Maria Rodgers Martin, a slave who was abducted from a Missouri plantation by Union soldiers during the Civil War and brought to Lawrence, since 2012.

Earlier this month, Jackson announced what she recognizes as the culmination of those efforts: In 2017, Lawrence will host the first-ever National African American Quilt Conference, a citywide event in celebration of the history and legacy of the African American quilting tradition.
“This is the dream,” Jackson said of the conference, which will tentatively include workshops, keynote speakers from the quilting world and several exhibitions sprinkled throughout the city. “My vision would be having all of these artists coming to Lawrence, being in South Park, working with our local artists, mentoring and vending, spinners and weavers — black and white — coming together to collaborate.”

She’s currently in talks with several potential partners, among them the City of Lawrence, Explore Lawrence, Downtown Lawrence Inc., the Lawrence Arts Center, the Lawrence Public Library, Watkins Museum of History and, notably, the Spencer Museum of Art, where she hopes to display a 67-quilt exhibition curated by world-renowned quilter Carolyn Mazloomi.

Taking a cue from Rachael Perry’s Lawrence Inside Out project, which saw the installation of hundreds of black-and-white photographic portraits in locations across Lawrence, Jackson wants to see “every window in Lawrence (filled) with quilts.”
The announcement follows a string of recent developments at the African American Quilt Museum. Last month, the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission awarded Jackson a $5,000 grant, which she’s since spent on light covers, darkening shades, a camera, computer, printer and tablets.
http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/2015/dec/15/300678/
Jackson also hopes to partially recreate the fireplace mantle and walnut floors of the slave living quarters at Missouri’s Wayside Rest Plantation, where Maria Rodgers Martin lived before her capture and relocation to Lawrence.

“We want to recreate it because her spirit is here,” Jackson said. "She lived in Lawrence, Kansas, for 40 years. Her daughter was left here and she had a grandchild here. The story is alive."
An additional $3,398 grant from the Kansas Humanities Council earlier this month will help fund her “From Slavery to a Free State: The Story of Maria Rodgers Martin” research project, which she hopes to expand with more public talks and historical interpretations by her textile-academy students.
Seven students aged 8 to 17 are enrolled in Jackson’s program, which she sees as a vital component of sharing the story of Maria Rodgers Martin and other historically important African Americans who called Lawrence home.

In preparation for 2017’s convention, Jackson and her students are working on a quilting project that will incorporate the natural elements (leaves, insects, rocks) slaves encountered on the Underground Railroad — “we’re going to take that all, tie it up and dye the fabric,” Jackson said.
Ultimately, Jackson wants her National African American Quilt Conference to establish Lawrence as a permanent tourist destination for African-American history.

She thinks there’s a lot we don’t know about our city’s past, and she hopes a more concentrated effort to highlight the role of African Americans in shaping Lawrence will bring some of that past to light.
“There’s what I call history, and then there’s real history,” Jackson said.

Friday, January 8, 2016

Shero in process...

Greetings All,
Working on a new piece that has taken me thus far 9 to 10 months.  I have stopped, started, taken it a part, put it back together again, and now I am making additions.  When will it end?  I am not sure, but I will keep you posted.  Background fabric by artist Marian Cole Anderson and for that I am truly grateful.



Wednesday, January 6, 2016

And Still We Rise - update

Greetings All,
Here's an update on the ASWR exhibition.

The Bruce Museum presents "And Still We Rise" Public Programs - January 16, 2016 - April 24, 2016
The public programs accompanying And Still We Rise: Race, Culture, and Visual Conversation are designed to complement the exhibition’s exploration of the intersections between art and social justice. Through these film and lecture series, we aim to contextualize the quilts exhibited in And Still We Rise, helping visitors to understand these quilts within a larger tradition of American craft as something that engages with both cultural history and contemporary social issues.
Monday Morning Lectures on Craft and Social Change in America
Admission: free for members, $7 non-members.
No advance registration required.
10:00-11:15 am. February 29, 2016: Lecture by Ed Johnetta Miller, textile artist.
10:00-11:15 am. March 7, 2016: Lecture by Dr. Myrah Brown Green, art historian and quilt artist.
10:00-11:15 am. March 14, 2016: Lecture by Sara Reisman, Artistic Director at the Rubin Foundation.
10:00-11:15 am. March 21, 2016: Lecture by Ruthie Dibble, PhD student at Yale. Lecture will discuss how the production of textiles allowed African American and white women to renegotiate their place in the social fabric of the United States during the Civil War, situating the quilts in the exhibition within this longer history of emancipation and textile production.
Craft in America Screenings
Beginning on January 20, 2016, we will be screening specials from Craft in America, the Peabody Award-winning series originally broadcast on Public Television. Through themes such as “Memory,” “Community,” and “Family,” the films in this series highlight America’s rich cultural history, and the ways in which artisans use crafts to grapple with contemporary issues. Films are on Wednesday mornings at 10:30am. Each film is 50 minutes long, and followed by 15 minutes of Q&A with a Bruce Museum staff member.
Free with Museum admission.
No advance registration required.
10:30 - 11:45 am. January 20, 2016: Episode 1 “Memory”
10:30 - 11:45 am. Jan 27, 2016: Episode 2 “Landscape”
10:30 - 11:45 am. Feb 3, 2016: Episode 3 “Community”
10:30 11:45 am. Feb 10, 2016: Episode 4 “Origins”
10:30 - 11:45 am. Feb 17, 2016: Episode 5 “Process”
10:30 - 11:45 am. Feb 24, 2016: Episode 6 “Messages”
10:30 - 11:45 am. March 2, 2016: Episode 7 “Family”

Available at Amazon


Friday, January 1, 2016

Kwanzaa 2015 Day 7


Habari Gani,
Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

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