Onyx Patchworks: Exploring Black American History in the Berea College Archives is an interactive quilt and fiber art exhibition by Dr. Jaleesa Wells that transforms archival records into quilted memory games and new art quilts. Drawing on letters, photographs, publications, and other underexplored ephemera held by Berea College Special Collections and Archives, the exhibition highlights stories of Black Kentuckians whose lives shape both Appalachian and American history. Visitors can view quilted memory‑match games focused on Julia Britton Hooks, Henry Allen Laine, and Dr. Carter G. Woodson, play printed versions at tables, and encounter wall quilts that enlarge shared symbols such as homes, ripples, megaphones, classrooms, and mountains into larger compositions that invite people of all ages to “play through history.”
Reception: January 29 from 5 - 7pm
Hutchins Library, Berea College
100 Campus Drive
Berea, Kentucky 40404
United States