Our Voices in Fiber: African American Quilters Today

The artists in this exhibit are bold, brave, wise and talented. We’re often the first community to speak out on behalf of human rights and against oppression. In the last hundred years, artists and their actions have been incredibly important to LGBT rights, Feminism, Pacifism, Immigration Rights, and Rights for People of Color. I believe art has the power to generate social and political change as well as enlighten and educate and help us to reclaim or find our higher selves. Despite the bigotry, prejudice, and micro-aggressions that African American people have to deal with on a daily basis, we’re expected to carry on and not make a big fuss about our grievances. While everyone else can move on with their lives without a care in the world, we still have to live with the pain.  

“Paying attention to, acknowledging and talking about our feelings is not something a lot of Black folks have been taught to do or have seen modeled. We deal with things by pushing our feelings aside, keeping our eye on the prize and getting the task at hand done. This is how we’ve survived. So instead we create art quilts that express our life’s joys and pain. People often ask, why do we African American textile artists create?”, as the great Peggie Hartwell says, “we do it to put our voices in cloth.”

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