PATTERNS    August 9 – October 16, 2006
Traditional West African Textiles and The Art of Gee’s Bend Quilts

The Museum of the African Diaspora is proud to present a display of textile art, which combines work from the west coast of the African continent with quilts by a creative community of women in Gee’s Bend, Alabama. The juxtaposition of these pieces, from contrasting origins, presents visitors with the opportunity to contemplate, reflect and question their parallels and similarities. Despite differences in time, history, geography and culture, stylistic similarities are so strong and so common that they suggest cultural continuity and related sensibilities that simply could not occur by chance.

The three quilts on display from Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt complement The Quilts of Gee’s Bend at the deYoung Museum, which is on view until December 31, 2006. The de Young exhibit includes 60 quilts selected from four generations of African American women who inhabit Gee’s Bend—a strip of land formed by a deep loop in the Alabama River, about thirty miles from Selma. Gee’s Bend quilts have been hailed by The New York Times as “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.”

MoAD’s selection of quilts is loaned from the collection of Tinwood Alliance, which in collaboration with Museum of Fine Arts, Houston organized The Quilts of Gee’s Bend as well as Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt, currently exhibited at MFAH until September 4, 2006.

The West African textile pieces are on loan from Twiga Mbunda, a collector of African art, whose gallery, Twiga, is in San Francisco.

This exhibition is sponsored by Union Bank.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Family Program: Youth Quilting   Age 9-14 yrs.
Saturday, August 19, 2006   11am–2pm   MoAD Salon
Free with museum admission
Participants will be able to create and take home their own quilt square. The African American Quilters Guild of Oakland will be sharing their stories of quilt making and the history and importance of Freedom Quilts during slavery.

Visual Rhythm: Quilt in a Day   Beginners workshop for adults
Saturday, August 26, 2006   1–4pm   MoAD Salon   Fee: $25
Come learn the basic techniques of traditional African American quilt making such as strip, piecing and appliqué. Workshop led by Olaitan Callender-Scott. Materials will be provided. Space limited to 15 participants.

Telling Our Stories—200 Years of African American Quilt History
Saturday September 9, 2006   Lecture 2–3pm   Reception 3–5pm
MoAD Salon
Quilter and scholar, Kyra Hicks will present a lecture which focuses on key quilters, quilts, and quilt developments by decade. She will also include information about local quilting guilds and discuss work by both male and female quilters. Did you know that Geo. Washington Carver was a quilter?!?

Gee’s Bend: A Movement Town—MoAD Sunday Salon Series
Sunday, September 17, 2006   2–3:30pm   MoAD Salon
Gee’s Bend was known as a “Movement Town” to the scores of organizers and volunteers who worked to secure the right to vote in Alabama’s Black Belt counties. A panel featuring members of the Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement who worked with either SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) or SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Council) will speak about their time in Gee’s Bend during the 1960’s. Discussion led by Jean E. Wiley.

Presenters
African American Quilt Guild of Oakland (AAQGO)
The AAQGO was created in June 2000 to preserve and continue the tradition of quilting.  They promote fellowship among interested persons in all aspects of quilting.  Their goal is to contribute to the knowledge and appreciation of fine quilting and sponsor and support quilting activities through regular meetings and special events with the community.

Kyra E. Hicks
Kyra focuses on creating original story quilts that document her experiences as a young, black, single woman. She has lectured internationally on quilting and led workshops on the creative process in story quiltmaking. Her first book, Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook was published in 2003. Her latest book, Martha Ann’s Quilt for Queen Victoria will be release November 2006.

Olaitan Callender-Scott  
Olaitan’s quilts have been exhibited throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including the North Berkeley Public Library, the East Bay Heritage Quilters’ Bi-annual show, and the Emeryville Art Exhibit.  She is regularly commissioned by individuals and organizations to design heritage, photo-collage, and theme quilts, as well as distinctive jewelry.

Jean E. Wiley
Jean Wiley is a veteran of the Southern Freedom Struggle of the 1960s. For two years she worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in several of Alabama’s rural counties, helping to secure the right to vote for Alabama’s African American citizens. Today, she is a writer and an independent book editor who lives in Oakland, and a frequent guest speaker on the Civil Rights Movement.