Flying in Celebration of the Quilts & Cookie

Today is Cookie's day. Her quilt will be among the 44 selected for the exhibit. We are so proud of her. She sent me this article to send out.

The exhibition comprises over 60 interpretive quilts by master quilt makers to celebrate the inauguration, to welcome the Obama family to Washington, and to celebrate their roots and history: 44 mainly newly made quilts from across the US, one or more from each of four African countries (Kenya, South Africa, Liberia and Ghana), historical quilts from Hawaii and Kansas (including one from the historical society of El Dorado, KS), and quilts from Georgetown, South Carolina (including one made by Mrs. Carrie Nelson, the oldest living member of Michelle Robinson Obama's family).

A partial list of artists in the show includes:

Dr. Denise Campbell, Sew Chick Elle, Laura Gadson, Peggy Hartwell, Charlene Hughes, Catherine Lamkin, Marlene O'Bryant, Edna Patterson-Petty, Cookie Washington, and Trish Williams. Many of the quilt makers will attend the exhibit opening.

The theme of the journey resonates in many of these celebratory quilts; Carolyn Maloomi's "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around", honors those marchers who participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March which was the summit of the civil rights movement.

On March 7, 1965, as non-violent marchers neared the Edmund Pettus bridge, they were tear-gassed, beaten, and their processional stopped by Alabama State troopers. This historic event, known as Bloody Sunday, resulted in the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Similarly, L'Merchie Frazier's "The Journey: We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For" acknowledges the fact that President Obama stands on the shoulders of a long line of freedom fighters whose vision has fashioned his national and global victory.

Donnette Cooper's quilt, "America at the Crossroads," focuses on our perennial challenge to reconcile the competing imperatives of race, gender, religion, class, nationality and sexual identity as we struggle to realize the vision of "a more perfect union."

Guest curator Ro land L. Freeman is a folklorist and photo-documenter whose career began during the Civil Rights movement. For more than 40 years he has been documenting the continuity of traditional African-American cultural practices, and is currently a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. His own quilt, "Hand Me Down My Mother's Work" incorporates Dr. Ja Jahannes's poem of the same name.

Quilts for Obama:
An Exhibit Celebrating
the Inauguration of our 44th President
Roland L. Freeman, Guest Curator
Opening Reception:
Sunday, January 11, 2009
2:00pm-5:00pm
Exhibition Dates:
January 11 - January 31, 2009
Gallery Hours:
10 AM-5 PM, Tuesday-Sunday
(Closed Inauguration Day, 1/20/09)
Location:
The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
801 K Street, NW (at Mount Vernon Square);
Washington, DC 20001
Contact
202.882.7764
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