Generations of African-American women living in a poor, isolated rural community in the Deep South make quilts to keep their families warm and to brighten their homes. Their quilts were “discovered,” collected, and displayed as major works of art in a traveling exhibition that took the country by storm.
The remote rural community known as Gee’s Bend occupies an area of land some five miles across and seven miles deep inside a horseshoe-shaped bend in the Alabama River. Geography has defined life in Gee’s Bend over several generations. The first African Americans to settle in the area were the slaves of John Gee, for whom the Bend is named. Cut off on three sides from the outside world by the Alabama River, a ferry operated sporadically until the 1960s. Much like an island, the community remained insulated in large measure from the forces of change. The descendants of the first people in Gee’s Bend continued on as small farmers who did well in the early 1900s when cotton prices were high. They suffered as cotton prices declined in the 1920s and fell on very hard times during the Great Depression. What nature created at the Bend, history has reinforced. Isolation is only half the story of Gee’s Bend; the other half is tradition. Because the inhabitants of Gee’s Bend were left largely to themselves for nearly 100 years after the end of the Civil War in 1865, many of the community’s traditions and folkways survived virtually unchanged well into the 20th century. Quilting is one of the most important of these traditions.
The quilts in the exhibition represent four generations of artists who took fabric from their everyday lives—corduroy, denim, cotton sheets, and well-worn clothing—and fashioned them into compositions that more closely resemble modernist abstract paintings than familiar quilt patterns. The women learned the craft from their mothers or grandmothers but the emphasis was always on individuality and innovation. Quilters made the tops by themselves and occasionally got together for the quilting. Most of the quilts in the exhibition are of the type known as piece, strip, or patchwork. As Mensie Lee Pettway, a Gee’s Bend quilter says about tradition of quilt-making, “A lot of people make quilts just for your bed, for to keep you warm, but a quilt is more. It represents safekeeping, it represents beauty, and you could say it represents family history.”
As a result of the exhibition of these quilts, there were quilt kits sold that provided patterns for these quilts. I was given these kits as gifts. I finally completed my first one. The colors are not as bright as I would have liked, but I am satisfied with the completed project. I plan to complete the other three quilt kits this year. I have also collected the stamps that were sold and have plans to use them a small mini quilt. I will be attending the International Quilt festival in Cincinnati and I have bought a ticket to attend the play "Gee's Bend" while I am there next month.
