About The Skin Quilt Project:
The Skin Quilt Project is a documentary that explores colorism in the African-American community. The film addresses this complex issue through the stories of African-American quilters, and the tradition of an artform that celebrates its culture. The quilters speak of the influence of the African-American quilting tradition as a tool for encouraging an appreciation in the African-American cultural heritage.
Colorism has been a long disputed issue within the African-American community, however, filmmaker Lauren Cross speculates that African-American quilters are much more grounded in their African roots. As Quilt historian Carolyn Mazloomi explains, African-American quilters "are joined by the thread of a needle” in which the quilting medium leaves no room for “color issues.”
As many African-American quilters come from families who have passed down quilting techniques to their children and grandchildren, today’s quilters represent African-American men and women who have become concerned with telling the story of their cultural heritage. In The Skin Quilt Project, the quilters tell the story of skin color politics in African-American culture, yet realizing the power of quilting to empower self-confidence in their community.
About the Artist:
Lauren Cross is a writer, activist, and interdisciplinary artist working in mixed media, photography, media arts, and installation art. Her current research interests include the issues of colorism and the “color complex” within the African American community, and her current work addresses ideals of beauty, race, and skin complexion in media imagery. She is also the founder and editor of CVAAD Projects( www.cvaad.com), an online blog and resource for contemporary visual art of the African diaspora. She received her BA in Art, Design, and Media from Richmond, The American International University in London, England, and MFA in Visual Arts from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, Cambridge, MA.
For more information,
please contact us at:
info@skinquiltproject.com
Quilting and Participant Links:
www.artbysshine.com
www.wendellgeorgebrown.net
http://blackthreads.blogspot.com
www.bluetrianglequiltguild.com
www.africanamericanartquilt.com
http://auburn.edu/academic/other
/geesbend/home.html
www.carolynlmazloomi.com/
http://richerichardsonartquilts.blogspot.com/
www.myspace.com/darianurbangriot
www.myspace.com/mahoganylbrowne
Screening of The Skin Quilt Project in East Orange, NJ!
The Nubian Heritage Quilt Guild will be celebrating their 15th anniversary on Saturday, March 13th, and as a part of their celebration they will be hosting a screening of The Skin Quilt Project in their program!
So if your in the New Jersey area, and you’d like to get additional information about the screening event as well as the other anniversary festivities please contact us at: info@skinquiltproject.com and we’ll forward you to their representative.
Quilting in South Carolina and the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor!
What a treat we’re in for during on the upcoming trip to South Carolina, with an amazing lineup of African American and Gullah quilters!
To give you an introduction, the Gullah/Geechee culture is one of the most-defined groups of African Americans who have managed to maintain a strong connection to their African roots, some of their tools of expression being basket-weaving and quilting traditions! The Gullah/Geechee cultural presence can be traced from the coasts of North Carolina all the way down to Jacksonville, Florida. To find out more about the Gullah/Geechee culture check out the link to the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.
There is also a great rooted history of the African American culture in places like Charleston and Georgetown, South Carolina leading back to the transportation of slaves from Africa. I’ve often heard about the historic slave market in Charleston, but in the context of The Skin Quilt Project it has new meaning. If anyone has ever read the book, Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad( Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard, Ph.D) you know exactly what I mean. The story is about a woman in Charleston, SC who revealed a secret code used in the underground railroad during slavery. It’s a fascinating and thought provoking book that suggests the cultural connections between the history of the African American quilting tradition, slavery, and the Underground railroad. Despite it’s interesting points, the theories in the book have also been questioned by many scholars and historians as they debate whether there was truly a “secret code” during slavery. Where it’s true or not it’s certainly an interesting take on the African American quilting tradition.
During the upcoming trip we will also be visiting a variety of historical sites that will allow us to visualize the history of the African American experience in the south.
We’re excited to be interviewing quilters Wendell George Brown, Cookie Washington, Vermelle “Bunny” Rodrigues at the Gullah Museum, and Dorothy Montgomery. Please stay tuned for more updates on what we found!
The Project in Context
Quilting has a significant history in the African American community, as a field of creative expression that has the ability to bring together and impart generations with cultural heritage.
The significance of quilting amongst black women in America can be traced back to slavery, such as the work of Harriet Powers. Generations of families have passed on quilting techniques to their offspring, leaving a significant legacy to be shared to the young in age. Throughout the past decade, quilting has also seen an uprise in its use by emerging quilters and quilting groups across the nation, as well as black artists using quilting as a medium or influence for their contemporary art practice. It is evident throughout history that quilting has engaged a certain discourse that references the past, tradition, and the emergence of new beginnings.
When we look at the presence of skin color biases in the African American community, we can see a similar parallel between the two. Like quilting, ideas around skin complexion have been passed down generation to generation.Skin-tone hierarchy systems can also be traced back to slavery, as they were used by plantations as a concept to create social classes and discord amongst the African slaves. Now centuries later, the affects of colorism[1] has continued to divide and turn the black community against each other. Unlike quilting, the presence of “skin-tone inequality” has created a hidden barrier to our overall sense of racial freedom and equality.
Statistics have shown that black women tend to incur much more sociological affects from the politics of skin tone, from economical and social class to the men they marry. This notion also seems to reflect the tension experienced amongst the friendships of black women, where the risk of distrust and jealousy persist.
What is it about quilting that brings black women together? How does the quilting experience allow them to push aside their differences? Does quilting provide a platform to openly discuss what we have in common? Perhaps quilting allows one to recognize the relationship between our lives and others around us.
Colorism has often been the hidden “family secret” within the black community that is rarely discussed. The objective of this project is to begin to make strides towards closure, to see the links between quilting and skin. If quilting has provided opportunities for the enrichment of the black cultural heritage, how can quilting provide a means for us to understand and appreciate who we are? How can we begin to appreciate the “skin we’re in”?
0 This post is tagged with: Nubian Heritage Quilt Guild african screening quilting east orange new jersey quilters the skin quilt project
