Join BAMPFA for an afternoon of conversations with contemporary quiltmakers, scholars, curators, and artist-activists reflecting on African American quiltmaking as a present practice and an inheritance to steward for the future. Inspired by the epigraph from poet Marilou Awiakta to Alice Walker’s classic essay “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” the symposium will bring together those working in the expanded field of Black textile art to explore how the “motheroot” of quiltmaking—understood as a creative repository and source of collective care and power—can be nurtured and extended through contemporary practices of preservation and art making. How are traditions of the past honored, affirmed, and strengthened now and for the future?
Session 1: Tending
The first session is a panel discussion revolving around collection-based practices dedicated to the preservation of Black quiltmaking traditions and fiber-based art.
Tracy McCurty, together with Jereann King Johnson, shares about the collection building and curatorial work of Acres of Ancestry. They will present on ongoing work related to the Griots of Cotton, Indigo & Clay: Fiber Arts and Earth-Based Crafts traveling exhibition, which features over one hundred artworks commissioned from Black fiber artists and craftspeople in the South Carolina Lowcountry, the Black Belt South, and the African Diaspora at large.
A’donna Richardson, quilter and quilt historian, addresses the genesis and current activities of the African Quilt Documentation Study Group to deepen public knowledge and understanding of quilts made by Black artists.
Bridget R. Cooks, Professor of African American Studies and Art History at UC Irvine and Routed West catalog contributor, shapes the discussion through the lens of African American quiltmaking’s position within art museums and private collections.
Session 2: Extending
The second session features a panel of contemporary artists working in a range of textile practices that reflect different relationships to the history of African American quiltmaking represented in Routed West.
Sharbreon Plummer, whose practice sits at the crossroads of textiles and archival-based memory, discusses how ancestral work has been a catalyst for her art, how she defines memory work through textiles, and how quilting can fill the gaps in speculative histories. Dr. Plummer is an independent curator, public scholar, artist, and 2025 Princeton Crossroads Project Arts Fellow.
Stacey Carter and William Rhodes share about the Shipyard Quilt Oral History Project and the significance of quiltmaking as a form for cultural storytelling among the residents of Bayview Senior Services.
Ora and Niambi Clay participated in the Alliance for California Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. They share their individual quiltmaking journeys, membership with the African American Quilt Guild of Oakland, and reflect on how quiltmaking has shaped their practices around cultural storytelling.