Of salt and spirit: black quilters in the American South

Abstract

"Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South surveys some of the richly diverse quiltmaking traditions maintained by Black women in the US South during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Drawn from the Mississippi Museum of Art's holdings, the works featured in this publication highlight a major 2022 gift of quilts collected by renowned Black folklife documentarian Roland L. Freeman. Over sixty handmade quilts, quilters' portraits, and related objects together emphasize the importance of Mississippi and the broader South as foundational sites of knowledge production and artistic development. In earlier studies of African American quilters, Freeman observed that popular interest in quilts had resulted in "insufficient attention to who these quilters were, what quilting meant in their lives and what it represented within their community." While quilt revivals in the 1970s and '80s generated renewed interest in how geography and autobiography inform quiltmaking, there has been minimal consideration of the nuanced roles that race, gender, and class play in shaping the public's understanding of quilting traditions and techniques. Prevailing scholarship continues to frame Black southern quiltmaking as an exclusively improvisational artform. Of Salt and Spirit intervenes in this narrative by foregrounding the complex relational and archival practices of Black women quilters who cultivate networks of mutual support and preserve personal histories around and through their craft"-- Provided by distributor.

Contents

Preface / Betsy Bradley -- Of salt and spirit : a love letter to Black Southern women / Sharbreon Plummer, PhD -- Black Southern women and quilting as womanist practice / Lauren Cross, PhD -- Of salt and spirit : Black quilters in the American South : works from the exhibition -- So you can see past the eyes : Roland Freeman and the art of preservation / Danielle Mason -- Threading the needle : Black quilters on place and practice / Gustina Atlas, Geraldine Nash, and Precious Lovell, with Lydia Jasper.