WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange Public Library — in conjunction with the township’s African Heritage Organization, Arts Council, Human Relations Commission and Downtown Alliance — will celebrate Black History Month with “A Day of Events” on Feb. 26, from 1:30 to 4:45 p.m.
The program will feature a performance from Maati drummers and dancers as well as readings by local poets. It will also highlight the work of the Nubian Heritage Quilters Guild, whose quilts depicting various aspects of black history and culture have been on display at the library since the beginning of February.
For WOPL Director David Cubie, holding the program was a no-brainer since it falls right into the library’s wheelhouse of offering culturally significant initiatives that benefit the community. And Cubie hopes community members will turn out to the Day of Events, if only to appreciate the intricacies of the quilts and the messages they send.
“It’s an all encompassing experience that the artists have brought,” Cubie told the West Orange Chronicle in a Feb. 16 phone interview. “It is a show that you’ll say, ‘Wow, these are beautiful.’ But it’s also a show that’s going to cause you to think and reflect. And that’s vitally important for us to be able to communicate freely and clearly.”
The quilt exhibit features a range of pieces exploring the black experience in the United States, from the horrors of the Jim Crow era to the triumphs of artists such as Marvin Gaye. Cubie described the collection as an honest look at black history, one that has already garnered the appreciation of visitors. In fact, he said it is probably the most well-received art installation the library has hosted.
That should be good news to the guild’s president, Carolyn Davis, who told the Chronicle that only the best of the best quilts were selected for the show. Some designs were devised by individual quilters, Davis said, but most reflect particular themes posed to guild members such as oppression. Pieces chosen include one that addresses the Underground Railroad and a series based on Ntozake Shange’s 1976 choreopoem “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.”
Davis’ own quilt, “Black Lives Matter,” is on display; its three-panel design examines the transition from slavery to lynching to police shootings of black people. Davis said the design was a response to the oppression theme, with the particular three-panel idea being inspired by a green fabric that she thought would work well for a forest lynching scene. She said it took approximately four months of working on and off to complete the piece, including roughly one month of researching the history of lynching.
That might sound like a lot of effort, but to Davis the work was worthwhile.
“It’s not a difficult task if it’s something that you love doing,” Davis said in a Feb. 17 phone interview. “Difficult is when you work your 9 to 5, and you want to get home and sew. That’s where the difficulty is. (Quilting) is an enjoyment. It’s peace of mind.”
Davis is not alone in her passion for quilting. The guild currently consists of 22 women of varying ages who all eagerly spend their daylong meetings quilting together and learning new techniques. Members can use any type of material — from African fabric to cotton — and work at her own pace, whether it takes her a day or a year to complete a quilt. And while their finished designs might be very different from one another, the Davis hopes one thing is clear to patrons of the WOPL exhibit — these are not your typical grandmother’s quilts.
West Orange African Heritage Organization member Joyce Wilson Harley also wants to teach visitors something they might not know about quilts, particularly their place in black history. Harley, who will make a presentation during the Day of Events, told the Chronicle that slave women would often use scraps of fabric taken from their masters’ households to make quilts depicting images reminiscent of Africa. Legend has it that they would even create quilts that could be used as coded maps for escaped slaves. For instance, she said the slaves would include symbols indicating where a safe house was located on the Underground Railroad.
Many historians have discredited the coded quilt legend based on lack of evidence, but what cannot be denied is the relevance quilting still has in American society. According to the Quilting in America 2014 survey, the United States is home to 16.4 million quilters, with 10.3 percent of all homes inhabited by at least one active quilter. The quilting industry is estimated to be worth $3.76 billion.
Harley said her own family has carried on the tradition of quilting, and she even sewed a square for the 1963 March on Washington when she was younger. While she is not a regular quilter today, she said she can see why the art form has captivated so many black women, and women in general, through the years.
“There are numerous stories of women who bonded through quilting,” Harley said in a Feb. 17 phone interview. “There are rich stories of women who would meet to quilt but also to share their stories, to share their lives. And there was a sisterhood created around quilting.”
Karen Hubbard also has a personal connection to quilting. In fact, one of the works she wants to read at the Day of Events’ poetry reading is based on her great-great-grandmother, a slave who made quilts. She is excited to participate in the program, telling the Chronicle that it is important for all people to celebrate their culture.
“It’s important to know where we came from,” Hubbard said in a Feb. 17 phone interview. “A lot of your history and culture make you who you are.”
Hubbard may not be a quilter, but she will present a patchwork of sorts in the form of cento poetry, a style in which original poems are created by arranging lines from previously written poems. Hubbard will read her cento “Autumn,” a metaphoric reflection on the passage of seasons. And she will not be alone, as several West Orange children involved with the Wight Foundation’s scholarship program will read centos of their own. Hubbard hopes plenty of residents will attend the Day of Events to see them, pointing out that this is an excellent opportunity for the students to share their developing poetic voices.
In addition to the events on Sunday, there will be future opportunities to participate in cultural activities at the library. Cubie said he would like to do an event celebrating Hispanic heritage in the fall, for instance. Overall, he said celebrating diversity is always a priority for the WOPL.
“West Orange is so rich culturally,” Cubie said. “It has people from so many different backgrounds, and I absolutely want communities to come together in the library to share.”
Photos Courtesy of David Cubie
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