I had the chance to see a recent exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Museum - Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt. The beauty of the quilts, and the lessons I draw from them, can only be appreciated in the context of the story of Gee’s Bend, Alabama.
Nestled in a U-shaped section of the Alabama river, Gee’s Bend is an isolated community. Most of the residents are the descendants of slaves that lived on the cotton plantation owned by Joseph Gee and later, by Mark Pettway. The town was connected to the outside world by a ferry that crossed the river, weather permitting. A dirt road - barely passable - provided an alternate route to the county seat, 7 miles away as the crow flies, but by land the route was 40 miles long. After Emancipation, most former slaves remained on the land as tenant farmers. By the early 1930’s, poverty had escalated, and the residents were near starvation. During the Great Depression, the residents of Gee’s Bend received assistance from several agencies, including the Red Cross and the Farm Security Administration. Many records describe the town and its residents as “primitive” or “Alabama Africans.” In 1937, the Resettlement Administration sent photographer Arther Rothstein to Gee’s Bend, and the remarkable pictures were widely circulated. By the early 1940s, federal assistance had transformed the town and many of the tenants were able to purchase their land from the government.
The women of Gee’s Bend had been quilters for decades, and became central participants in the Freedom Quilting Bee, a co-op economic development project by Civil Rights Movement advocates. The Bee provided women with a source of income, and the fabric scraps made their way into Gee’s Bend quilts. At the same time, large numbers of Gee’s Bend residents used the ferry to travel to the county seat and attempt to register to vote. Local authorities responded by terminating the ferry service, and Gee’s Bend would remain without ferry service - and that easy connection to the outside world - from 1962 until September 2006. An extraordinary article published in the Los Angeles Times in 1999 about Gee’s Bend won a Pultizer Prize, and includes the story of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s visit to Gee’s Bend in 1965. After King was assassinated in 1968, two farmer mules from Gee’s Bend pulled his casket in the funeral procession.
In their isolation, the residents of Gee’s Bend developed their own artistic language. As the Architecture of the Quilt exhibit shows, the quilters drew their inspiration from the landscape around them. The shape of a fence or the roof of a house was transformed into an arrangement of fabric for a quilt top. In 2002, an exhibit of the Quilts of Gee’s Bend appeared at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, but it was largely ignored. It was not until the exhibit traveled to the Whitney Museum in New York City that the press and critics took notice. The sudden attention and acclaim did not, as a cynic might predict, destroy the art made in this humble place. Instead, many women who had stopped quilting years before were drawn back to this art form. A Quilters’ Collective now manages the sales of quilts made by the women from Gee’s Bend.
It is not just the quilting style of Gee’s Bend that is unique. Musical expression, and particularly a cappella singing, also evolved into a singular style. In 1941, folklorist Richard Sonkin recorded music and singing in Gee’s Bend. Portions of those recordings are now available, in conjunction with recordings made in 2002. The music is powerful in its simplicity, much like the quilts made by some of the very same women. In one of the songs from 2002, two female voices repeat a simple refrain in a call and answer form:
I know I’ve been changed
Oh, I know I’ve been changed
Lord, I know I’ve been changed
The angels in heaven done signed my name . . .
I stepped in the water and the water was cold
(The angels in heaven done signed my name)
It chilled my body but not my soul
(The angels in heaven done signed my name)
I know I’ve been changed
Oh, I know I’ve been changed
Lord, I know I’ve been changed
The angels in heaven done signed my name
I been changed
I been changed
I been changed
I been changed
Isolation was the most powerful influence upon the artistic expressions of the women of Gee’s Bend. These descendants of slaves - some of whom can trace their lineage back six generations to Dinah Miller, a slave brought to Alabama from Africa in 1859 - developed a vibrant culture that was different from the culture of even nearby communities. Isolation (more than religion, poverty, or legalized oppression) was midwife to the extraordinary, powerful and independent self-expression evident in the quilts and music. One quilter, Arlonzia Pettway, was quoted as saying, “”We never thought that our quilts was artwork; we never heard about a quilt hanging on a wall in a museum.” Art was not the goal; art was the product of the collective life experiences of the community.
I see myself in these women. My isolation is not as obvious as theirs. I have not been cut off from the outside world because of canceled ferry service or grinding poverty. I have tools for communication and connection that were not available to generations of women in Gee’s Bend. But I am isolated, an oddity. I have been changed. The question I ask myself is: can my isolation give rise to creative expression? Will I be able to give voice to a new artistic language from deep within myself?
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We’ve done it before, now it’s time to do it again! Readers already know that my doctor, Dr. G, founded an HIV/AIDS clinic in Gaborone, Botswana. Last year, I asked him if they treated many children. He said that treatment for pregnant women who are HIV+ is widely available and effective, and so not many children are born with the virus. 
With the year winding down, I’ve gone through a finishing spell. Pictures and write ups of all the finished objects are to come, but the end of 2008 means it is time to check my stash and knitting goals.
Celeste requested some soakers from Malabrigo, so I knit 6 pairs using the Hybrid Rib Soaker pattern from 
A dear friend just became a grammy for the first time, so I knit a cute little pixie hat for the cute little pixie. It’s knit from Be Sweet bamboo, which has a lovely soft drape. A fast knit in September.
