Editing Quilt (section)

====African-American====
[[File:PowersBibleQuilt_1898.jpg|thumb|[[Harriet Powers]]' 1898 bible quilt]]

By the time that early [[African American|African-American]] quilting became a tradition in and of itself, it was already a combination of textile traditions from four civilizations of [[Central Africa|Central]] and West Africa: the [[Mande languages|Mande-speaking peoples]], the [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] and [[Fon people|Fon]] peoples, the [[Ekoi people|Ejagham peoples]], and the [[Kongo people]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Farrington |first1=Lisa |title=Creating Their Own Image The History of African-American Women Artists |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195167214 |pages=30–31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I7TS6bFWCbUC&q=Mojo}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Wahlman |first=Maude |title=African Symbolism in Afro-American Quilts |journal=[[African Arts (journal)|African Arts]]|date=1986 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=68–76 |doi=10.2307/3336568 |jstor=3336568}}</ref> As textiles were traded heavily throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and the Southern United States, the traditions of each distinct region became intermixed. Originally, most of the textiles were made by men. Yet when [[Atlantic slave trade|enslaved Africans]] were brought to the United States, their work was divided according to traditional Western gender roles and women took over the tradition. However, this strong tradition of weaving left a visible mark on African-American quilting. The use of strips, reminiscent of the strips of reed and fabric used in men's traditional weaving, are used in fabric quilting. A break in a pattern symbolized a rebirth in the ancestral power of the creator or wearer. It also helped keep evil spirits away; evil is believed to travel in straight lines and a break in a pattern or line confuses the spirits and slows them down. This tradition is highly recognizable in African-American improvisations on European-American patterns. The traditions of improvisation and multiple patterning also protect the quilter from anyone copying their quilts. These traditions allow for a strong sense of ownership and creativity.<ref>Maude Southwell Wahlman. ''Signs and Symbols: African Images in African-American Quilts'', Penguin: 1993 {{ISBN|978-0525936886}}</ref>
[[File:Gee's Bend, Alabama LCCN2010639063.tif|thumb|Quilters of [[Boykin, Alabama|Gee's Bend]], Alabama, 2010. Gee's Bend is well known for its quilts and quilt makers.]]
[[File:Anna Williams Quilt.jpg|thumb|right|Anna Williams (American, born 1927). ''Quilt'', 1995. Cotton, synthetics [[Brooklyn Museum]]]]
In the 1980s, concurrent with the boom in art quilting in America, new attention was brought to African-American traditions and innovations. This attention came from two opposing points of view, one validating the practices of rural Southern African-American quilters and another asserting that there was no one style but rather the same individualization found among white quilters.<ref>{{cite web|last1=International Quilt Study Center & Museum|title=Race|url=http://worldquilts.quiltstudy.org/americanstory/identity/race|website=World Quilts: The American Story|access-date=June 17, 2014}}</ref> John Vlach, in a 1976 exhibition, and Maude Wahlman, co-organizing a 1979 exhibition, both cited the use of strips, high-contrast colors, large design elements, and multiple patterns as characteristic and compared them to rhythms in black music.<ref>Janet Catherine Berlo and Patricia Cox Crews, ''Wild by Design: Two Hundred Years of Innovation and Artistry in American Quilts'', Lincoln, Nebraska, International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska in association with University of Washington Press, 2003, p. 28</ref> Building on the relationship between quilting and musical performance, African-American quilter [[Gwendolyn Ann Magee]] created a twelve-piece exhibition based on the lyrics of [[James Weldon Johnson]]'s "[[Lift Every Voice and Sing]]", commonly known as the "Negro National Anthem".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://southernspaces.org/2014/lift-every-voice-magee|last=Moye|first=Dorothy|date=September 11, 2014|title=Lift Every Voice and Sing: The Quilts of Gwendolyn Ann Magee|magazine=[[Southern Spaces]]|access-date=November 19, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141115064845/http://www.southernspaces.org/2014/lift-every-voice-magee |archive-date=November 15, 2014 }}</ref> Cuesta Benberry, a quilt historian with a special interest in African-American works, published ''Always There: The African-American Presence in American Quilts'' in 1992 and organized an exhibition documenting the contributions of black quilters to mainstream American quilting.<ref>Dennis Hevesi, "Cuesta Benberry, 83, Historian of Quilting", ''[[The New York Times]]'', September 10, 2007</ref> Eli Leon, a collector of African-American quilts, organized a traveling exhibition in 1987 that introduced both historic and current quilters, some loosely following patterns and others improvising, such as [[Rosie Lee Tompkins]]. He argued for the creativity of the irregular quilt, saying that these quilters saw the quilt block as "an invitation to variation" and felt that measuring "takes the heart outa things".<ref>Eli Leon, ''Who'd A Thought It: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking'', San Francisco: San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum, 1987, pp. 25, 30</ref> At the same time, the [[Williams College Museum of Art]] was circulating ''Stitching Memories: African-American Story Quilts'', an exhibition featuring a different approach to quilts, including most prominently the quilts of [[Faith Ringgold]]. However, it was not until 2002, when the [[Museum of Fine Arts, Houston]], organized ''[[The Quilts of Gee's Bend]]'', an exhibition that appeared in major museums around the country, including the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]] in New York, that art critics unknowingly adopted Leon's assertions.<ref>[[Michael Kimmelman]], "Jazzy Geometry, Cool Quilters", ''[[The New York Times]]'', November 29, 2002; and Richard Kalina, "Gee's Bend Modern", ''[[Art in America]]'', October 2003</ref>