Gee's Bend Quilters share their history

Magic happened in Sisters last week, in a tent under a warm evening sun.

Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday, July 5, to witness the bond formed by six Americana Project students and the women from Gee's Bend, Alabama. The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and Sisters Folk Festival hosted an evening musical performance bringing together generations and cultures through music and quilting.

The women came from an isolated rural community near the Alabama River that was once the site of cotton plantations and slavery. The Gee's Bend Quilters are descendants of slaves freed after the Civil War. The town's women developed a distinctive, bold and sophisticated quilting style that caught the attention of Bill and Matt Arnett. Since the father and son began working with the women, the Gee's Bend Quilters have been featured in hundreds of art museum exhibitions and have traveled around the country.

Gee's Bend was an important locus of the mid-1960s civil rights movement with their Freedom Quilting Bee, designed to boost family income and foster community development by selling handcrafts to outsiders. When large numbers of residents began taking the ferry to the county seat of Camden to try and register to vote, local authorities reacted by eliminating ferry service in 1962. The lack of ferry service forced the residents of the community to drive more than an hour in order to conduct business in Camden.

The people of Gee's Bend would be without ferry service for 44 years.

"These women have been to the White House and have had lunch with the First Lady, but nothing meant more to them than finally being recognized and respected in their own state," said Matt Arnett after the show.

Having lived through some of our country's most turbulent times, the women shared stories of their youth with Americana Project students.

"I love that these kids got to hear about the civil rights movement from people who were there," said audience member Kay Grady.

The students spent the day in partnership with one of the women and shared their life stories and the songs they'd written about those times.

Marin Allen told the crowd about the words of wisdom her partner shared with her after hearing about the hard times Marin went through when her parents divorced.

"Louisiana told me something that really meant a lot to me when she said, 'Every time you water a plant it grows; every time you shed a tear you grow.'"

Each student performed a song, and then spoke about their experience of getting to know one of the women. Then they introduced their partner, who either told a story or sang a song. Their stories were gritty accounts of life before, during and after the civil rights movement. Riva Mosley summed up her experience before the Civil Rights Movement by saying, "We were scared day and night til the '60s and the civil rights folks came. We had a hard time, but we made it!"

The students and audience heard many stories of tough times, gratitude and how a deep faith in God pulled them through.

Paige Bruguier was deeply affected by her experience.

"The minute that they sang I got so emotional," she said. "Hearing their stories was extremely eye-opening. Hearing what they had to say was so much more impactful and so much more real than reading it in a book.

"My little sister was in the middle school class that made quilts. What was really stressed was not only that the quilts are beautiful but who's sewing the quilts and what their stories are is important, too. Once I knew their stories I saw their quilts

differently."

Paige worked with Ruth Kennedy.

"I shared my music and she shared stories about her childhood," she said. "It was amazing."

During the performance, teacher Kit Stafford showed a video from the Gee's Bend women's first visit to Sisters. In 2009 the women came to Stafford's Americana Project Middle School class and her Arts Discovery class. The children made panels that represented life in the 1800s and typical jobs people had in those days. The class also made a quilt, which was on display in the tent.

Stafford was able to show the women the quilt for the first time.

"The Americana kids worked with the women cutting and sewing," said Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show founder, Jean Wells. "The ladies signed their blocks and really loved seeing what the kids can do."

Quilt Show Executive Director Ann Richardson was happy to see the sold-out crowd.

"It's so great to see an audience mixed with people that don't usually attend the quilt show functions," she said.

Richardson was grateful for the financial support of event sponsors South Valley Bank and Bend/Sisters Garden RV Resort.

"We couldn't have done it without them," she said.

Janelle and Lindsey Johnson's mother, April, was thankful for her daughters' participation.

"These women took the time to tell their life stories; one woman marched with Martin Luther King," said Johnson.

Her daughters learned about life in the Deep South.

"They heard stories of unimaginable hardship and pushing through the hard times. When life got tough for them the lesson that you can push it through is so important for the younger generation. It's so good to see the older generation that survived so much, from picking cotton from sunup to sundown while raising 10 children and then raising grandchildren, too. They had to work so hard, and they're still so strong."

For more information on the Gee's Bend Quilters, visit http://www.quiltsofgeesbend.com.