Exploring Migration and Memory Through Quilts

Old jeans. Worn shirts. Scraps from flour sacks and homemade dresses. Nothing is too humble for a quilt. In BAMPFA’s new exhibit “Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California,” quilts tell the story of resilience, family, and cultural continuity. The exhibit highlights the quiltmaking skills that many migrants brought with them in the Second Great Migration from 1940-1970—and passed on to their children and other kin, spurring the creation of a new wave of African American quiltmaking. We’ll talk to the curator and a contemporary quiltmaker in Oakland about the exhibit.

Guests:

Ora Clay, member, African American Quilt Guild of Oakland

Elaine Yau, associate curator and academic liaison, BAMPFA – Yau curated the exhibit "Routed West: Twentieth Century African American Quilts in California"

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