Learn about the celebrated quilts made by a community of African American women in rural Alabama.
The Quilting Women of Gee’s Bend airs Monday, June 2 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI’s app
explores how an isolated community of women in rural Alabama became respected worldwide as the creators of celebrated woven works of art. Established during enslavement, the nuanced quilting practice in Gee’s Bend was passed down from mothers to daughters for generations, surviving everything from reconstruction to Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement to the present day. A legacy woven by hand, the quilts have been embraced by the modern art world and featured in museums across the country, but little is known about the women who make them and the challenges they have faced.
Photo: Quilter Stella Mae Pettway
Credit: Gionatan Tecle, Seen & Held, LLC