Black textile lifecycles
During enslavement, Black people would use the scraps left over from the making of their own clothes and the clothing of their white masters to make quilts. These quilts weren't just beautiful, but they provided warmth, community, and some contained the directions to freedom. These directions weren't written in words, since most enslaved people were prevented from learning to read. Instead these directions were pictorial.
The pictorial mode of storytelling found in quilts is reflected in the vase. The vase features depictions of billowing sunflowers, a nod to Faith Ringgold's quilt titled The Sunflower Quilting Bees at Arles, 1997. The quilt depicts well-known Black women seated around a table in a field of sunflowers.
As explored in chapter 4 of All That She Carried, the clothing of enslaved women functioned as a marker of their state in bondage. They were made to wear extremely thin dresses that put their bodies on display (page 146) made from fabric called "Negro Cloth" (page 138) This textile is not a particular, but rather meant to signal the abysmal quality of the textile itself. In the same way that clothing then signaled whether or not the Black person was free during slavery, clothing for incarceated people does the same.
The uniforms of those who were in chain gangs consisted of white and grey striped jumpsuits that they had to wear at all times while performing labor. While chain gangs were officially abolished in year, the modern day prison system today still functions much like slavery. People who are imprisoned are made to labor every day, are forced to wear a specific uniform, and are predominantly Black (and Indigenous) across North America. However, within a system that walks and talks like slavery, there still exists agency, creativity, and hope.
The Quilters (2024) a short documentary on Netflix, follows inmates in a prison in Missouri that sew quilts for foster children. The film follows the quilting project and shows how through the fiber arts the men involved in the project feel a sense of redemption and purpose in light of serving long sentences.
Not even 2 centuries ago, Black people were made to pick cotton and forced to wear textiles that signaled their bondage and they still made something beautiful out of the scraps. The ongoing prison industrial complex acts as a modern day slavery and still within that system there is hope and people making something out of nothing. The Black textile lifecycle tells a story of undying hope, skill, innovation, and perserverance.
