L'MERCHIE FRAZIER AT THE FESTIVAL OF QUILTS
L’Merchie Frazier is an artist, poet, activist, historian and educator from Boston. Her quilts explore themes of Black identity in the Americas and beyond, and her exhibition, LookBooks for Liberation: Visual Storytelling, is at The Festival of Quilts for its 20th Anniversary at the NEC Birmingham from 3-6 August 2023. L’Merchie Frazier will be discussing her work at Visual Storytelling: Making Freedom, as part of The Festival of Quilts’ talks and lectures programme at 11:30 BST on Saturday 5 August.
L’Merchie, it's an honour to have you join us at The Festival of Quilts for our 20th anniversary. Your creative work sets out to document, reveal, and amplify the voices of the unheard, the unseen, the hidden in Black and indigenous people's history. Can you tell us more about that and about some of the stories that your quilts tell?
My one life work, whether it's quilts, poetry or jewellery, is about my life journey, ‘Save Me From My Amnesia’. As a descendant of people detached from the African mainland as our founding base, then through the Middle Passage come to North America, we are in a state of always trying to reclaim and restore. I am a member of Women of Colour Quilters Network and quilts I create are a part of that journey......................................................
Image: L’Merchie Frazier, Ericka Huggins: Liberation Groceries, 2019, Nylon, synthetic tape and thinsulate fabrics, 50 x 40 inches (127 x 101.6 cm). Image above: L’Merchie Frazier Target: I Matter, 2016 Nylon, synthetic tape and thinsulate fabrics, 30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm).
L’Merchie, it's an honour to have you join us at The Festival of Quilts for our 20th anniversary. Your creative work sets out to document, reveal, and amplify the voices of the unheard, the unseen, the hidden in Black and indigenous people's history. Can you tell us more about that and about some of the stories that your quilts tell?
My one life work, whether it's quilts, poetry or jewellery, is about my life journey, ‘Save Me From My Amnesia’. As a descendant of people detached from the African mainland as our founding base, then through the Middle Passage come to North America, we are in a state of always trying to reclaim and restore. I am a member of Women of Colour Quilters Network and quilts I create are a part of that journey......................................................
Image: L’Merchie Frazier, Ericka Huggins: Liberation Groceries, 2019, Nylon, synthetic tape and thinsulate fabrics, 50 x 40 inches (127 x 101.6 cm). Image above: L’Merchie Frazier Target: I Matter, 2016 Nylon, synthetic tape and thinsulate fabrics, 30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm).
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