STITCHING HISTORY: A Celebration of Freedom

 Do you know what a STORY QUILT is? I grew up surrounded by the original and remnant versions of quilts, most stitched from the scraps of no-longer-worn clothes and tattered cloth. The end results were suede-soft, star-studded, lumpy/loose-cotton-stuffed favorites that served as picnic spreads, back-of-the-car napping, living-room-tents, and other heavy, even careless use. Each had been created decades earlier by my mom and her relatives in Kentucky. Each was an artifact offering functional/survival evidence that reuse, repurpose, recycle were necessary daily practices long before that 3-R symbol became ubiquitous. 

Each quilt also held stories, with corners and star-point scraps occasionally patted along with a mention that this faded bit was from one of grandma's aprons or that bit was from great-grandpa's shirt. Small sections were pointed out as the ones on which Mom learned to quilt, recalling the endless times she was told to pull her threads and try again, keeping them a bit smaller and straighter.

From my earliest days, I knew that quilts held those kinds of stories. 

I also knew that a few quilts resided in protected drawers, quilts that were nearly as old, but whose designs were testimonies to resilience. Quilts with intentional colors and sections, in which the patterns and squares were cut from intact, full pieces of cloth, not several bits stitched together to form a single chevron or strip. Quilts that were filled with actual batting, no lumps to be found. Ones with single sheet backing, ones that used matching fabrics for the fields, borders, and binding. These were treasured and protected as proof that a time had come when the family's means allowed the rare luxury of purchased goods, even when that was simple gingham or poplin. These offered stories, real and imagined, of what the occasion must have been to justify such luxury. Stories I imagined of the joy and satisfaction in the creators' gnarled fingers as they smoothed, cut, pinned, stitched, and eventually quilted a masterpiece not destined for eventual threadbare wear.

"Story quilts", though, can have another meaning. (Click the introductory link, above, if curious). 

NEAL PORTER BOOKS, January, 2023
Holiday House Publishing

Author/quilter/artist KIM TAYLOR provides an example of such story-quilting in a recent picture book release, A FLAG FOR JUNETEENTH. This Library Guild selection has had rave reviews from impressive sources, but I dare say the highest praise I can offer is that my ancestors would love and admire it. The quilting quality and design on these pages had me convinced that Taylor had learned to quilt as a small child, as my mother had. The author/artist's notes in back indicate that she had never quilted until the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States. It was then that she considered that the major media option for storytelling among enslaved people was quilting. Their products were even more mismatched and bit-patched than the quilts of my youth. Batting for plantation quilts was a greater struggle, too, sometimes filled with newspapers, dried leaves, or sun-dried straw. The stories and culture stitched into them were as essential to survival as the warmth they provided.

Taylor set out to learn to quilt (intimidating, right?). Her first story quilt, FULL CIRCLE, A HISTORY was created to celebrate that impressive circle of Black history in this country, from enslavement to the presidency. Some time later, Taylor attended a Juneteenth celebration and learned the history of this occasion as an adult. She set out with a plan to incorporate the story of the first Juneteenth into a story quilt. Her mission was to share the story with young people, wanting them to become aware of this important history while still children, not as adults, as she had been. 

This project, naturally, required even more time than the already mindful and time-ful task of picture book illustration. In fact, it was not until she was satisfied with a design that told the story well that she could apply her growing skills to the production/quilting task. Within that design and eventual result she incorporated her characteristic faces without features, rendering the pictured individuals expressive in body posture and action, but open to being inhabited by the viewer, allowing us to immerse ourselves in the emotions and history.

Only when that story quilt was complete could she begin visiting schools and other gatherings,  using the quilt as her media for sharing the story of Juneteenth. Those events, with adjustments along the way, eventually became this picture book, A FLAG FOR JUNETEENTH.

Although Juneteenth has FINALLY been officially designated as a federal holiday, its story will be unfamiliar to many until they hold this book in their hands. Told through the first person voice of a young enslaved girl living with family on a Texas plantation, each quilted page and image spread conveys the life of this young person, one who anticipates the joyful celebration of her tenth birthday tomorrow, June 19th, 1865. 

She is frightened when Yankee soldiers arrive to issue a proclamation, announcing that TWO YEARS PRIOR the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery. (Texas slave owners had refused to inform the people of this, illegally retaining enslavement in Texas far beyond the rest of the country.)

Images of radiant jubilation pair with the observant girl, holding her baby sister, joyous but somewhat overwhelmed by what had been said. Plantation owners were furious, but could do nothing about it. Women snatched up needles, thread, and fabric to stitch freedom flags while children collected long, straight branches for flagpoles. Men carved cultural symbols of freedom and independence into the flagpoles. 

The jubilee takes on special significance when the community presents the young birthday girl  with her very own jubilee freedom flag, but one that is not quite complete. She sews her own star onto its strong horizon line, stitching in the sunshine she had captured from a visit to the treetops. Wrapped in the celebratory grace of freedom, her small family visits the night for a special cultural experience of their own. From the opening with quilted, steaming hotcakes to that final spread, this is a masterpiece of storytelling, visual strength, and fiber artistry.

The stitch patterns throughout as well as the artful choices for illustration (figures, placement, clothing, scenes, and swirl pattern choices on white text backgrounds) made me return repeatedly to page after page. Each time I would note additional elements from color tones to leaf patterns to angles and connections. I recommend this book highly.

 

Eerdmanns Books for Young Readers
2011.

For anyone who appreciates quilting as I do, don't miss an older offering,  I LAY MY STITCHES DOWN: Poems of American Slavery, written by Cynthia Grady and illustrated (quilted) by Michelle Wood. I reviewed it HERE. It not only showcases some extraordinary quilt art but also provides poetry that will open your soul.

Please stay tuned. KIM TAYLOR has agreed to take part in an interview about this work and more, which will be posted here within a few days. If you think you might miss it, why not su ascribe to get these posts in your inbox?

Seeking Freedom: Do NOT Miss Reading This Important Nonfiction Account

 When it comes to CIVIL WAR names and heroes, do you know this one… GEORGE SCOTT? 

Astra Books for Young Readers
Calkins Creek, 2022

I’m guessing you don’t.  I certainly didn’t. 

What’s more, the story surrounding Scott's contributions to ending slavery were unknown to me, and to many others. 

SEEKING FREEDOM: The Untold Story of Fortress Monroe and the Ending of Slavery in America is written by Selena Castrovilla and illustrated by the incomparable artist E. B. Lewis. The rich details, character, and intensity of the text are enhanced and expanded by those same qualities in the illustrations. Every dramatic element is made more so by such detail, from the lichen on the barks of trees to the opening note about when and why certain word choices were made, to revelations of personality and character, especially in George Scott and the other central player, little-known hero, Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler, commander of Fortress Monroe in Virginia. I can't begin to imagine the extent of research that preceded the writing and illustrating of this remarkable picture book. 

I won’t include spoilers in these comments, which limits the scope of what I can share. 

This much, though, is essential to understand. GEORGE SCOTT was, in the language of the time,  a “runaway slave” (actually a freedom-seeking enslaved man). He had spent two years in a wild-wooded area not far from the fort, surviving by intelligence, cunning, and sheer determination as states seceded and war with the North began. His encounter with General Butler takes place in the early pages of this book when he risked exposure and return to his “master” by entering the fort to offer to work in support of the North. 

Both men took remarkable risks in pursuing this course of resistance to the established law that said enslaved people were the property of their owners and were required to be returned to them. Butler chose to defy this process by calling freedom-seeking refugees from slavery “contraband”, using that legal “property” label to justify retaining them as living spoils of wartime, which could supersede the Fugitive Slave Act. He was depriving the rebels of a valuable war-making resource.

Could that tactic actually work? Would it destroy Butler’s career, returning the many desperate freedom-seekers to enslavement? Or would it challenge the institution of slavery and begin a process to settle that question once and for all? 

The historic account that provides answers to those questions, and more, is revealed with dramatic art and suspenseful storytelling. Scenes involve President Lincoln, Congressional action, spying, a near-death escape, as well as post-war developments. Be sure to read the impressive back matter that further explores the post-war lives of these two heroic men, as well as the political decisions affecting both of their lives, and more. Sources for research and quotations are provided with acknowledgements of the historic sites and their curators, without whose involvement this book could not have been completed.

The most essential questions and causes of our deadly CIVIL WAR are launched and confronted within these pages and I am still shaking my head in wonder that I had not heard this account before. I believe you will do the same. After you read it, and I urge you to do so, soon, I feel certain you will be recommending it far and wide, across many ages and interests. 

And I doubt you'll ever forget George Scott and his role in ending slavery in America.

 

Voices of Joy, Voices of Freedom

After several posts about some of my "old-timey" poetry favorites, (here, here, and here) let's flip the focus to more-recent  poetry publications. There are plenty of blogs that make this their core mission, including suggested activities and lessons. One example you'll want to know about is THE POEM FARM, by children's author and writing teacher, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater.

As for this blog, I've featured poetry collections and reflections in the past, but I'm approaching this series with more frequent and varied poetry posts. In this case I'd like to share two different collections of poems for children by African-American artists. In the first case, the anthology was released in 1991 A quarter century later, in 2016, a book in which the voices of slaves are interpreted was created by author/artist Ashley Bryan.

Scholastic Anthology, 1991

MAKE A JOYFUL SOUND: Poems for Children by African-American Poets, was skillfully edited by Deborah Slier, and delightfully illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu. In the past few years there has been widespread attention to the very real, even urgent, need for books by diverse creators. This collection, released in 1991, decades before that movement, includes poems by African-American authors whose copyright dates stretch as far back as 1956 (Gwendolyn Brooks), 1951 (Langston Hughes), and even 1927 (Countee Cullen). 
In Ruby Dee's introduction she says..."(poetry is)....sharing our most profound and personal living spaces with people who then go from being strangers to being co-travelers on life's marvelous excursions into better understandings. It can lead to action. It can lead to love."
If you are somehow unaware of the WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS movement within the creating/publishing/circulating world of books for young readers, this is from their website:
OUR MISSION Putting more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all children. 
OUR VISION A world in which all children can see themselves in the pages of a book.

This is often paraphrased as providing ALL readers with books that can serve as both windows and mirrors. 

What I love most about this collection is that the language, illustrations, topics, and emotional experiences are a thousand-percent universal, demonstrating clearly that the human race is the underlying status of all races. Here's an example:

September

By Lucille Clifton

I already know where Africa is

and I already know how to 

count to ten and

I went to school every day last year, 

why do I have to go again?

For every child who eagerly lays out a back-to-school outfit and supplies, maybe even days in advance of school resuming, there are equal numbers of kids who share the sentiment in the above poem. 

With many formal book structures (table of contents, title index, author index, first line index,  and brief bios of poets, MAKE A JOYFUL SOUND should be included in every classroom and home collection. At a minimum, it should circulate out of libraries at a furious pace, leading to additional explorations of original works and collections by the various featured authors.

A Caitlin Dlouhy Book
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2016

Then there's FREEDOM OVER ME: Eleven slaves, their lives and dreams brought to life by ASHLEY BRYAN.  "Brought to life by" is a perfect description of this creation by multi-award-winning author/illustrator Ashley Bryan. 
In his author's note, Bryan describes having acquired a collection of slave-related objects. He chose one from among them-- a legal document that outlines the estate of a man named Fairchilds.
Bryan drew from the very spare content in that document, one which referred to enslaved people as "boy" or "girl" regardless of age, one which enumerates those lives as possessions in the same categories as cows, cotton, and hogs. Each human life was listed with a name and price, but no other reference to age or description or special talents were described. 

That spare content and Bryan's knowledge of history became the foundation for eleven portraits, ones in which he infused life into those who had no control over their own destiny. He then studied and listened to the persons he had envisioned, imagining their daily lives and inner voices. Documents and clippings of those times are embedded within the free verse voices and images of those lives. 

So, one very recent collection dips further back in time, and an older anthology rises to prove itself timeless and timely in a pro-diversity landscape. Both merit attention, sharing, and some eager encouragement. 

Celebrate this NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK by seeking these out in a library near you, then thanking those library workers for the amazing ways in which they keep old and new books alive, waiting to reach you when you arrive.

Dave the Potter: Powerful Life Story, Powerful Picture Books

My posts in recent months have been focused on specific topics and releases, but this post returns me to my original purpose when I started this blog nearly four years ago. 

Picture books are a format, not a single genre, not aimed at a narrow target age or a particular "stage" of childhood. A recent feature in SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL included interviews with outstanding teachers who use picture books with middle grade and high school students, including AP English classes.
Used with intention, with understanding of the complexity, layers, and potential of quality literature in this format, picture books are not only appropriate for any age, they can elevate and enhance the quality of learning, discussions, and writing.

An outstanding example is ETCHED IN CLAY: The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet, with text and woodcut illustrations by Andrea Cheng.

Lee and Low Books, 2013

In this book the combination of powerful woodcut art and free-verse voices examines the varied events and individuals who shaped Dave's life. Their impact was every bit as real as if the hands of owners, mentors, family, and society of that time and place had molded the clay of his being. Even so, he exerted an equally powerful molding influence on his life in knowing what, at its core, made him who he was.

I found the details of Dave's life AFTER the war and emancipation a deeply unsettling confirmation of facts reported in GIVE US THE BALLOT, by Ari Berman. Dave's  literate life was more limited post-Civil War by unwritten forces (Klu Klux Klan and others) than he had been as a slave.
With well-cited resources in the back matter of Etched in Clay, I suspect other readers will want to do as I do, to explore further the life and times of this remarkable artist.

Little, Borwn Books for Young Readers, 2010

A nonfiction picture book version of his story,  DAVE THE POTTER: ARTIST, POET, SLAVE , by Laban Carrick Hill and  multi-award-winning-illustrator  Bryan Collier, was my introduction to the life of this remarkably gifted artist, an intelligent survivor of pre- and -post- Civil War slavery.

DAVE THE POTTER: Artist, Poet, Slave, includes powerful text (a free verse extended poem), quoted lines from poems by Dave, and the intensely deep, rich images of Bryan Collier, layered with details and visual references to slavery and society of the time. 
The back matter in this book elevates it from a surprising discovery of an unknown artist to a dense journey into the past. It gives Dave's artistry and literacy a voice and presence in the twenty-first century.
Like the best picture books, it will appeal to younger readers and intrigue their own creative selves while providing insights to history.
For older readers, though, it is a portal to the past that pairs well with ETCHED IN CLAY: The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet.
The two sources combine to step away from the "concepts" of slavery, individual rights, and freedom into the shoes of a documented individual whose artistry and intelligence might have made him a world leader had he lived in other circumstances.

That's a prospect worthy of discussion and exploration at any age, don't you agree?