Quilt Detail ~
“Clara’s Freedom Quilt” by Gloria Kellon
“Freedom River” by Gloria Kellon
SHAKER LIFE | WINTER 2015 29
hese Shaker artists are part of a renaissance,
now well into its third decade, of African
American quilt-making in the United
States. The success of the movement
is in many ways due to another
Ohio artist and leading historian of
African-American quilts, Dr. Carolyn
Mazloomi.
In 1985 she founded the
Women of Color Quilter’s Network.
Today, WOCQN has more than 1,700
members, and there are hundreds of
similar, local organizations around the
country, including Northeast Ohio’s
African American Quilt and Doll Guild
(AAQDG), founded in 2006 by Kellon and
Warrensville Heights artist and Case Western
faculty member Sandra Noble.
“We put out a call and 35 people showed up,” Kellon says. “As we talked we felt like
we had known each other for a long time.” Today, AAQDG has more than 70 members,
including Dukes and Abernathy and eight other members from Shaker Heights.
Mazloomi, a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow, has
helped bring particular attention to a type of art quilt known as a narrative or
story quilt. Dukes, Kellon, and Abernathy work in this genre.