// continuities in innovation //

African Signs & Symbols in African American Quilts of Virginia

This show was exhibited to give audience to African American quilters of Virginia and to recognize the African innovations and continuities that currently exist in folk art textile traditions of Africa America.


Continuities in Innovation will be re-opening in 2007

Please visit the exhbition's website here

// talking history //

During my research in Virginia, over the last four years, many people came to me with items that they knew were made by slaves. Several of these artifacts contain unusual marks that are obviously not of Western origin. When reviewing the artifacts and clarifying Virginia slave trade history I concluded that they contained Adinkra and Nsibiri signs. For comparison I will incorporate African textiles, such as Akunintam cloth, Adinkra symbols and cloth from Ghana and Ukara cloth from Nigeria. The exhibit will also include a history of early slave trade from Ghana and Nigeria to Virginia. Many of the craftsmen in Virginia were Black and either brought their traditions with them or were trained by skilled Black craftsmen on the plantation. As a result our forefathers embellished early American material culture with marks and designs that originated in Nigeria and Ghana.