When Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for “Summer of Soul,” his film about the Harlem Cultural Festival -- the 1969 historical celebration of Black history, culture and fashion in Harlem’s Mount Morris Park -- he accepted the award wearing a jacket with panels designed and hand-sewn by the Quilters of Gee’s Bend.
The black, mid-length jacket was made as part of an ongoing collaboration between the quilters and artists from the historic Alabama community in the Blackbelt and designer Greg Lauren. Labels with the names of the quilters who created the panels -- Kristin Pettway, Cassandra Hall, Katie Pettway, Stella Mae Pettway, Sharon Williams and Claudia Charley -- are sewn inside the jacket. The name of the collection is called Mosaic : Gee’s Bend and Greg Lauren.
Claudia Pettway Charley, a fourth generation Gee’s Bend quilter and the community manager of the Gee’s Bend quilting community, and Greg Lauren celebrated the collection’s appearance at the Academy Awards with posts on social media.
“Questlove Won A Oscar wearing A Gee’s Bend x Greg Lauren Jacket,” Charley wrote in a post on Instagram and Facebook. " I feel like we all won. Quilters for this piece is Sharon Williams, Stella Pettway, Cassandra Hall, Katie Mae Pettway, Kristin Pettway and Claudia Pettway Charley.. Still more to come!!”
“Congratulations to @questlove on winning the academy award for Best Documentary for the amazing “Summer of Soul,” wrote Lauren. “It was an honor to create the jacket he wore, made as part of our ongoing collaboration with @geesbendquiltmakers , MOSAIC: Gee’s Bend & Greg Lauren celebrating the ingenious artwork of the women of this community, and in partnership with our friend, the incredible @rebeccapietri.”
The collaboration was formed from partnerships with both individuals and organizations in the arts and fashion world, including Build A Nest and the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, the non-profit formed by the family of Bill Arnett, the first major collector of the Gee’s Bend Quilts (the foundation now works to place the quilts and additional works created by self-taught Southern Black artists in the permanent collections of museum around the country).
Mosaic: Gee’s Bend and Greg Lauren includes 96 garments created from 276 panels designed and sewn by the quilters from Boykin, Ala. The garments are on sale at Bergdorf Goodman.
The team behind the collaboration built an exhibit at the department store to house the collection and explain the partnership. A digital lookbook for the collection on the Greg Lauren website also offers insight into the collection. The lookbook includes an explanation of the collaboration and lists the names of the 14 quilters from Gee’s Bend who worked on the project and designed the panels ( Cassandra Hall, Doris Mosely, Katie Pettway, Lue McCloud, Mary Margaret Pettway, Kristin Pettway, Minnie Pettway, Priscilla Hudson, Stella Pettway, Claudia Charley, Emma Pettway, Pleasant Scott, Sharon Williams, Tinnie Pettway). The site also features a photograph and commentary from the Gee’s Bend quilters, as well as a recording that documented their conversations during the process of creating the panels.
The mission of the partnership is to celebrate the ingenious artwork of the community, according to the collaboration website.
A description on the site says each of the 14 women at Gee’s Bend who designed were compensated for their work, “as well as 100% of the proceeds of each garment, going directly back to the community - which we hope to allow both a model for other brands to work with the artisans in such a way, and further still to meaningfully contribute to the communities continued existence.”
Earlier this month at Paris Fashion week, Gabriela Hearst-- the creative director of the luxury handbag brand Chloe -- presented a series of hand painted bags, knit sets, and quilts designed in collaboration with Gee’s Bend.
The historic community of Gee’s Bend and the Gee’s Bend quiltmakers have garnered national acclaim. The rural community in Wilcox County is surrounded on three sides by the Alabama river, in a horseshoe-shaped bend. Joseph Gee, a plantation owner and slavemaster from North Carolina, settled in the area during the 1800s. Gee sold the land to Mark Pettway in 1845. The Pettway family moved to Gee’s Bend from North Carolina a year later, bringing about 100 slaves with them. Many of the slaves continued to work on the land as sharecroppers once slavery was abolished. In the 1930s, the land was operated by the Resettlement Administration and residents received agriculture loans and funds from the federal government to build a school and sawmill. A post office was established in 1949 and the community was renamed Boykin, although most people continued to refer to it as Gee’s Bend.
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As far back as the 19th century, women of Gee’s Bend started to create patchwork quilts, transforming fabric from clothes and feed sacks into works of art. In 2003, women of Gee’s Bend established the Gee’s Bend Quilting Collective to honor and continue the tradition of creating textiles. The quilts have been exhibited at major art museums around the nation including the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. In Birmingham, the quilts are on permanent display at Michael’s Restaurant. Restaurant owner Bernadine Birdsong is a close friend of the Pettway family.
Gee's Bend quilts. Michael's Restaurant opens in the Negro Southern League Museum. Fining dining is downstairs and there is also rooftop dining overlooking Region's Field and Railroad Park. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com).Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com
While the Gee’s Bend quilts have become cultural icons, the recognition hasn’t always translated into monetary success for the Gee’s Bend community, particularly since the quilters didn’t have an immediate way to receive the proceeds from the sales of their art. That could stand to change. The New-York-based nonprofit Nest partnered with Souls Grown Deep to help put Gee’s Bend quilts on Etsy. The e-commerce platform has since issued a $50,000 grant so the quilters can open their own Etsy shops.
[READ MORE: You can now buy Gee’s Bends quilts online]
According to reports from PBS Newshour and The Verge, the sales have garnered more than half a million dollars, allowing the women in the collective to pay off debts and buy property.
“I remember back, the women never had money, no matter how hard they worked. Now we got women with money. That’s a great thing,” quilter Tinnie Pettway said during an interview with PBS Newshour.
“Etsy gave us an outlet and a platform where we were able to keep up with our own inventory, set our prices, and receive 100 percent of the proceeds,” Claudia Pettway Charley told The Verge. “That alone was something totally different. When you’re able to man your own thing — mind your own business, as they say — that was a whole new level for us.”
“Summer of Soul” is currently streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.