The artists featured in?"We Gather at the Edge"?honor the Black story quilt tradition with work that envisions a?more just and connected world.
Central to this quilt is the Akuabaa figure, a Ghanaian symbol of protection of mothers and their children. Created by Myrah Brown Green, the artwork honors the four Black North Carolina A&T college students—Jibreel Khazan, Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond—who staged a sit-in at the Greensboro Woolworth counter in 1960. Green’s inspiration for the quilt is one of her most cherished childhood memories—eating dessert with her mother at the Woolworth counter in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Akuabaa honors and protects the young students who believed that another world was possible and worked toward it, making Green’s memories with her mother possible. “In My Akuabaa Form” is one of the artworks featured in “We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists,” which opens at Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery today. The artists featured in this exhibition uplift the Black story quilt tradition with work that envisions a more just and connected world. Credit: 1 - Myrah Brown Green, “In My Akuabaa Form” (detail), 2000, cotton fabric and cotton batt, Smithsonian American Art Museum 2 - Myrah Brown Green, “In My Akuabaa Form,” 2000, cotton fabric and cotton batt, Smithsonian American Art Museum 3 – Installation view of “In My Akuabaa Form,” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. Photo by Albert Ting
