Stitching Black Legacy: The Quilts of Carolyn Mazloomi, April 22 – July 12, 2025

Stitching Black Legacy: The Quilts of Carolyn Mazloomi

Minneapolis • April 22 – July 12, 2025
Artist reception: Friday, May 16, 5:30 – 8 pm
(Art Speaks from 6 – 6:30 pm)

Textile Center is honored to present the work of Dr. Mazloomi, a founding member of Textile Center’s National Artist Advisory Council, Bess Lomax Hawes NEA National Heritage Fellow, United States Artists Fellow, American Textile Society Fellow, Ohio Heritage Fellow, American Craft Council Honorary Fellow, 2024 Taproot Fellow, and founder of the African American Quilt Guild of Los Angeles and the Women of Color Quilters Network.

Click here to view the exhibition press release.  |  Click here to read our Substack: Celebrating a National Treasure: Carolyn L. Mazloomi.

“Quiltmaking is a tradition and a mode of expression that is both intimate and esteemed. Every human being has an intimate relationship with cloth. It is the first thing we are swathed in at birth, and the last thing that touches our body upon our death. Through the nuance of textile, difficult stories can reach audiences across identities and generations from a place of care, hearth, peace, and nurture.”

For more than 55 years, Carolyn Mazloomi has dedicated her work as a historian, curator, author, and lecturer to bring the unrecognized contributions of African American quilt artists to the attention of the American people. When she founded the Women of Color Quilters Network (WCQN) in 1985, she helped propel the careers of many African American quilters into the contemporary art world.

Mazloomi is now dedicating time in her busy schedule to prioritize her own creative work by creating an impressive series of large-scale art quilts reflecting the lives of Black civil rights activists, leaders, and revolutionaries who shaped American history.

Textile Center proudly presents Stitching Black Legacy: The Quilts of Carolyn Mazloomi, the largest solo exhibition of Mazloomi’s work ever held under one roof. All of the quilts in this exhibition were created in 2024 and 2025.

Carolyn Mazloomi’s black-and-white quilts catalyze ideas illustrated in her diaries and sketchbooks, where she embarks on in-depth explorations into the lives of freedom fighters. Her drawings are printed onto cotton fabric from these pages in rich, black ink reminiscent of the bold graphics captured in woodblock prints and indelible photographs reproduced in newspapers. Through this process, Mazloomi builds the compelling and complex narratives of Black trailblazers, memorializing their stories for future generations. Each quilt is framed by a patchwork border — a kaleidoscope of geometric patterns that celebrate the quilting community and those craft traditions that she has made significant contributions to as a curator, author, and community organizer.

As in a newspaper, the clear and bold black color ensures that no dimension of decoration distracts from an impactful and memorable portrait of these individuals’ lives. Throughout the quilts, circular motifs recur — symbols of perpetual, enduring life cycles. In a time where the histories of race, gender, and class are at risk of being erased from education by conservative forces in politics, Mazloomi’s works serve as a seminal teacher. She is an artist who activates her practice to ensure that no oppressive body can suppress, or erase, the legacy of Americans who put their lives at risk to ensure a brighter future for their people. These quilts are shrines to acts of inimitable bravery, resilience, compassion, brilliance, and kindness.