Lansing Community College Library

Virtual displays

See LCC Theatre’s production of “Gee’s Bend” by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder

8 p.m. Fridays & Saturdays, March 18-19 & March 25-26

LCC Black Box Theatre, 1422 Gannon Building

Gee’s Bend depicts the turbulent history of African-Americans in the 20th century by focusing on a single family in the real town of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, now famous for the extraordinary quilts created by the women who grew up there. Gospel songs weave in and out of this hauntingly beautiful work. Beginning in 1939, the play follows the Pettway women: Alice, her daughters Sadie and Nella, and Sadie’s husband, Macon, through segregation, family strife, and the Civil Rights movement. Throughout their lives, the women’s quilting provides a respite from the turmoil around them. Wilder’s play explores the resilience of the human spirit, especially as it is expressed in art.

For more information, contact the LCC Performing Arts Production Office at 517-483-1122.

Resources

The Quiltmakers of Gees Bend

The Quiltmakers of Gee's Bend explores the extraordinary lives, inspirations, and history of these artists, and also follows them on a poignant and sometimes very comical bus journey to see their quilts exhibited at The Milwaukee Art Museum.

How a Group of Women in This Small Alabama Town Perfected the Art of Quilting | Op-Docs

“While I Yet Live,” Maris Curran’s beautiful, immersive film about a group of master quilters in the small town of Gee’s Bend, Ala. Curran paints a tender portrait of a tightly-bound community of African-American women and how they integrate craft, faith and family into their art. The results are spectacular.

Spotlight on the Gee’s Bend Quilt

This special program explores the remarkable history of Gee’s Bend quilts, hailing from Boykin, also known as Gee’s Bend, in Alabama, USA. This practice dates back to the 1800s and today, Gee’s Bend quilts are renowned for their vital contribution to the story of American art. Join NGV Curators of Fashion and Textiles Katie Somerville and Danielle Whitfield, in conversation with Paris-based curator and cultural programmer Raina Lampkins-Fielder.

 

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