Cuesta Benberry - The Anyone Can Fly Foundation, Inc.

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to anybody but me, nor that I was operating in an important time, like the 1980s. Soyou were really in a serious … ‘Cause the 60s had passed and the quilters had goneunnoticed.CUESTA: Yes.FAITH: By both the African-American art scholars and the white ones, too. So there youwere. Into the 1980s and still sitting by the door waiting to find out what’s going tohappen.CUESTA: Right. Right. But then I was still working in 1980 but I would schedule maybeweekends or summer trips. It was surprising how people were so interested in African-American quilts. It was not … Most of the calls and invitations I received were fromwhite quilt dealers and from white institutions and museums and places like that. Theywere very, very interested.About this same time Maude Wahlman’s quilt, a little bit before that she had been astudent at Yale and she was one of the few students in the Black Studies Program. Ilearned about her work through a Yale alumni magazine and then followed it up withsome people that I knew and I got information.In the late 70s they had a big African-American crafts program in Memphis. She wasthere. So was Gladys-Marie Frye. That was when I learned that most of the research onAfrican-American quilts was coming from the academic community. None of the peoplethat I knew, who were basically quilt people, had any program about, or research effortabout African-American quilts. But then I met Roland Freeman , Gladys-Marie Frye,John Michael Blatch, and Maude. And they were the ones who were doing research onAfrican-American quilts.FAITH: How were they being received?CUESTA: Fine. Because New York is the media capital of the world. And because oftheir credentials and who they were. Then her first show was 10 Afro-American Quiltershttp://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~wahlman/quilters.html and they were from Mississippi. Thequilts were. But I followed right along there and then at some later time other morequilt-oriented people, but not black, who weren’t scholars, like Maude and John MichaelBlatch who teaches at George Washington University….They were all scholars. But then,more quilt-oriented people like Roberta Harten who was a teacher and Eli Leon who wasa dealer, and others began. And so then that whole area of African-American quiltsbecame a hot topic.FAITH: And what year was this?CUESTA: Well it was about ‘82/’83.FAITH: The ‘80s is just it.page 4
CUESTA: Yeah. Right. That was when it was. Pam McMorris who did one of the firstbroadcasts on television, a quilt series came to St. Louis to interview me. She was fromBowling Green U in Ohio. She didn’t know Maude because she came from the quilt side.But I told her about Maude and I told her about Gladys-Marie and so she did go andinterview them. It has just grown. The interest in African-American quilts and quilthistory has expanded beyond belief.FAITH: So you’re pleased?CUESTA: Yeah. I really am. What is so exciting now is young African-Americans, likeKyra Hicks and Carolyn Mazloomi. They add substance to the research. And they are sothorough. And they know all the modern techniques. All the new technology. Kyra wasthe marketing person at Hallmark. When she moved to Washington, DC she worked forthe Washington Post in that Department, the Internet, or whatever. I was born toosoon. And then 9/11 came and they cut back at the Washington Post. Kyra was one ofthe last ones hired and so she lost that. But she’s a marketing person. She graduatedfrom the London School of Economics. She knows it. She is now working in themarketing department of the Marriott Hotel. A job’s not hard for her to find in her field.But I’m just so happy that these younger people and the older ones have to…FAITH: This is just such a powerful field it’s got to attract powerful people.Figure 2: Ode to Harriet Powers 1995. © Peggie L. Hartwell. Handappliquéd and machine quilted cotton. Collection of Carolyn Mazloomi.http://www.antiquesandthearts.com/a2000.asp?a=GalleryHopping01-09-2001-14-23-45CUESTA: Wonderful. And I’m just happy about that. And they are so smart, they reallyare.FAITH: What can you say about the various quilting medium? Needlework, patchwork,appliqué, painted cloth, etc. and this burr technique, etc.? What can you say aboutthese things to explain why and how African-American quilters have used these materialsin the making of their quilts?CUESTA: I think what really needs to be established is that they did. That they did useall of these various techniques that you just mentioned. All of these kinds of needleworkthat are not usually assigned to them.FAITH: I had heard that African-American quilt makers make large stitches.Figure 3: Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt, 1930 – 1970. By HattieWilliams Jones and Mary Allen Smith Williams. Polyester, knit, cotton,pieced. 93 x 72 1/4 inches. Purchase. Collection of the Old StateHouse Museum.page 5
Page 3: the time I think when … because Q
Page 7 and 8: CUESTA: Well, that too is a problem
Page 9 and 10: FAITH: Is that the same thing? Impr
Page 11 and 12: FAITH: And I’m sure a whole lot o
Page 13 and 14: CUESTA: No. They were pretty old. M
Page 15 and 16: CUESTA: I heard Phillip Simmons, th
Page 17 and 18: Cuesta: The buds have embroidery.Ba
Page 19 and 20: flat, under glass, so nobody could
Page 21 and 22: Figure 15: Who’s Afraid of Aunt J
Page 23 and 24: x 53 inches. Collection of the Arti
Page 25 and 26: ---. “Sharing the Past… Creatin
Page 27 and 28: http://www.oldstatehouse.com/piece-

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