Ask students to read Nikki Giovanni’s poem “Quilts.”

Ask students to describe the symbolism of quilts in the poem.

Read the last three stanzas out loud. Ask students to describe the purpose of a quilt across multiple generations. What memories might quilts contain?

When I am frayed and strained and drizzle at the end
Please someone put me in a quilt
That I might keep a child warm

And some old person with no one else to talk to
Will hear my whispers

And cuddle
Near

Nikki Giovanni
“Quilts”

Tell students that they will watch a short film called While I Yet Live by Maris Curran. The story is about five African American women living in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, who are preserving their family tradition of quilting.

Ask students to look up Gee’s Bend, Alabama, on a map. Share that the residents of Gee’s Bend have long struggled to gain fair voting access due, in part, to the geography of their town. (Note to educators: the Background section provides additional information for reference and context.)

Give students the following note-taking sheet, which is organized into these four  themes: family, art, culture, and history. Ask students to write down any notes, observations, and quotes from the film that stand out to them.

Watch the film While I Yet Live by Maris Curran (15 minutes).

Ask students to complete the note-taking sheet after watching the film. Engage the whole class in a discussion by inviting students to share their thoughts and observations about each theme (family, art, culture, and history).

Building off of students’ observations, lead a discussion using the following prompts centered on the four themes:

• Describe the women in the film, their homes, and their experiences and feelings about quiltmaking.
• Gee’s Bend—35 miles southwest of Selma, Alabama—is home to 700 residents, most of whom are descendants of enslaved people who worked for generations in the fields of the local Pettway plantation. How do the women feel about living in such a small tight-knit community? How do the women describe the advantages and challenges of living in a town where everyone knows each other?
• The art of quiltmaking has been practiced and passed down through generations by the women of Gee’s Bend since the mid-nineteenth century. The quilts embody rich elements in the history of African American art. Describe the family stories shared throughout the film.
• How do quilts themselves tell stories?
• “You can look at a quilt and it can give you a feeling of something. You know it can give you love. You can see love. You can see peace. You can see joy in different quilts,” said China Pettway. In what ways do the quilters express joy and love for their art form? How does the act of singing connect the quilters?
• There has been an ongoing struggle for the people of Gee’s Bend to acquire equitable and fair access to voting rights due to, in part, their geographic location. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Gee’s Bend in 1965 and encouraged residents to register to vote and to participate in the march to Selma, Alabama. Why do you think Dr. King insisted on having the voice and vote of this community heard?
• W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in his book The Souls of Black Folk, “How curious a land is this,—how full of untold story, of tragedy and laughter, and the rich legacy of human life; shadowed with a tragic past, and big with future promise!” If you were to describe to someone who was unfamiliar with the people and place of Gee’s Bend, how would you describe their untold story, their tragic past, their laughter, and their promise?

Using Project Zero’s Thinking Routine “I Used to Think …. Now I Think...”, engage students to reflect on their knowledge and thoughts about quilts after learning about the Gee’s Bend quilters.

“Quilts have always engaged the pressing social and political issues of their time. They have been deployed throughout history by marginalized people to confront instances of violence, oppression, and exclusion,” said art curator Lauren Applebaum. Conduct research to explore how artists around the world express issues of inequality. Use the Google Arts and Culture Collection, which features women artists whose work explores inequality from various perspectives. Create a visual presentation to share your selected artist, a detailed biography, highlights of her artwork, and the ways in which she is addressing inequality.

Visit the International Quilt Study Center and Museum on the Google Arts and Culture platform. The museum is home to the largest public quilt collection. Choose a quilt in the collection and gather the following information: artist name, date, dimensions, and location. What drew you to learn more about this quilt? Describe the story of the quilt. Share your findings with the class.

The last song in the film is an African-American spiritual called “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” composed by Wallis Willis. First recorded in the early 1900s, the song had a resurgence during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Research to listen to additional songs from the civil rights movement. As a starting point, use this resource from NPR | Songs from the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these songs contain jazz and blues origins. While jazz “speaks for life,” said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., blues “tell the story of life's difficulties — and, if you think for a moment, you realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music." Choose one song and write a short essay detailing how its lyrics tell a story of “life’s difficulties” and how it communicates a “sense of triumph.”

In February 2020, in recognition of Black History Month, Etsy partnered with Souls Grown Deep, a foundation whose work is dedicated to the preservation of southern African American artists. The work of nine women quilters from Gee’s Bend is now featured on Etsy. Their shops provide quilts, cloth face masks, and other items.

Follow Gee’s Bend Quilters on Instagram @geesbendquiltmakers.

Explore the Soul’s Grown Deep Foundation’s exhibitions page where they keep a list of updated events featuring Black artists from the South.