This sermon was presented by Rev. Judith Campbell at Stevens Chapel on Feb. 16, 2003.

Celebrating African American Arts and Culture

February is Black History month. That has brought out some of my African fabrics, including, what I firmly believe to be an African American Quilt. I have done some research into the history of quilting as a craft and an art . I am particularly interested in African American quilting because of it’s distinctive characteristics of color and design. African American quilting has more than once been compared to improvisational

Jazz in that, like jazz, it takes traditional forms and patterns and pushes and nudges and moves them above and beyond the ordinary into a rich and vibrant and thoroughly original expression of a passionate and diverse part of our rich American Fabric.

Some of the ancestors of contemporary African American quilts were the so-called Slave quilts. Very few of them exist today. That is because the only materials these disenfranchised people had to make their quilts were the cast-off-cast-offs of their white masters. The scraps they had to work with were already worn out. But the ones we do have show a strong sense of color and design that, while they often drew on the popular

quilting patterns of the day, moved far beyond the confines of the strictly measured and ordered designs used by their white sisters into the powerful designs that were uniquely their own. The other factor that contributed to the quality of the designs was purely practical - no scrap was unused - and therefore a design was pulled and stretched to accommodate what ever they had.

Fabric art and design came with these people. Many of our African Americans today can trace their tribal roots to West Africa where there is a rich tradition of fiber and fabric design that was at the very core of the culture, and whose rich designs and patterns re-emerged in the quilting patterns so uniquely their own.

Think of the words from the song, "The Birth of the Blues" (Blues singing is another truly African American Art form): "From a whippoorwill high on a hill there came a new note….they pushed it through a horn till it was born into a blue note! They took a wail from a jail of a downhearted quail…and they made that…a part of the blues." The parallel is clear to me; you take what is already there, but somebody else’s, and you carefully, lovingly and sometimes desperately and tragically, mold it into something that is yours alone.

But back to my quilt here. I got it at the thrift shop in Edgartown, and, from what I can tell from the age of the fabric, the pattern of the so-called crazy quilt and the absolutely dynamite design that says to me this has to be an African American quilt, which provides not only the background for today’s service, It also gives us a metaphorical theme from which we can envision the rich texture of our own community right here.

A quilt is a richly patterned collage of textures and fabrics and colors that is made in layers. A quilt has a decorative patterned top, a middle layer for warmth and comfort and a backing to sandwich the middle layer, and keep it from falling out, and then about a billion little tiny stitches which hold the three layers together and add further pattern and texture to finished comforter. Does this sound familiar? Can you see the imagery and the symbolism? Can you see the many colors and textures as you look around you right here? Can you see the million little things that hold us together and give us comfort. Today, we are going to lift up some art and music and literature that is comes out of the African

American culture and Tradition. Another month, another Sunday, we will look at other traditions and cultures that are part of the rich and fabric of this nation of ours, and much more specifically this Island. To that end, I have asked some folks if they would contribute to this service. You have already heard Rebecca Geary’s beautiful voice, and now I would ask some others of our members and friends to be part of this rich experience together.

Conclusion. If I may quote Kimberly Cartwight, in a discussion we had in planning this service, Kim said, "Black History is all of our history." Like the pieces of the quilt, black history is part of the all over design and fabric of our nation and our national culture. There have been times in all of our history that the chapters on Black History have indeed been tragic and shameful. We are no longer denying that fact, and while the picture is far from perfect, we are working one by one in a little church that is part of a much larger denomination towards "justice, equity and compassion in human relations, to quote our second Unitarian Universalist principle. We aren’t there yet. But as long as we keep on keepin’ on, one bright and beautiful day, we are going to get here.

Blessed Be.