Som Bra (Come Home)

Artist:

Kim F. Hall

Dimensions:

40H x 27W

Quilt Story:

Kim F. Hall: When I took students to Ghana as part of Barnard’s Middle Passage Initiative, I confess that I had my own textile side quest: I arrived early to take a workshop on making Adinkra cloth, we went to a batik factory and when we went to markets, I looked mostly at fabric and textiles. The “African Wax Print” fabrics used in African clothing and found in markets across the diaspora are made in China and Europe, the result of early colonialism and globalization. I was told by Ghanaians that the only authentically African made fabrics you will find in the markets are those designed for funeral clothing, typically in black/red or black/white. I bought a piece in each colorway, but didn’t quite know what to do with them until I took a class on merging two different fabrics at a NYC quilt shop. I tried to preserve some of the look of the original by appliquéing some circles and the selvage on the “woven” base.