Your Name and Title:
Tiffeni Fontno, Director, Peabody Library
Library, School, or Organization Name:
Peabody Library, Vanderbilt University
Area of the World from Which You Will Present:
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Language in Which You Will Present:
English
Target Audience(s):
Public, academic, and school librarians; arts and humanities educators; community organizers; programming and outreach librarians; DEI practitioners.
Short Session Description (one line):
How quilting, memory work, and library programming intersected to tell Ida B. Wells’s story and build intergenerational community.
Full Session Description:
This session explores how a library-centered community arts initiative combined quilting, Black women's history, and collective memory to engage diverse audiences across generations. In partnership with the Zuri Quilting Guild, Peabody Library launched a stitched quilting program.
Rooted in the Black quilting tradition as both an artistic and political act, the project invited community members, students to design quilt blocks. Through a workshop and incorporating children's literature creating vibrant fusion of hands-on creativity, historical inquiry, and civic dialogue.
Participants were not only introduced to quilting techniques but also engaged in conversations about the artistry of quilting.
This session will share strategies for collaborating with local artists and guilds, incorporating Black history programming, and using crafts like quilting to transform libraries into spaces of healing, learning, and innovation.
Participants will leave with a replicable model for arts-based programming that invites reflection, learning, and joyful resistance—one stitch at a time.
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:
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