** Update 5/8/25: While seating in our auditorium is at capacity, we will have monitors throughout Textile Center so visitors can still listen to Carolyn’s Art Speaks presentation.

Join us in welcoming renowned artist, historian, curator, and author Dr. Carolyn L. Mazloomi to Textile Center for a presentation about her newest exhibition, Stitching Black Legacy: The Quilts of Carolyn Mazloomi, on view at Textile Center from April 22 through July 12, 2025.

Stitching Black Legacy will be the largest solo exhibition of Dr. Mazloomi's work under one roof. Founder of the Women of Color Quilters Network and a celebrated fiber artist in her own right, Dr. Mazloomi will discuss this recent body of creative work which features an impressive series of large-scale art quilts reflecting the lives of Black civil rights activists, leaders, and revolutionaries who shaped American history. Dr. Mazloomi's Art Speaks lecture will take place from 6 - 6:30 pm during the Artist Reception for Stitching Black Legacy (5:30 - 8 pm on Friday, May 16, 2025). This Art Speaks event is free and open to the public, however space is limited so registration is required. Dr. Mazloomi's Art Speaks talk will be live-streamed via Zoom for anyone who is unable to join us in person. Please register accordingly.

Friday, May 16, 6 - 6:30pm
at Textile Center, 3000 University Ave SE, Minneapolis
Pricing: Free
Hybrid: In person at Textile Center and on Zoom

About the Artist:

Based in West Chester, Ohio, Carolyn Mazloomi is an artist, curator, and writer. Her practice is rooted in the quilting tradition, using textiles — a personal and metaphorical material — to communicate the stories of individuals who have made significant contributions to social justice and landmark events that have shaped American history. She is the founder of the African American Quilt Guild of Los Angeles and the Women of Color Quilters Network, and a board member of the Studio Art Quilt Associates and Alliance for American Quilters. Over the course of her career, Mazloomi has had solo exhibitions at institutions and galleries across the country including the Los Angeles Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Kenyon College, Gambier, OH; Kent State University, Kent, OH; Malcom Brown Gallery, Shaker Heights, OH; University of Michigan, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Ann Arbor, MI; and Quilters Hall of Fame, Marion, IN. 

Mazloomi’s work is in the public collections of the American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY; Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, AL; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH; Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, OH; Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN; Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY; National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN; National Endowment for the Arts Washington, D.C.; Quilters Hall of Fame Museum, Madison, IN; The Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Smithsonian Museum of African American Culture and History, Washington, D.C., among others. Mazloomi is the author of several books, and has most recently published Visioning Human Rights in the New Millennium (2019), Yours for Race and Country: Reflections on the Life of Colonel Charles Young (2019), We Who Believe in Freedom (2020), We Are the Story: A Visual Response to Racism (2021), and Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West (2022).