Gee's Bend Quilters at the Mattress Factory

Gee’s Bend is a small community located in a pocket of land surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River. The community, now called Boykin, is home to a remarkable group of quilters. In the 1960s, Gee’s Bend became an important part of the Freedom Quilting Bee (a branch of the Civil Rights movement), which aimed to increase community development by the sales of their unique and beautiful quilts.

The artists of the Gee’s Bend quilting community have shown their quilts at many museums, from the Whitney Museum to the Smithsonian. For the first time in their lives, many of the quilters have a real income and have been able to inject new life into a vanishing community.

Please join the remarkable women of Gee’s Bend Quilting at the Mattress Factory on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010, from 6-8pm. There will be a quilt-making demonstration and discussion with the ladies of Gee’s Bend. View handmade quilts in the Mattress Factory lobby, see their history, and listen as they convey their stories through words, song, and craft.