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| Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney |
“I didn't grow up making quilts,” Mooney said. “I flunked sewing.”
Stepping into her power
After developing her sewing skills Mooney opened her own store in San Diego, California where she sold dolls and pillow cases with designs that resembled many of the quilts she makes for people such as Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Terry McMillan, George Bush Sr., and Bill Gates Sr, among others. The storefront was her first venture, a move from a woman who wanted to live her life on her own terms, but destiny had other plans.
“A woman walked in to the store and told me she was taking the stuffing out of the pillows and hanging them as wall art. I was insulted. I did not know quilts were painting with fabrics,” she admitted. “Then one day I was at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and Laurence Fishburne walked by and said ‘You’re doing great work’."
Mooney didn't do well selling her dolls and pillows that weekend, but she says the most extraordinary thing happened- "It started to rain and I was calm." She packed up her belongings and that night sketched something. "I had never before sketched anything,” Mooney said laughing.
The sketch was the first piece in a series of quilts called ‘The Big City Women’s Series.’ The next day she found it was flooded and went back to San Diego and closed her business.
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| Da Roots of Dey Learnin' Tree owned by Oprah |
Mooney worked hard to open up her gallery in San Diego. She stopped teaching and dancing - two her first loves and for a year she drove a cab at night to open her gallery. Her work usually sold out at places like the New Orleans Jazz Festival and Essence Festival, but something greater was on the horizon. One day she received a call from the daughter of Faith Ringgold, the godmother of quilting, who invited Mooney to a luncheon. Mooney says the fateful meeting changed her life.
"She asked me to bring samples of my work. I was in a broken down car and it stopped two blocks from the gallery. I had to run to the meeting,” she says. “I was scared to show her the pictures of my work, and I couldn’t paint, but I knew how to sew so I painted with fabric.”
Soon after she began to flourish as an artist. She then received a call from photographer Roland Freeman who wanted to interview Mooney for his book "A Communion of Spirits: African American Quilters, Preservers and their Stories." Freeman stopped the press to include Mooney in his the book and after that she was featured in three more books.
“I was like I found my place,” Mooney said with a smile. “It was a series of being in the right place at the right time, but I had to be prepared.”
Quilting as a means of empowerment
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| "I Wanna a Red Dress" made for playwright Pearl Cleage 2007 |
“The Big City Women’s Series is inspired by women with big bodies, big hearts, and big personalities," Mooney says. "In my perfect world women will stop apologizing for just being. Women are taught to doubt themselves and doubt every move they make. ”
During the small workshop she explained the historical significance of quilts and how they have been essential in the survival of Blacks throughout history. Quilts were used as wall coverings, not bed coverings, in Egypt and Ancient China she explained. Young men were taken as young as three to learn quilting and quilts often documented marriages and births. Warriors laid quilts on their horses when battling and Hannibal, the African king and leader whose army defeated the Romans several times, and his group carried quilts. Mooney then went on to reveal how quilts were essential to survival during slavery in the Americas.
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| Calling Your Name a quilt for Corinne Corbett Editor of Heart & Soul Magazine |
“Many African women were brought to the Americas for their sewing skills. Sewing quilts kept them safe from the fields. Women quilted from can’t see to can’t see for their master and then went home and quilted for the family, because they had no wood floors they slept on mud. These women quilted at night so their babies would be warm and would not have to sleep on mud.”
The conversation about enslaved women transitioned into a lesson about economic empowerment. Mooney brought awareness to the exploitation of Black women in the quilting industry and turned it into a lesson about self-esteem. Quilting is a $4 billion industry with the majority of quilters being Black, and like the women of Gee's Bend aren't being paid their worth.
“The majority of the quilts are African -American quilts and on the hour the quilter makes about $5.25,” she said. “ Pricing is based on self esteem. If your raised to think your only worth this then that’s all you are going to get.”
She uses quilter and author Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, as an example of the economic power of quilting. Keckley bought her freedom by making quilts and became the dressmaker and confidante of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was so impressed with Keckley's intelligence that he consulted her to help change the Emancipation Proclamation.
Bringing it back home
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| Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney in front of a quilt that was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina |
“I was so appalled by people saying give it a rest its’ done it’s over . The waters have receded but peoples lives are gone. How did we get to the point where we don’t allow people their own humanity?”
In spite of callous attitudes displayed by some, Mooney embraces hope. To counter the apathy of some critics, Mooney is spearheading a Hurricane Katrina quilt project featuring a quilt made of patches from people all over the U.S.
“I am inspired by the history and the plight of African-Americans and women,” she says. “It is a wise thing to speak about what you know best and I know about being Black and a woman.”
*Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney passed away in New Orleans, Louisiana