Nina's Textures of Liberation

I crafted the quilt, "Nina's Textures of Liberation," in response to creating and performing in VLA DANCE's For Nina. In preparation for this show, I've sat deeply with Nina Simone's multifacetedness and now want to remember her as not only a fabulous artist, powerful activist, but also as a Black femme in need of care, community, and love. Swimming in life's streams of varying tensions and ease, I too question what it means to be here on this earth holding my identities of Black, femme, queer +. As I protest and unlearn systems of oppressive languages my body calls me to process through many forms of art. Quilts have had a significant history for Black Americans. Symbols were once used in quilts on the underground railroad to help guide slaves towards freedom. Crafting this commemorative token of liberation has transformed for me this otherwise ephemeral experience of performing. The color palette, navy and red represent the stoic power seen in Black femme leadership, while the green portrays the softness and ease that is perhaps more necessary for Black femmes to survive. The free motion stitching describes Nina Simone’s improvisational talents, while the loose threads indicate her complexities, the tiny embroidered french knots that compile an afro celebrate her natural beauty. The layers of the quilt are all bound together, possibly, to outline that one person can hold a kaleidoscope of realities. And in order to practice liberation, we may have to cradle many non-binary notions at once.