Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education

This informative book will teach not only about the quilt but also the pioneer history. The text surveys the different phases of a pioneer family's life: saying goodbye to their old neighbors, traveling westward, building a cabin, decorating inside, carrying out daily work, raising food and making clothing, enjoyig special occasions, reading the weather signs, and following the stars. Various quilting projects and designs accompany each stage of this course of life. The project ideas may become a wonderful companion to classroom teachers.

--Heewon Chang--

While today we have diaries or personal journals, in the mid-1800s quilting was often a family's only means of recording its history. This was especially true of those American pioneers who traveled westward in covered wagons, often taking as much as six months to travel from frontier towns like Missouri to California -- a nomadic life that did not lend itself to schooling. Into this context the story of a pioneer girl named Faith and her pet hen Josefina are placed. The reader travels West with them through trials and victories, which are recorded dutifully by Faith on her pioneer story quilt.

--Cynthia Tuleja--

Often it is the case that the largest issues are most clearly understood through the perspective of the smallest component part. Nora Murphy takes this approach in A Hmong Family, where she introduces the reader to the issues of migration and assimilation through the personal journey of one family, the Vangs. The Vangs are a family from Laos in Southeast Asia who fled to the United States in 1986. Their story may be an eye-opener for many Americans who have assumed that the conflict in Southeast Asia ended with the Vietnam War. In reality, after the war had officially ended the Communists took revenge on the Hmong because they had aligned themselves with the American effort. The Vangs' story of escape and resettlement is a consequence of that conflict and a testimony to the courage and perseverance of the human spirit. Their dramatic story is highlighted by photographs of their lives in Laos; Thailand, where they stayed in a refugee camp; and the United States; visually depicting in the Vangs both a desire for cultural distinctiveness and a high motivation to adjust successfully to their life in a new land.

--Cynthia Tuleja--

The Art of Jewish Children: Innocence and Persecution provides a window into the Germany of 1936-1941 through the eyes of Jewish children, most of whom were art students of Julo Levin. Levin taught at the Dusseldorf Jewish School from 1936 to 1938, and in Berlin at the Kaliski and Holdheim schools from 1938 to 1941. He was subsequently deported to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where he was murdered. Mieke Monjau; a friend of Levin's and wife of the artist Franz Monjau, who was murdered at Buchenwald; tells Levin's story as one of the introductions that are included in this book. She recalls the danger he was in and yet his refusal to emigrate: "I am placed here and here I must work. I must follow my conscience" (p. 32). His conscience led him to spend his final days sharing his artistic gift with those too young to know what kind of danger he -- and they -- were in. Annette Baumeister writes (in another of the books introductory texts) that many of these children "were murdered in concentration camps and killing centers; others left Germany together with their parents or alone on 'children's transports,' expelled from their home and compelled to begin anew in foreign countries" (p. 71). The drawings in The Art of Jewish Children survive as their legacy.

--Cynthia Tuleja--

*This book is unfortunately out of print.

Is quilting only for women? This book implies that men can quilt just as well as women and furthermore that the collaborative work between men and women can produce an even better result. The story begins with Sam's torn awning over a pig pen. While mending the awning, he discovers a joy in sewing patches together artfully. When he suggests that he would join his wife's quilting club, he meets with scorn and ridicule from the club members. He goes off to organize a men's quilting club. Both clubs complete their own design of quilt to compete in a fair. On the way to the fair a hugh wind blows up and sweeps the quilts to a mud puddle. Both men and women are first extremely frustrated but soon muster their creative energy together. They cut out unsplattered fabric from men's and women's quilts and sew them together to make an award-winning quilt of an "unusual" design. The illustration of the country life and quilt designs framing each page is delightful.

--Heewon Chang--

This book presents an African-American family life in a positive and warm way. A loving grandmother and a respectful granddaughter are at the center of the story. Tanya's grandma is an avid quilt-maker. She has collected scraps of materials from old clothings of family members. She can tell a story of each piece. Tanya enjoys listening to the stories. Tanya's mother, who first objected her mother making a mess in her living room, is drawn to the family history told by her own mother through the fabric scraps. Grandmother continues to collect more fabric for the next quilt project; granddaughter continues to wait for her opportunity to learn quilting. Finally they begin but Grandmother gets sick before the project is completed. When she finally recovers from her illness and finishes her quilt, it becomes an happy occasion when her family gets together to reminisce their past.

--Heewon Chang--

When I opened the book for the first time, I was struck by the bright, colorful illustrations. Throughout the book the illustrations display the joyful mood of Hawaii and its multicultural heritage of Asian, Native Hawaiian, and European people. The story plays out the intricate relationship between color and culture. Luka is thrilled at a thought of owning a colorful flowery quilt when her grandmother, Tutu, offers to make one for her. Luka is puzzled when she is told to choose one color for her quilt but chooses green anyway. At the end of the excitment of helping her grandma plan the project, Luka is utterly disappointed by her green flowery designs layed out on a white background. She exasperates, "The flowers! There were no flowers!" She meant there are not colorful flowers. Tutu tells Luka that it is the Island tradition to use only two colors for a quilt. This quilt ruins their friendship until Tutu is inspired to make a quilt lei with colorful flowers. Now Luka has options to place the colorful lei quilt on top of the traditional one or to enjoy the traditional one as is. This happy ending implies a happy solution of cultural negotiation.

--Heewon Chang--

Woven into the context of Mary Lyons' narrative on slave quilting, the panels of two story quilts created by an American slave reveal the cultural and religious elements of life on a georgia plantation. The panels compose two quilts crafted by Harriet Powers of Athens, Georgia, from 1886 through 1898. The first is a Bible quilt, which is now part of a collection at the Smithsonian Institution; the panels depict characters and scenes from the Bible. The second is a story quilt, now housed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; its panels intersperse events from the Bible and those of local characters. The visual appeal of these colorful story quilts enables one to "read" them again and again with full enjoyment each time. In the words of Lyons, one of Harriet's story quilts is "like a song, a heavenly harmony of shape and color that we can listen to again and again" (p. 31); and in doing so the reader learns much not only about the subjects of the quilts, but about its richly gifted creator.

--Cynthia Tuleja--

As part of its effort to provide healing to war-traumatized children by enabling them to communicate their struggles through art and writing, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) collected drawings, poems, and prose from schools and refugee camps in former Yugoslavia. The collection, from which I Dream of Peace is composed, will touch the hearts of young and old alike, and begs the question, "With whom can the youngest victims of war identify when all that is familiar is taken away?" The answers are heart-wrenching. Dunja, 14, from Belgrade, writes, "We are children without a country and without hope" (p. 27). Indeed what is surprising in this collection is the poignancy that writers and artists who are too young to be well trained in these disciplines are able to evoke. For example, a picture created by Belma, 10, from Sarajevo, depicts a grenade exploding outside a building where three children lie with limbs severed and bodies badly wounded and bleeding. Belma's caption, "We were only waiting for candies" (p. 57), says it all. Edina, 12, from Sarajevo, writes, "I reach out to touch a trembling, injured hand. I touch death itself" (p. 47). Yet the power of I Dream of Peace lies in its ability to communicate that these children who have "touched death itself" are still alive to the possibilities that life holds; possibilities that may hold greater hope as the dramatic stories and pictures of these young children reach a receptive audience around the world.

--Cynthia Tuleja--

*This book is unfortunately out of print.

This story is not really about a quilt in a conventional sense although quilting scraps play a significant part in the story. They end up generating a similar ambiance of warmth and caring as a quilt would have.

A family of 5 were packing to move from Carolina to Michgan during the pioneer days. The family consisted of a man (Pap), his mother (Granny) and his 3 children. The family carried their belongings in a wagon with a deep sorrow over their mam's death in their hearts. Among the belongings was a sack of Granny's quilting scraps. When they finally arrived at a spot close to a river, they settled and built a log cabin. Although everything was in place in the new cabin and the fire was going, it did not fill the void of their mam's absence and dissipate the chilly air inside. When Pap went out for hunting on a bitterly cold, snowy day, children discovered mud chinks had frozen and pushed out from between some logs. They stuffed the cracks with Granny's scraps of memory to create a colorful "quilt" around the log cabin walls. The sweet memory of their deceased mother and their past finally warmed the place and the hearts of all including the sorrow-stricken father.

--Heewon Chang--

This autobiographic story tells of the author's great-great-grandmother's quilt that was made out of old clothes of family members who immigrated from Russia. When the colorful dress and babushka (a large scarf) of Great-Gramma Anna, the last pieces of clothing left from Russia, got too small, her mother suggested to make a quilt out of them to "always remember home." The quilt, trimmed with Anna's clothes, embraces the memories from home and has handed down many generations to be used as a tablecloth for Sabbath meals, a picnic blankt, a wedding huppa (a canopy over a bride and a groom), as a baby blanket, as a throw blanket for a sick aunt, and as a bed spread that witnessed the death of Great-Gramma Anna. The history-bearing quilt continues to be cherrished by the author's children. The bright colored dress and babushka are accentuated in the brown-and-white illustration.

--Heewon Chang--

This charming book provides snap shots of early American history as seen through the popular patchwork quilt themes of the time. Using the alphabet as a framework, Paul describes the types of patterns used in early American patchwork quilts by providing the names of these patterns along with a short description of their origin. This visual lesson in American history provides insight not only into the burgeoning America of the first one hundred years following the signing of the Declaration of Independence, during which many of these patterns became popularized; but into the practical art form that this country's early culture inspired.

--Cynthia Tuleja--

"The Art and Science of Portraiture" is a fascinating and readable book that will provide value to a much larger audience than its intended target of social science researchers. "Portraiture" (creation of a written portrait) is defined by the authors as "a method of qualitative research that blurs the boundaries of aesthetics and empiricism in an effort to capture the complexity, dynamics, and subtlety of human experience and organizational life." Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis have developed a practical discipline for creating "authentic" portraits; they present their recommendations in a narrative rich with examples, metaphors (portraiture as tapestry-weaving or quilting), and analogies with the works of visual artists.

As a video documentary producer/writer, I do not seek to produce valid research results, but I do seek to create works of "authenticity" and aesthetic value. I found the book to be filled with insights both descriptive of what I have already experienced, and prescriptive of principles for producing more compelling and authentic portraits. Lawrence-Lightfoot herself alludes to the similarities in the interview processes used for documentaries and "portraiture," in her portrayal of filmmaker Orlando Bagwell in "I've Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation." "The Art and Science of Portraiture" provides thorough treatments of data-gathering techniques, the importance of understanding environmental and cultural context, relationship-building with subjects, expression of the "voice" of the portraitist, revelation of patterns in the portrait, and the creation of the aesthetic in the final product. Its principles should be of high value not only to researchers, but also to documentary filmmakers, journalists, biographers, and creative non-fiction writers. By melding "science and art," Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis benefit practitioners in both fields.

--Marcy L.Garriott, President and Founder, La Sonrisa Productions--

*This review first appeared at Amazon.com and is reprinted here with permission from the author.

When quiltmaker Ozella McDaniel's told Jacqueline Tobin of the Underground Railroad Quilt Code, it sparked Tobin to place the tale within the history of the Underground Railroad. Hidden in Plain View documents Tobin and Raymond Dobard's journey of discovery, linking Ozella's stories to other forms of hidden communication from history books, codes, and songs. Each quilt, which could be laid out to air without arousing suspicion, gave slaves directions for their escape. Ozella tells Tobin how quilt patterns like the wagon wheel, log cabin, and shoofly signaled slaves how and when to prepare for their journey. Stitching and knots created maps, showing slaves the way to safety.

The authors construct history around Ozella's story, finding evidence in cultural artifacts like slave narratives, folk songs, spirituals, documented slave codes, and children's' stories. Tobin and Dobard write that "from the time of slavery until today, secrecy was one way the black community could protect itself. If the white man didn't know what was going on, he couldn't seek reprisals." Hidden in Plain View is a multilayered and unique piece of scholarship, oral history, and cultural exploration
that reveals slaves as deliberate agents in their own quest for freedom even as it shows that history can sometimes be found where you least expect it.

--Amy Wan from Amazon.com--

This interactive CD-Rom allows users to create their own stories and illustrate them. Orly, a Jamaican girl, appears on every screen to guide users to manuever in this graphic-intense program. Her Jamaican accent is charming and she explains the life of Jamaica almost like a tour guide. One of the attractive features of this software is that pictures a user draws become automatically animated and incorporated into the story. Several pre-plotted stories may save less-advanced writers from feeling inhibted in creating their own stories. By following existing story lines, they can illustrate and modify their stories. The program does not seem friendly enough to beginning users, but once they get used to the underpinning principle it becomes easier to handle. It has been one of my children's favorite software when they were 7 and 9 years old.

--Heewon Chang--

Based on the bestseller by Whitney Otto, this film seemed to miss all the poetry and the ephemeral charms of the wispy novel by trying to make a concrete movie out of it. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (who made a similar hash out of A Thousand Acres), the film centers on Winona Ryder, who is debating her impending marriage and decides to make up her mind while spending the
summer with her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn). This leads to a variety of encounters with Grandma and her sewing circle (which includes Anne Bancroft, Kate Nelligan, and Maya Angelou, among others), who reminisce about men, love, and marriage. It's put together piecemeal, like a quilt, but the parts add up to a fragmented, unsatisfying whole, despite some solid acting.

--Marshall Fine from Amazon.com--

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