“It’s like breathing,” says artist Christle Rawlins-Jackson, referring to the process of quilting fabric. “You’re putting the fabric together in a way that’s going to tell the story.”
Rawlins-Jackson, along with fellow artists Susi Ryan and IlaSahai Prouty, created “Vessels of Slavery: Forget Me Not” to spark conversations about the history of slavery in Gloucester. Their art installation featured 10-foot tall boat sails made out of quilts, towering Engungun panels, and a wooden sailboat. Their project was funded by an Expand Massachusetts Stories (EMS) grant.
We created EMS to support humanities projects that collect, interpret, and share narratives about the commonwealth. EMS projects specifically put an emphasis on the voices and experiences that have gone unrecognized, or have been excluded from public conversation.
Watch our short video for an inside-look at how the artists designed the exhibit to uncover the history of slavery in Gloucester.
