Carolyn Mazloomi creates quilts about social justice, Black history and current social issues. (Jessica Armbruster — Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Quiltmaker Carolyn Mazloomi feels most comfortable when she’s wearing black. In fact, it’s one of the key colors in her wall-size quilts, which are mostly created with black-and-white designs that she draws and then has them fabricated. Occasionally there’s a splash of color, but it’s rare.

“I love black and white because it is very stark and dramatic, and there is nothing to get between the viewer and the message,” said Mazloomi, a nationally acclaimed quilt artist and lecturer. “It is in your face. It is easy to decipher. There is a lot of symbolism, too, when you think in terms of relations and this country, everything is black and white. Everything boils down to race.”

American history, Black lives and the ongoing fight for social justice are topics she explores in her big, bold quilts. They cover the walls of two galleries and the hallway of the Textile Center in her solo exhibition “Stitching Black Legacy: The Quilts of Carolyn Mazloomi.”

Carolyn Mazloomi's quilts address social issues such as voting rights. (Anthony Soufflé/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Mazloomi, born in 1948, grew up in Louisiana in the Jim Crow segregated South. She holds a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California, and worked for the Federal Aviation Administration as a crash site investigator. She and her husband, engineer Rezvan Mazloomi, moved from Los Angeles to Ohio in 1986 to raise a family.

She founded the Women of Color Quilters Network in 1985. She’s a quilt collector, too. Thirty-three quilts from her collection are on view in the exhibition “We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Quilts galore

The history of African American women’s quilting dates back to pre-Civil War times, serving as modes of self-determination and community support. Mazloomi is working in the tradition of narrative quiltmaking, not improvisational quilting that many know through the quilts of Gee’s Bend.

“The narrative quilt is considered foundational to Black culture specifically, certainly during antebellum times,” said Tracy Vaughn-Manley, assistant professor of Black Studies at Northwestern University. “What [quilt artist] Harriet Powers was doing was using her quilt, the narrative of the Bible, to teach people the biblical stories, to teach them the Bible, to ultimately teach them salvation.”

The exhibit "Stitching Black Legacy: The Quilts of Carolyn Mazloomi" is on view at the Textile Center in Minneapolis. (Anthony Soufflé/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Mazloomi’s large-scale quilts range from 50 to 80 inches in height and width. There are stories of the civil rights movement, iconic Black leaders, immigration and the present-day reality of the president’s attempt to dismantle more than 60 years of progress.

That last one is represented by a quilt of a graveyard, filled with headstones with inscriptions like “Transgender Rights,” “Civil Rights,” “Climate Control,” “LGBTQ Rights,” “Black History” and many more. In it, Uncle Sam wears red-and-white striped pants, a blue jacket and a red bow tie. He is holding a shovel. Two black crows perch atop gravestones. The outline of a tree hovers in the corner.

“When I think in terms of all the laws and protections that have been lost, I came up with that design,” she said. “They are gone, dead and buried … so hence the graveyard scene.”

The quilt "Buried Rights" is part of the exhibition"Stitching Black Legacy: The Quilts of Carolyn Mazloomi" at the Textile Center. (Anthony Soufflé/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Many of Mazloomi’s quilts look to history. She quilts Malcolm X’s transformational trip to Mecca and his role in the struggle for racial justice, with the continent of Africa colored orange. Civil rights leader John Lewis, instrumental in passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, is portrayed in different moments: as a Freedom Rider, being arrested for marching, in a police mugshot. And then there are sweet ones, like her two eldest grandsons, one pulling the other in a red Radio Flyer wagon.

"I Am My Brother’s Keeper" from the exhibit "Stitching Black Legacy: The Quilts of Carolyn Mazloomi" at the Textile Center. (Anthony Soufflé/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Another quilt shows the more recent history of Black people who have been killed by acts of violence by police and others: Elijah McClain, Emmett Till, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Stinney, George Floyd.

“We’re really privileged to have these quilts in Minneapolis,” Textile Center Executive Director Karl Reichert said. “She could present these in Cincinnati, where she lives. She could present them anywhere, but she selected Minneapolis.”

Mazloomi has had a long relationship with the Textile Center. In 2021, she curated “We Are the Story: A Visual Response to Racism” at the center. The show included selections of quilts from the Women of Color Quilters Network that she founded.

From the exhibit "Stitching Black Legacy: The Quilts of Carolyn Mazloomi" at the Textile Center in Minneapolis. (Anthony Soufflé/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Mazloomi’s quilts also will be on view as the Twin Cities recognizes the five-year anniversary of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police.

“That was a happy coincidence, but I am glad that they segue together because initially I talked about the quilts being an important part of a statement,” she said. “A basic statement about racial justice and its importance.”