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Laverne Brackens

April 12, 1927

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Laverne Brackens represents a long tradition of improvisational quilt making among African American women. She uses bright, bold colors and wildly creative designs that often incorporate words, letters and numbers. Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens' house, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens at work cutting pieces for a strip quilt, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens at work cutting pieces for a strip quilt, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens at work cutting pieces for a strip quilt, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens at work cutting pieces for a strip quilt, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens sewing pieces for a strip quilt, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Quilt pieces by Laverne Brackens, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Rolled quilts by Laverne Brackens, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens' sewing desk, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens quilting, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens checking her quilts hanging on a clothes line in her backyard, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens checking her quilts hanging on a clothes line in her backyard, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens checking her quilts hanging on a clothes line in her backyard, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens checking her quilts hanging on a clothes line in her backyard, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
Laverne Brackens, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011, photograph by Alan Govenar
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Black and Green Velvet Strip Quilt,' 1990-91 photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Dark Medallion, Light Borders Quilt,' photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Floral Bars Quilt,' photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Improved Bow Tie Quilt,' 1993, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Improved Bow Tie Quilt,' photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Medallion Quilt,' 1992, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Medallion Quilt,' 1993, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Peace Quilt,' photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Silk Medallion Quilt,' 2004, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Put-together Medallion Quilt,' photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Restructed Block Quilt,' 1992, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Roman Stripe Medallion Quilt,' photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'Scrappy Put-together Quilt,' photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Laverne Brackens, 'String Strip Quilt,' photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
A Laverne Brackens quilt, photograph by Eli Leon, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts

Laverne Brackens began learning to quilt as a child in Fairfield, Texas, when she helped her mother, Gladys Henry, in her quilting, but had no interest in learning the craft. Years later, Brackens married, raised eight children and five grandchildren and worked, mostly as a cook, so she had little time for quilting. After an accident forced her to retire in 1987, however, she developed an interest in making her own quilts. “The whole time I was on crutches … I was piecing quilts because I could use my left foot [for the sewing machine],” she told an interviewer. “Nothing else I can do. So I just set down and quilt.” Working with factory scraps supplied by a friend, she found a creative outlet in quilting. “I don’t go by patterns,” she said. “I made it up out of my head. When you pick up the material and start working with it, that’s when you know what [the quilt] will be.”

Brackens’ art represents a tradition of improvisational quilt making that has been recognized as a unique part of the African American heritage, a counterpart of blues and jazz. Her quilts are distinguished by an off-center centerpiece, rotating printed stripes and both vertical and horizontal striping. “If you piece them all where they hit right together, every quilt you piece is going to look just alike, and if you twist it up a little bit, it’ll make the quilt look different,” she said. “I just like to take a simple quilt and give it a different look. That’s what I be trying to do.” The unusually prolific artist enjoys placing letters and numbers in her designs. A granddaughter’s eighth birthday inspired her to create a pattern that employed the number 8 in interesting and creative ways. The letters may have a meaning, as when she used “W” and “H” in a quilt for her father, Willie Henry, but in other instances, words and letters are used simply as graphic elements.

In 1996, Brackens’ work was displayed with that of her mother, her daughter Sherry Byrd and her granddaughter Bara Byrd in “Four Generations of African-American Quilters” at the High Museum in Atlanta. This evolved into the 2006 exhibit and catalog “Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quilters” at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco. The show coincided with a filmed interview with Brackens by the museum’s exhibition manager, Karin Nelson, and was followed by an article, “One Family’s Quilted Legacy,” in the October 2006 issue of Quilters Newsletter magazine.

Brackens’ art has been recognized in Texas as well, in a 1999 Texas Folklife Resources exhibition, “Quilts of Color: Three Generations of Quilters in an Afro-American Family”; in a 2001-2002 exhibit, “Storytelling: One Stitch at a Time,” at the Texas Memorial Museum of Science and History in Austin; and in a documentary, Family Quilts, broadcast by the television show Texas Country Reporter on October 28, 2006 (show No. 1,000). The Texas Memorial Museum owns two of her quilts, and Chicago’s Bessie Coleman Library features her work, along with that of another African American quilter and NEA heritage fellow, Arbie Williams of Oakland, California. In 2011, first Lady Michelle Obama commissioned a Brackens quilt as a gift for first lady Kim Yoon-ok of South Korea.

Watch

Laverne talks about getting started quilting and shows how she makes a quilt, Video by Alan Govenar and Robert Tullier, edited by Blas Garcia, 2011

Laverne Brackens interviewed by Nicholas R. Spitzer, 2011 National Heritage Fellowship Concert, Bethesda, Maryland, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts


Laverne Brackens interviewed by Nicholas R. Spitzer, 2011 National Heritage Fellowship Concert, Bethesda, Maryland, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts

Listen

Laverne Brackens answers the question 'When were you first exposed to handmade quilts?' Interview by Alan Govenar, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011

Laverne Brackens answers the question 'What did you think of quilting growing up?' Interview by Alan Govenar, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2008

Laverne Brackens answers the question 'What made you decide to start quilting?' Interview by Alan Govenar, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2011

Laverne Brackens answers the questions 'How do you create the patterns for your quilts and how do they differ from your mother's and grandmother's quilts?' Interview by Alan Govenar, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2008

Laverne Brackens answers the question 'In what ways have you been able to pass this tradition on?' Interview by Alan Govenar, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2008

Laverne Brackens talks about what the tradition of quilting means to her. Interview by Alan Govenar, Fairfield, Texas, July 6, 2008