Tenesha Carter Johnson is a curator and cultural historian, with a particular investment in American quilt and textile histories. In her talk we'll look closely at a crazy quilt, where one can find a life woven in the mosaic of textured surfaces: a scrap of wedding silk, a ribbon from the county fair, a souvenir swatch, a sliver of someone’s favorite dress.

Gaining distinct popularity by the end of the nineteenth century, “crazy” quilting was more than a technique, but how makers kept record of what mattered to them. What did it mean to spend hundreds of hours of nimble labor into something you’d sleep under every night? These quilts reveal how ordinary women turned scraps and keepsakes into personal archives—and what their quilts can still tell us about the relationship between memory and material culture today.

Attend in person: This lecture is free to the public at Smith Commons (5th floor), Sargent Hall, Suffolk University, 120 Tremont Street. The location is wheelchair accessible and has accessible restrooms. Seating is in free-standing chairs which may be moved.

Watch online: The Youtube live-stream will have auto-generated closed captions.