Several new features will be part of the third annual Airing of the Quilts Festival in Boykin on Saturday, Oct. 12.
“This is an artistically advanced community,” said Kim V. Kelly, executive director for Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy, one of the organizations coordinating the festival.
“That legacy can be traced to the people who live in the community, whose families have lived here for over 200 years from enslavement to the present. This is an historically and culturally significant community. People will learn, experience and enjoy so much while they are here.”
New exhibitions will be featured,
one being “Just Look Where He Brought Me From: The Family Quilts of Mary Lee Bendolph” at the River Gallery in the Gee's Bend Welcome Center.
“A History of Gee’s Bend from 1816 to the Present" will also be at the River Gallery.
New to the festival will be a site-specific installation by Oklahoma-based textile artist Rachel Hayes in collaboration with Gee’s Bend artists Essie Bendolph Pettway, Mary Margaret Pettway, Sharon Williams and other quilters.
New transportation options will be available.
"A park-and-ride service will be offered. Attendees can park their cars at Ellis Landing on the Camden side of the river, catch a shuttle to the ferry and walk on the Gee's Bend Ferry as a pedestrian," said a press release from Gee's Bend.
"There will be transportation options provided in Gee's Bend that will expand your festival experience to the homes of some quilters and other historically important areas of the community."
There also be a ferry across the Alabama River, which can be accessed by parking nearby to board a free shuttle to the ferry and ride for a $1 fee.
A “hop-on, hop-off” bus service will be available for the first time.
Additionally there will be live entertainment and music, including a performance by the choir from Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, as well as beginner quilting workshops, a Kids’ Creative Corner with activities for children, and readings by authors Tangular Irby and Tinnie Pettway.
Tickets can be purchased at this link.
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