Awestruck before an Unforgettable Nubian Queen, or From Gee’s Bend to Royalty by Carolyn W. White

Awestruck before an Unforgettable Nubian Queen, or From Gee’s Bend to Royalty by Carolyn W. White

February 22, 2023

Watch as Katherine Jentleson, Senior Curator of American Art and Merrie and Dan Boone Curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art, discusses Carolyn W. White’s quilt.

This quilt by Carolyn W. White, which won Best in Show at the Atlanta Quilt Festival in 2021, speaks to many cultural touchstones through its layered concepts and intricate stitching.

In 2020, the Brown Sugar Stitchers Quilt Guild issued a quilting challenge for its members: to honor the African American quilters who came before them and on whose shoulders they now stand. The resulting quilt, Awestruck before an Unforgettable Nubian Queen, or From Gee’s Bend to Royalty, is a testament to how White embeds meaning and networks of artistic and cultural references in her quilts.

In this work, White depicts Parker Curry standing awestruck before Amy Sherald’s portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama—a moment that went viral on the internet in 2018. A tiny speaker embedded in the quilt once played Nat King Cole’s duet with his daughter Natalie Cole. The song emphasizes the impact of the forty-fourth president, whom White honors with forty-four virtues stitched into Curry’s pink jacket. The quilt also salutes the Gee’s Bend quilters, whose improvisational style is reflected in Mrs. Obama’s dress.