Kyra E. Hicks (born October 1, 1965) is an author,

quilter Quilting is the term given to the process of joining a minimum of three layers of fabric together either through stitching manually using a needle and thread, or mechanically with a sewing machine or specialised longarm quilting system. ...

and quilt historian. She writes about African-American quilt history and encouraging quilt documentation. She has created story quilts, such as ''Black Barbie'', which is in the permanent collection of the

Fenimore Art Museum The Fenimore Art Museum (formerly known as New York State Historical Association) is a museum located in Cooperstown, New York on the west side of Otsego Lake. Collection strengths include the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian ...

in New York City.

Education

Kyra Hicks graduated from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. She works professionally as an ecommerce and marketing director. She lives in

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...

Quilting

Hicks specializes in creating narrative or story quilts. The themes include being a single black woman, politics, family, and religion. All of her quilts include words as well as designs. Her ''Patriotic Quilt'' (1995) is in the permanent collection of the

Museum of Arts and Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the mus ...

in New York. It includes the names of prominent American black women

Lani Guinier Carol Lani Guinier (; April 19, 1950 – January 7, 2022) was an American educator, legal scholar, and civil rights theorist. She was the Bennett Boskey Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and the first woman of color appointed to a tenured p ...

Joycelyn Elders Minnie Joycelyn Elders (born Minnie Lee Jones; August 13, 1933) is an American pediatrician and public health administrator who served as Surgeon General of the United States from 1993 to 1994. A vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commiss ...

, and

Anita Hill Anita Faye Hill (born July 30, 1956) is an American lawyer, educator and author. She is a professor of social policy, law, and women's studies at Brandeis University and a faculty member of the university's Heller School for Social Policy and ...

. Hicks created her ''Black Barbie'' quilt, which was displayed in the Fenimore Art Museum's exhibition ''Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art'' (2010). She addressed issues of body image, western society's obsession with beauty, and the neglect of the African American when creating toys and other ephemera for children. The illustration features the American

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...

doll depicted as a black woman, with the text "Barbie" above it, and below it the phrase: "Was never intended for me." But Mattel sold the first black Barbie fashion doll in 1980.

Research

In her quilt history research, Hicks found only the second known photograph to exist of

Harriet Powers Harriet Powers (October 29, 1837 – January 1, 1910) was an American folk artist and quilter. Born into slavery in rural northeast Georgia, she married young and had a large family. After the American Civil War and emancipation, she and her hu ...

, an African-American slave, folk artist and quilt maker from rural

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. Powers used traditional appliqué techniques to record local legends, Bible stories, and astronomical events on her quilts. Two if her quilts have survived: ''Bible Quilt'' (1886) and ''Pictorial Quilt'' (1898). Hicks has confirmed the price of ''Pictorial Quilt'', paid by owner Maxim Karolik. After acquiring it, he donated the quilt to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Hicks was one of four African-American women quilters profiled in a PhD dissertation by Yolanda Woods, ''New World African Conjurers Who Edify and Heal the Community''.

Bibliography

* * '' Martha Ann’s Quilt for Queen Victoria'' (2007) * ''This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers’ Bible Quilt and Other Pieces'' (2009) * ''1.6 Million African American Quilters: Survey, Sites, and a Half-Dozen Art Quilt Blocks'' (2010) * ''The Lord’s Supper Pattern Book: Imagining Harriet Powers’ Lost Bible Story Quilt'' (2011) * ''How to Self-Publish Your Own Quilt Catalog: A Workbook for Quilters, Guilds, Galleries and Textile Artists'' (2012) * ''Franklin Roosevelt’s Postage Stamp Quilt: The Story of Estella Weaver Nukes’ Presidential Gift'' (2012) * ''Liberia: A Visit Through Books'' (2008, co-author) * ''The Return of the Guinea Fowl: An Autobiographical Novel of a Liberian Doctor'' (2011, co-author) * ''Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African American Quilters,'' Patricia A. Turner. University Press of Mississippi (2009). Kyra Hicks wrote the foreword * ''The Quilt: A History and Celebration of an American Art Form,'' by Elise Schebler Roberts, with contributions from Jennifer Chiaverini, Sandra Dallas, Kyra Hicks and Helen Kelley. Voyageur Press (2007). Hicks contributed the article "Black Women Have Always Quilted." * ''St. James Guide to Black Artists''. Edited by Thomas Riggs. St. James Press (1997). Hicks contributed the profile of

Sonia Boyce Sonia Dawn Boyce, (born 1962) is a British Afro-Caribbean artist and educator, living and working in London. She is a Professor of Black Art and Design at University of the Arts London. Boyce's research interests explore art as a social pract ...

, British Painter and Mixed Media Artist.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hicks, Kyra E American art historians Quilters 1965 births Living people Writers from Los Angeles Howard University alumni University of Michigan alumni American women historians Women art historians Artists from Los Angeles 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American artists 20th-century American women artists American textile artists 21st-century American historians 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women artists Historians from California