Artwork Details
- Title
- From a Birmingham Jail: MLK
- Artist
- Date
- 1996
- Location
- Dimensions
- 50 x 42 1⁄2 x 2 1⁄4 in. (126.8 x 107.9 x 5.6 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of L’Merchie Frazier in memory of Watty and Alberta Frazier and James and Merchie Dooley (grandparents)
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- silk, photo transfer, gel medium, dyes, and beads
- Classifications
- Subjects
- History — United States — Black History
- History — United States — Civil Rights Movement
- Object — written matter
- Object — other — globe
- Portrait male — King, Martin Luther, Jr. — bust
- Object Number
- 2002.41
Artwork Description
The narrative that we've created in America doesn't contain enough of the everyday people . . . who are ordinary . . . but doing extraordinary things.
-- L'Merchie Frazier
L'Merchie Frazier documents history and recovers memory. She celebrates greatness and excavates the stories of long-forgotten individuals whose accomplishments offer models of strength to those living today. In her art and poetry, she provides answers to the questions: Whose voices are not being heard? Whose stories have been erased?
In From a Birmingham Jail, which is titled after one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s most famous writings, Frazier chronicles episodes in the life of Dr. King using the format of a traditional African strip quilt. Clips from the memorial issue of Jet magazine intermingled with symbols and images of Central and West African masks celebrate King as, in her words, "an activist, peacemaker, and tireless leader of humanity."
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