PATRICIA AUGSBURGER: Day of the Thread

At Pueblo Nuevo, we love it all: we loved Renee Castro's wall painting; we loved Dignidad Rebelde's silkscreens; we loved Wixarika's photographs and collection of yarn paintings--so we are excited to have Patricia Augsburger bringing the art of quilting and textiles to Pueblo Nuevo this weekend (the opening reception is this Saturday, November 14 from 7 to 10 p.m.).

With Day of the Thread, Patricia Augsburger brings together a number of collaborators--who usually work in a variety of other mediums--to create works inspired by textiles and quilting.  You can check out the work of the other Day of the Thread collaborators here: Sophia Blum, Cathy Fairbanks, Laura Boles Faw, Lauren Hartman, Cynda Valle-Rogers, Izumi Yokoyama, and Steven McFarland.

Augsburger herself draws upon the long and beautiful tradition of American quilt-making, including the well-known women of the Quilter's Collective in Gee's Bend, Alabama and Amish Communities in Pennsylvania and the Midwest. The Gee's Bend Quilters' traveling exhibit stopped at the De Young Museum a few years ago, and an Amish Quilting show is opening at the De Young this weekend.

Linda Pettway, "Blocks and Stripes" (2003), part of the Quilter's Collective

"Thirty-Six Patch variation (crib quilt)" (ca. 1930), from an Amish community in Arthur, Illinois

To make her quilts, Augsburger often uses pieces of the Kanga cloth; made and used in parts of East Africa the Kanga is a multi-purpose cloth that is used to wear, to carry, to decorate. The styles of Kanga cloths are always in flux, and range from geometric patterns to images of newly-elected Barack Obama to images of trees and even a statesman's car:

 

Augsburger's work combines these elements into quilts that are nothing less than global.  Augsburger's two quilts below were on display at the Washington D.C. Historical Society earlier this year as part of Quilts for Obama, an exhibition of quilts from around the U.S. that celebrated and welcomed Obama's presidency.

If you can't catch us this Saturday night, try to join us for one of our Sundays events. Follow us on Facebook for the schedule.

RANDOM RELATED KNOWLEDGE

And while we're on quilting and the Kanga, here's a little something about the complex mathematics that are part of--not just found in--African cultural practices. Many of us know that math has never been the exclusive property of academics, but the way this is broken down is enlightening. 

AND FINALLY

On Friday, November 13 be sure to check out Pueblo's Miguel Bounce Perez at La Pena Cultural Center's Hecho en Califas Festival, where he will be presenting Hecho en Berkeley, a multimedia anthology of Berkeley Low Rider culture in the 1970s. The opening reception is from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the cafe lobby; the show will be up until November 29.

SUNDAYS: Bay Area Originals

SUNDAYS
Often, terribly sad and painful happenings in life reveal beautiful things--beautiful people, beautiful lives, beautiful stories, beautiful inspiration.  This past month has been a long one for Pueblo Nuevo Gallery; we mourned the passing and celebrated the life of one of our own's father.  This loss makes us pause and consider how fragile, how precious life is.  But this pause also allows us to reflect on all of the beauty that Paul M. Perez brought into this world.  Pueblo Nuevo is part of that legacy. Not only does the name Pueblo Nuevo come from the car club he was a part of, but we believe in the idea that the beautiful things we make with our hearts, brains, and hands--like Paul's '65 Riviera--are to be seen and shared.

In memory and honor of that legacy, last month we spent a Sunday at Pueblo, spinning oldies records as folks came through to remember Paul.  We're hoping to make Sundays a regular thing: a time to listen to good music and to check out the art we're showing, a space to create your own art, have a little something to drink, talk with folks--a little chilling on a Sunday afternoon to push back that case of the Mondays a few more hours. Follow us on Facebook and we'll keep you posted regarding the schedule of Sundays.

MORE ORIGINALS
Speaking of Berkeley originals, the Purple Moon Dance Project put on a beautifully moving dance performance last month in a back yard on Stuart Street in Berkeley. When Dreams Are Interrupted tells the story of Japanese Americans in Berkeley who were forced from their homes and interned in camps such as Topaz during World War II. Purple Moon founder Jill Togawa moved into her home in South Central Berkeley, and uncovered the history of her home, once inhabited by a Japanese American family--as were many homes in the neighborhood between Ashby and Dwight Way, between Martin Luther King, Jr. Way (then called Grove Street) and Sacramento. This site specific performance wove narrative and visual storytelling together and was supported by wonderful, live instrumentation. Check out a short video clip of the piece here.

Part of the performance focused on one member of the family, who returned to the West Oakland after the war and, informed and inspired by the injustice of internment, ended up working as one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party. Not only was this another amazing Bay Area story, but it turns out that a documentary has been made about this man, Richard Aoki, who passed away earlier this year.

It's late notice, but the flick is showing Thursday, November 12 at 8 p.m. at Grand Lake. Hopefully, it'll show again somewhere or will be available at some point on DVD. Nevertheless, it's Bay Area history, and as our folks at Come Bien Books say, ya need ta know about it!