Carolyn L. Mazloomi
Carolyn L. Mazloomi | |
|---|---|
| Born | Carolyn Louise Stewart August 22, 1948 Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Northrop University University of Southern California |
| Occupation(s) | Author, art historian, curator, quilter, aerospace engineer |
| Known for | Quilting |
Carolyn L. Mazloomi (née Carolyn Louise Stewart;[1] born August 22, 1948)[1] is an American curator, quilter, author, art historian, and aerospace engineer. She is a strong advocate for presenting and documenting African-American-made quilts. Her own quilts are designed to tell complex stories around African-American heritage and contemporary experiences.[2]
Life
[edit]Carolyn Louise Stewart was born in 1948 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,[1] to a family of amateur artists and painters. She graduated from Northrop University in Inglewood, California, and worked in Los Angeles as an aerospace engineer.
In the early 1970s, she encountered an Appalachian quilt at a market in Dallas that began her passion for quilting. She continued her quilting experiments while earning her PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering in 1984.[3]
Mazloomi has since retired from her job as an aerospace engineer and Federal Aviation Administration crash site investigator. She is married to Iranian engineer Rezvan Mazloomi, and together the family lives in Ohio.[4]
Women of Color Quilters Network
[edit]In the mid-1980s after trying unsuccessfully to expand her small Los Angeles-based African-American quilting circle, Mazloomi placed an advertisement in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine requesting correspondence with other quilters who shared this frustration. Her advertisement and the resulting correspondence led to the formation of the Women of Color Quilters Network (WOCQN)[5] in 1986,[6] a national organization of 1,700 members.
Founding members of the WOCQN included Mazloomi, Claire E. Carter, aRma Carter, Cuesta Benberry, Meloydy Boyd, Michael Cummings, Peggie Hartwell, and Marie Wilson.[7]
Quilting
[edit]Mazloomi works in narrative quilts that tell stories through visuals. Common themes include music, inspired by an aunt who owned a Louisiana juke joint, and the African-American experience during the Civil Rights Movement.
Mazloomi currently serves on the board of directors of the Alliance for American Quilts.
Works authored on quilting
[edit]- Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts (1998). ISBN 978-0609600917
- Threads of Faith: Recent Works from the Women of Color Quilters Network (2004). ISBN 978-1585167739
- Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition (2007). ISBN 978-0979267505
- Quilting African American Women's History Our Challenges, Creativity and Champions (2008). ISBN 978-0979267512
- The Journey of Hope in America: Quilts Celebrating President Barack Obama (2009). ISBN 978-0760339350
Awards
[edit]- In 1999 she was awarded the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Award for Best Nonfiction book, for her work Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts.[8][9]
- In 2003 Dr. Mazloomi was awarded the first Ohio Heritage Fellowship Award.[10]
- In 2014 Dr. Mazloomi was a recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship, specifically the Bess Lomax Hawes Award, bestowed by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[8]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Hicks, Kyra E. (March 15, 2013). "Mazloomi, Carolyn". Oxford African American Studies Center. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.37452. ISBN 978-0-19-530173-1.
- ^ Women designers in the USA, 1900–2000 : diversity and difference : Jacqueline M. Atkins [and others]. Kirkham, Pat., Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2000. ISBN 9780300087345. OCLC 45486311.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ Laitman, Nanette (September 30, 2002). "Oral history interview with Carolyn Mazloomi". Smithsonian Archives of American Art Oral History Program. Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
- ^ Curnutte, Mark (February 1, 2014). "The heart of a lion". The Enquirer. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ ""The Women of Color Quilters Network Q.S.O.S.", The Quilt Index". Archived from the original on July 3, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
- ^ Women designers in the USA, 1900–2000 : diversity and difference : Jacqueline M. Atkins [and others]. Kirkham, Pat., Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2000. ISBN 9780300087345. OCLC 45486311.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ Kyra Hicks, Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook, NMcFarland & Company, 2002.
- ^ a b "Carolyn Mazloomi: Quilting community advocate". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. n.d. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
- ^ "Carolyn L. Mazloomi · Ohio University Press/Swallow Press". Retrieved April 27, 2017.
- ^ "PBS Arts – Home". PBS. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
External links
[edit]- Official website
- WorldCat Catalog of Works by or about Carolyn Mazloomi
- Women of Color Quilters Network
- 2015 NEA podcast
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- African-American women artists
- American art historians
- American quilters
- 1948 births
- Living people
- American women art historians
- Northrop University alumni
- 20th-century American women writers
- 21st-century American women writers
- Artists from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- American aerospace engineers
- Engineers from Louisiana
- 20th-century American engineers
- 21st-century American engineers
- Federal Aviation Administration personnel
- USC Viterbi School of Engineering alumni
- Writers from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- 20th-century American historians
- 21st-century American historians
- National Heritage Fellowship winners
- 20th-century American women engineers
- 21st-century American women engineers
- Historians from Louisiana
- 20th-century African-American women writers
- 20th-century African-American writers
- 21st-century African-American women writers
- 21st-century African-American writers
- Textile artists from Louisiana
- Women aerospace engineers