Black Female Artistic Tradition Through Folk Art in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker

  Traditional African American style quilt from the same

era as the quilts in "Everyday Use," Pieced Housetop

        with Sacking Back by Susanna Allen Hunter. 1960s-1970s.

Black Female Artistic Tradition Through Folk Art in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker

Abbey Bowman

Folk art has been an integral part of Black tradition since before slavery. In Using Critical Theory, Lois Tyson outlines African American literary tradition with examples of Black culture, including “folk crafts, such as quilting and woodcarving” (Tyson 225). The practice of quilting was popular among Black women during slavery as it not only gave them a practical skill for survival, but was a powerful form of resistance: “Log cabin designs the Pettway slaves learned may have hung outside as signposts along the Underground Railroad, their symbols telling runaway slaves which routes to take, which homes to avoid, and where they could find food and shelter on the road to freedom” (Robinson). Post-slavery, quilting became a “transmitter of cultural values, and thus became part of a Black female artistic tradition” (Klęczaj-Siara), and this theme crops up within Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” from 1973. Walker uses the Black female artistic tradition of quilting to explore what Black heritage means.

The family of “Everyday Use” is matriarchal in nature. Mama is a single mother with two daughters, Dee (Wangero) and Maggie. Mama supports the family single-handedly and teaches her daughters how to support themselves, Maggie through practical skills on their farmstead, and Dee through a college education. One practical skill that Maggie and Dee share, however, is the ability to sew, which relates heavily to quilting and Black female artistic tradition. Mama taught Dee to sew, and the text emphasizes the importance of work with textiles: “A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she’d made from an old suit somebody gave me.” (Walker 349). Like the Black women before her, Dee is resourceful, using technical skills like sewing to make something new. In Quiltmaking Among African-American Women as a Pedagogy of Care, Empowerment, and Sisterhood, Butler found that Black seamstresses were known for “demonstrating their resourcefulness by utilizing scrap material,” which Dee and her family do. In general, “Everyday Use” is interested in showing us the historical and symbolic meaning of textiles. When Dee comes to the house, she is described in “a dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it hurts my eyes. There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun” (Walker 348). Dee is wearing a typical African dress, and her aunt and grandmother’s old-fashioned dresses are later referenced as being sewn into the quilts. 

Sewing and quilting is a family tradition and a rite of passage in “Everyday Use,” passed to Dee and Maggie from Mama, Big Dee (Mama’s sister), and Grandma Dee. This is referenced in the line “Out came Wangero with two quilts. They had been pieced by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee and me had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them” (Walker 351). This notion is described in quilting-making by Robison: “Enslaved people weren’t allowed an education, so quilting lessons were passed down from family member to family member.” Mama, though not enslaved, only went to school until 2nd grade, so while not educated like her daughter Mama passes down other knowledge, like quilting. Mama goes on to explain the patterns of the quilts, and which articles of clothing originated from which family member: “One was in the Lone Star pattern. The other was Walk Around the Mountain. In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell’s Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War” (Walker 351). This section references two types of quilting patterns, a Lone Star and Walk Around the Mountain. Historically, the quilts of Black women featured impromptu patterns: “Unlike the organized, precise patterns that many white quilters made from Dutch and English designs, African American quilts were often raw and vibrant. They were stitched by hand with imagination and resourcefulness; old cotton dresses, frayed ribbon, and cotton seed bags offered unusual color palettes and textures” (Robinson). This can be seen in the hodge-podge of textiles. The section is also the first one to reference the Civil War and slavery, not dancing around the idea that Great Grandpa Ezra was not a free man. 

Dee, attracted to the quilts for historical purposes, wants to take them with her and put them up on the wall. When Mama tells Dee to put the quilts back and take the ones sewn by machine, Dee puts more importance over hand-stitch than machine stitch: ‘“That’s not the point,’ said Wangero. ‘These are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear. She did all this stitching by hand. Imagine!’ She held the quilts securely in her arms, stroking them” (Walker 352). Though Dee and Mama disagree on what it means to celebrate heritage, because at one time Dee had deemed the quilts “old-fashioned, out of style” (Walker 352), both women are preserving Black female artistic tradition. Dee sees the quilts as a piece of history that needs to be preserved, and Mama sees the quilts as something that can be put to “everyday use.” She thinks that she and Maggie can always make another quilt if they need it. Even still, both women value the quilts and the craft that went into them, with Mama becoming emotional and giving one to Maggie at the end of the story: “Just like when I’m in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout. I did something I never had done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero’s hands and dumped them into Maggie’s lap” (Walker 353). Mama metaphorically hands off the quilts to the next generation. 

The quilts that Mama and Dee fight over are undoubtedly a symbol of heritage, celebrating both the distant past and the not-so-distant past. Of quilting, Butler said that “[Black] quiltmakers found beauty in asymmetry.” This perfectly ties into the thesis of “Everyday Use.” Black history has asymmetry. While Black women persevered during and after slavery, they were often left out of the conversation regarding land ownership, voting rights, and other civil freedoms. They had to find community among other Black women and find artistic, creative ways to express themselves. The quilts are a product of their history, and although Mama does not acknowledge her African roots like Dee, that does not make her any less impactful to the family tree and history. She has taught her daughters technical skills, and this is how she shows her care for them, through Black female artistic tradition, just like how her sister and her mother before her did. She wants them to continue a legacy of empowerment through craftsmanship. 

Works Cited

Butler, Alana. “Quiltmaking among African-American Women as a Pedagogy of Care, 

Empowerment, and Sisterhood.” Gender & Education, vol. 31, no. 5, July 2019, pp. 590–603.

EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2019.1594708.

Klęczaj-Siara, Ewa. “Quilts and the Rhetoric of Black Resistance and Joy.” Res Rhetorica, vol. 9, no. 1, Jan. 2022, pp. 5–17. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.29107/rr2022.1.1.

Hunter, Susana Allen. Pieced Housetop with Sacking Back. 1960-1970. A Century of

African-American Quilts, Williamsburg, Virginia. The Art Museums of Colonial

Williamsburg, https://emuseum.history.org/objects/97111/quilt-pieced-housetop-with-

sacking-back?ctx=1008b20014b30fb4f65215209890f524279aa007&idx=4. Accessed March 2024.

Robinson, Robyne. “Quilts that Embody the Legacy of Black America.” National Gallery of Art,

 https://www.nga.gov/stories/quilts-embody-legacy-black-america.html. Accessed March 2024.

Tyson, Lois. Using Critical Theory. Available from: VitalSource Bookshelf, (3rd Edition). Taylor

& Francis, 2020.

Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Using Critical Theory, edited by Lois Tyson, Taylor & Francis,

  2020, pages 347-353.

“Quilting & Black History: How Artisans Are Continuing a Legacy.” Youtube, uploaded by

NowThis Impact, 28 February 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX7rTee

0urc&t=45s&ab_channel=NowThisImpact