Students, staff and neighborhood residents came to St. Joseph’s University, New York (SJNY) on Feb. 19 to hear Dr. Myrah Brown Green, Ph.D., talk about her solo exhibition of quilts. “My Underground Railroad: The Journey Continues”—which includes several large-scale pieces of her work—is available for viewing through the end of the month inside in the University’s Tuohy Hall’s Alumni Room Gallery.
The exhibition was arranged by SJNY’s Council for the Arts, which hosts many events at the Brooklyn Campus that offer students and the public exposure to artists and their works.
A symbolist artist, Dr. Brown Green is a self-taught quilter. She learned as an adult after a friend invited her to a local quilting guild.
Dr. Myrah Brown Green with one of her quilts.
Quilts have been “her canvas” for almost 40 years, she said.
The fabrics used in her quilting tie back to the educational pursuits that first brought this Massachusetts native to New York. She came to Brooklyn to study fashion merchandising at the Pratt Institute.
It was at Pratt where she made her first quilt–or more accurately, what she thought was her first quilt—which she submitted for an assignment.
While an “A” student, she received a “C” on the project.
“I was devastated,” she said.
It wasn’t until years later, after she joined the quilting guild, that Dr. Brown Green came to understand what impacted her grade.
“The reason I got the C was because I didn’t put batting in the fabric. I didn’t quilt it, ” she shared, referring to a technical aspect that makes a quilt a quilt.
Dr. Brown Green has a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies with a focus in world symbols, and this influences her work.
“Every quilt that I do is filled with symbols,” she said.
For example, a piece entitled “a2 + b2 +c2: In Perpetuity” explores her role as a mother. There are four ankhs featured in the quilt design. These Egyptian symbols represent her children. The indigo fabric used in the border of the quilt is a nod to motherhood, according to Dr. Brown Green.
African cowry shells are also found throughout her work.
In “The Administrator: You Belong at the Table,” Dr. Brown Green used the back and front of cowry shells as binary code, spelling out the phrase: “you belong at the table.”
Other symbols—trees, wings and peter pan collars—are visible in the quilts on display at SJNY.
Dr. Brown Green, who resides in Brooklyn, is also an art historian, author, arts consultant, independent curator and adjunct professor currently teaching art history at Medgar Evers College.
“I want to have a conversation,” Dr. Brown Green told the audience gathered at SJNY’s Brooklyn Campus. She answered questions, shared insight about her process, discussed quilt works and much more during the session.
In addition to the Feb. 19 common hour discussion, Dr. Brown Green also spoke on campus on Saturday, Feb. 15.
