Levy Lecture Series: Quilting, Community, and the African American Aesthetic with Tracy Vaughn

Dr. Vaughn-Manley discusses the distinctive aspects that define the Black aesthetic quilting tradition and how quilting is used by Black women writers: Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, and others to assert individual/collective agency and build community (ies).

Tracy Vaughn-Manley is an assistant professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of African American Studies, and a Charles Deering McCormick Distinguished Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University. Her current research is on 20th-century Black women’s literature and the Black aesthetic quilting tradition. Dr. Vaughn-Manley is also a quilt artist/scholar. She was most recently profiled in the quarterly publication Quiltfolk, Issue 18: Illinois, April, 2021.