When I was a college student the early 1970s, a period of social upheaval, personal questioning  and, well, adolescent rebellion, I explored religions beyond my own Jewish background.  For a while, I attended a Black Baptist church in my college town in upstate New York, drawn by the spirit, heartfelt preaching, expressiveness and rousing choral music, all of which were quite different from the Jewish rituals with which I had grown up.  I was struck by the intensity of spiritual connection.  Ultimately, I reclaimed the Jewish traditions of my youth when I found a congregation with many of the elements that drew me to the black church.

Later, during the rise of Black Lives Matter, another period of questioning and upheaval, like many Americans, I engaged in immersive study of the racial history of my country.  To counter some of the despair I felt about centuries of brutality, exploitation and injustice, I wanted to express appreciation for African Americans’ contributions and honor my experience while visiting the Baptist church.

To make Lift Every Voice, I used Photoshop to set a found photograph in grayscale / high contrast, which I then sized and had printed on cotton fabric.  Using Intktense dye pencils, set with aloe vera gel and heat, I added the color highlights and shadows by hand, after which I quilted the entire piece.