John Budan
Trapunto
Tiny, isolated Gees Bend was once a sprawling plantation, and many of the local women are direct descendants of the slaves who picked cotton for its wealthy owner. For a hundred years they have shared the common bond of quilt making while living in extreme poverty. They sit hour after hour, their needles plunging over and under.
One day “the man” appeared wanting to buy their work. But he was disdainful of their finely crafted quilts with fourteen stitches to the inch. Instead, he wanted the primitive, poorly made rejects buried in barns and attics that were crafted from castoff scraps of mismatched materials. Of course, he explained, he could not pay much because of their inferior quality. The poor women were delighted to receive the pittance offered by the foolish man.
The clever buyer sold the quilts for thousands after they were displayed as “folk art” in major museums across the country. Some were featured on U.S. postage stamps.
oppression etched
over the face
of a sharecropper
breaking the still air
on a broken porch swing
About the Author
John Budan has published widely. He lived in France where he found his alter ego Guignol in Paris at the Jardin du Luxembourg.