Artists Diedrick Brackens, Basil Kincaid, and Adia Millett join Key Jo Lee to reflect, through the lens of their experience and studio practices, on the quilt not only as a physical object of warmth, protection, and care, but also as a poetic language of inheritance and self-making. Their conversation will consider how the materiality of quilts—pieced, patched, and passed down—becomes a metaphor for survival, resistance, and boundless Black creativity.

About the Artists

Diedrick Brackens, a Los Angeles–based textile artist originally from Mexia, Texas, is best known for woven tapestries that explore allegory and narrative through his autobiography, themes of African American and queer identity, and American history. His work employs techniques from West African weaving, quilting from the American South, and European tapestry.

Basil Kincaid comes from nine generations of quiltmakers in St. Louis, Missouri. Working with found, salvaged, and donated materials, he explores abstraction, identity, family, environmentalism, play, and discipline, honoring and evolving artistic traditions through his practice.

Adia Millett is an Oakland-based multidisciplinary artist who works in textiles, embroidery, and quilts, along with other media. Her art investigates the fragile interconnectedness among all living things, weaving the threads of African American experiences together with broader ideas of identity and collective history.