thelmasmith

I spent an afternoon the other day doing a lot of research on the Gees Bend women and quilts. Many of my references (below) require membership in the QuiltArt list. Some of the messages I wrote I will reprint here.

“October 6, 2002, please pick up or check the library for the November issue of Conde Nast’s House and Garden. Page 98 is titled Stitches in Time by Barbar Pollack. Shown in four color are Annie Mae Young an her indigo quilt. Also shown is a quilt by Mary Lee Bendolph. A Rachel Carey George quilt, 1938, that is the most subtle and lovely of them all. Netti Young’s Milky Way quilt, and the late Lillie Mae Pettway’s 6′x5′ quilt made in 1965. And last, but certainly not least, Loretta Pettway’s quilt made in 1960.”

My statement, seriously edited to placate the demographics of the QuiltArt list says in part, “Those purchases – – – gave the curators a wealth of opportunity – – – That body of work is unlikely to be reproduced by women in their seventies and eighties so the preservation is a mixed blessing.”

Gwen Magee countered, ” – – – gave the curators “a wealth of opportunity” to take incredibly unfair advantage of extremely poor people who had no idea that they were being “ripped off” and of what their work was worth.”

Naturally, the nature of the QuiltArt list created great uproar. Gwen’s integrity and credentials were despicably questioned. All I could do was give this response, “I want to commend her (Gwen) for the courage I lacked. I deleted a lot of sentences about my own feelings about the article I read.

My strongest emotions were those of anger, shame, and theft;”

Now, with the lawsuits beginning, those emotions of anger, shame, and theft are here again. They are tempered with hope. My wishes are to see the theft of copyright from these women for avarice and monetary gain righted. I certainly hope the attorneys for the women of Gees Bend see too it that punitive damages are requested in very high numbers.

Kyra Hicks blog, Black Threads, clearly examines the current situation. Please, go, read, scroll down, absorb all the unsavory details. Kyra writes of today’s news with dependable accuracy.

If you wish further information I’m adding a long list of hotlinks. Those from his.com are QuiltArt proprietals; you must be a member to access those hotlinks in their archives.
Gee’s Bend Quilters Claim Big Rip-Off

http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1181035097167800.xml&coll=3

Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/2fho5j

And would you believe, Matt Arnett now has a blog (only one posting):

http://tinwood.blogspot.com/2007/06/attorneys-for-arnett-family-respond-to.html

July 3, 2007, addition:  Matt Arnett now has two postings to his blog (the most recent one is about their press conference the other day. http://tinwood.blogspot.com/

This is an interesting book review:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4081/is_200603/ai_n17184448

> Gee’s Bend: A Fight for Rights – Ben Raines – June 15, 2007
> http://bama.live.advance.net/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1181899233121920.xml&coll=3&thispage=1
>
> Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/39f3kx

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1183022217278890.xml&coll=3&thispage=1#continue

<http://bama.live.advance.net/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1181899233121920.xml&coll=3&thispage=1>

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/home/orl-homesquiltart092902sep29,0,5340885.story?coll=orl-shoppinghg-headlinesforthe

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/news/stories/2007/06/17/geesbend0617a.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-December/047382.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043681.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043724.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043776.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043836.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043700.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043702.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043687.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043710.html

As a postscript to this long post, consider the differences between using an image under the fair use clause of the United States Copyright Laws for the purpose of informing and educating the public and the fact that a judge and a court will be examining the use of the copyrighted images of the works of the women of Gees Bend for manufacturing items for the profit of others.