Waterfall Arts in Belfast will host “Transmissions Quilts: Home & Away,” a weeklong exhibition of quilts, poetry, oral histories and interdisciplinary works, June 5 to 12. Presented in collaboration with Trans Poetics Archive, Out in the Open and the Belfast Poetry Festival, the exhibition and all accompanying events are free and open to the public. Free registration is required for workshops.
The Transmissions Quilts Project is an ongoing initiative that commissions trans artists to create gift quilts for individually nominated trans recipients. Rooted in the tradition of quilting as a marker of life transitions, the project centers trans lives, relationships and geographies. Each quilt emerges through a collaborative process: recipients are nominated by community members, paired with artists through an intake interview and invited into ongoing conversation and oral storytelling with the quilter. The resulting works become textile portraits — deeply personal interpretations of each participant’s story rendered through fabric, stitching and shared experience.
“Home & Away” is part of a New England tour featuring work by Northeast-based trans artists and collaborators whose practices engage storytelling through language and fabric. Participating artists include Travis Clough, Dan Toomre, Maddy Magnuson, Danika Azevedo, Joey Dehais, Abby Meyeroal, Nailah Taman, Jordan Lister, Lunilah Project, hail linnet and Cordy Joan.
“We’re committed to celebrating a wide range of people in our trans community, including those living far from traditional art hubs,” said Joan, director of Transmissions Quilts. “Bringing this exhibition to Belfast felt like an important way to extend that reach and deepen those connections.”
Amy Tingle, program director at Waterfall Arts, called the exhibition “life-affirming on every level.” “Trans rights are under attack in large and small ways, and this is our opportunity to stand in solidarity with the trans community and give them a safe space to be held and seen,” Tingle said. “Their impulse is our impulse: welcome trans people and offer them a reminder that the web of life holds them fiercely.”
“Uplifting and celebrating trans creatives, engaging new folks in creative practice, and celebrating our thriving trans community in a space that is accessible to all is an important antidote to a social and political climate that seeks to make us feel invalid and invisible,” said Grace Johnston-Fennell, director of Out in the Open.
Maya Stein, director of the Belfast Poetry Festival, said the festival is excited to support the project by hosting a community open mic to open the exhibition. “For 21 years, the Belfast Poetry Festival has elevated the work of poets throughout Maine and created invitations for writers to come to Belfast to share their craft and inspire new audiences,” Stein said.
EVENTS
The opening celebration and poetry open mic, headlined by Lou Hoecker and hosted by the Belfast Poetry Festival, will be held June 5 from 5 to 8 p.m. On June 6 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Lunilah will host a Transmissions/Lunilah text(ile) workshop open to self-identified trans community members only. On June 7 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sampson Spadafore and Hoecker will host “Hand in Hand: Poetry and Contact Improv,” a workshop free and open to everyone.
An ADA-accessible portable restroom will be available on site near the gallery entrance. Workshops will take place in the Clifford Gallery on the ground level. Masking is welcome. Attendees who are feeling sick are encouraged to stay home.
Register for workshops at waterfallarts.org/transmissions-poetry.
Waterfall Arts is at 256 High St., Belfast. See waterfallarts.org for details.
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