n Thursday, April 15 at 5:30 p.m. renowned quilt artist and Hamilton Heights resident Michael A. Cummings will discuss and show examples of his work in the Cohen Library Archives. He has been de_scribed by The New York Times as a "contemporary African-American quiltmaker whose work explores new avenues of quilt development, while connecting with an African heritage in the selection of symbols, and in the strong, high contrast of colors and patterns used." Mr. Cummings' quilts chronicle such subjects as the lives of Haitian boat people, the children of the Oklahoma City bombing, jazz musicians, family, and the milieu of Central Park.

Mr. Cummings, a program analyst for the New York State Council on the Arts, studied at the New York Art Students' League and holds an art degree from SUNY. He has had more than 15 solo and 50 group exhibitions, and his works are in the permanent collections of the Schomberg Center for Re_search in Black Culture, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the American Craft Museum, the California Afro-American Museum, and the City College of New York, to name just a few. His quilt, "Full Moon," owned by CCNY, will be on display in the Archives. A reception will follow this event celebrating National Library Week at CCNY, April 12 - 16. The program, free and open to all, is co-sponsored by the City College Library and its Friends, the Simon H. Rifkind Center for the Humanities at CCNY, the Art Department, and the Hamilton Heights Homeowners Association.
 
 

Related Readings For those interested in reading more about Mr. Cummings and the art of the quilt, please consult the following books on display during the program and then available in the library's collection: America's quilts. New York: Gallery Books, W.H. Smith, 1990.  Fiberarts design book five/ 5th ed.  Asheville, N.C. : Lark Books, 1995. Freeman, Roland L.  A communion of the spirits: Af ri can-American quilters, preservers, and their stories.  Nash ville, Tenn.: Rutledge Hill Press, 1996. Mazloomi, Carolyn. Spirits of the cloth: contemporary Af ri can American quilts. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1998. Shaw, Robert. Quilts; a living tradition.  Levin Associates, 1995.

 
 

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