Of Salt and Spirit is the exhibition book for the exhibit by the same name of the Mississippi Museum of Art’s quilt collection. This show, according to the museum’s website, took place from November 16, 2024, through May 18, 2025. Here’s a link to the exhibition website: Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South - Mississippi Museum of Art.
The heart of this book is the photographs of the quilts, and the quilts are gorgeous. Full-page or double-page quilt pictures appear at the very beginning and end of the book, between most of the different sections, and, sometimes, within sections. The longest section, by far, “Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South: Works from the Exhibition,” consists almost entirely of quilt photographs and brief, factual descriptions of each quilt, with short bits of text introducing each subsection. Smaller pictures of quilts illustrate the text in other sections.
Images of both whole quilts and, in some instances, of details, are depicted. The styles and patterns of quilts portrayed vary widely. Strip quilts, patchwork quilts, star quilts, and story quilts, among others, are included. Since, with the exception of a few old fieldwork photographs, all the pictures are in color, this is a visually very striking and appealing book.
The quilt photographs and the exhibit are supported, contextualized, and analyzed in several accompanying essays. The preface is contributed by Betsy Bradley and, in addition to offering the usual acknowledgments, she discusses her own early experience with quilts and the Museum’s quilt collection.
Editor Sharbreon Plummer’s essay, “Of Salt and Spirit: A Love Letter to Black Southern Women,” addresses the cultural contributions of the South; the creative work of African Americans, especially women who were raised in the South; the creation of hybrid and varied forms of culture in the South; and the spreading of Southern culture during African Americans’ Great Migration from the South to northern cities. Plummer also discusses the “Black feminist lens,” in particular, an awareness of the undervaluing of Black women’s artistic work, which informs the exhibit.
Lauren Cross’s essay, “Black Southern Women and Quilting as Womanist Practice,” discusses her family connection to quilting as well as literary depictions of and academic research on African American quilting. The essay’s title refers to Alice Walker’s “womanist” approach, which, Cross says, “celebrates the everyday creative, cultural, and communal contributions of Black women” (20). Cross also emphasizes the diversity of the African American quilting tradition.
Danielle Mason’s essay, “So You Can See Past the Eyes: Roland L. Freeman and the Art of Preservation,” discusses Freeman’s contributions to the exhibit and to the study of African American culture, especially quilting. These contributions have, by this point in the book, already been acknowledged to varying degrees by Bradley, Plummer, and Cross. Plummer, for instance, notes that just under half the quilts on display at the exhibit came originally from Freeman’s quilt collection. She also briefly discusses his ethnographic research and the resulting book. Cross discusses Freeman and his work at somewhat more length. As well, the final subsection of the “Works from the Exhibit” section includes pictures of phototransfer quilts that Freeman designed (although the actual sewing was done by women) as well as a couple of photographs Freeman took of quilters with some of their quilts.
Mason’s essay discusses Freeman’s childhood, during which he was steeped in African American cultural practices, including some relating to quilts; the perspective he brought with him to ethnography; the importance of preservation both in African American culture and in his work; and his fieldwork, especially his use of photography and his establishment of ongoing and mutually beneficial relationships with the people he researched.
The final chapter, “Threading the Needle: Black Quilters on Place and Practice,” is the transcript of an interview that Lydia Jasper conducted with three Black, Southern women quilters: Precious Lovell, Geraldine Nash, and Gustina Atlas. Themes addressed in the interview include the quilters’ general life experiences, how they learned to quilt, the place of quilting in their lives, Roland Freeman’s interactions with the local quilting community to which two of the interviewees belonged, Freeman’s contributions to quilting generally, and the cultural importance of quilting to African American women.
Other highlights in Of Salt and Spirit are the text of the poem from which the title of both book and exhibit come, Ashley M. Jones’s “I Cannot Talk about the South without Talking about Black Women”; quotations from African American women writers; and photographs of quilters and/or their contexts, including a montage of photographs and documents from Freeman’s fieldwork.
Of Salt and Spirit appears to be geared towards the average exhibit viewer, who perhaps has some interest in quilts but may or may not be particularly knowledgeable about them. To a large extent, the essays are accessible, although some academic vocabulary is used and not always well explained. Because it is so visual, however, the book is likely to be of interest to quilters, other artists and craftspeople, and, to some extent, a more general audience, whether the viewers find the essays accessible and interesting or not.
Academically, this book could appropriately be used in teaching undergraduate introduction to folklore courses, where it would reinforce instruction on tradition and variation in folklore as well as fieldwork ethics. It could also be used in undergraduate material culture and folk art courses. As well, teachers of women’s studies, African American studies, or Southern studies courses inside or outside the discipline of folklore might find Of Salt and Spirit useful, as might art teachers. The book probably contains too little theory to be appropriate for most graduate courses, but graduate students may be able to find other ways to make appropriate use of it.
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[Review length: 944 words * Review posted on October 10, 2025]