Carolyn L. Mazloomi

African-American art historian and quilter (b. 1948)

Carolyn L. Mazloomi
Born	Carolyn Louise Stewart (1948-08-22) August 22, 1948 (age 75) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.
Alma mater	Northrop University, University of Southern California
Occupation(s)	Author, art historian, curator, quilter, aerospace engineer
Known for	Quilting

Carolyn L. Mazloomi (née Carolyn Louise Stewart;^[1] born August 22, 1948)^[1] is an American curator, quilter, author, art historian, and aerospace engineer. She is a strong advocate for presenting and documenting African-American-made quilts. Her own quilts are designed to tell complex stories around African-American heritage and contemporary experiences.^[2]

Life

Carolyn Louise Stewart was born in 1948 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,^[1] to a family of amateur artists and painters. She graduated from Northrop University in Inglewood, California, and worked in Los Angeles as an aerospace engineer.

In the early 1970s, she encountered an Appalachian quilt at a market in Dallas that began her passion for quilting. She continued her quilting experiments while earning her PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering in 1984.^[3]

Mazloomi has since retired from her job as an aerospace engineer and Federal Aviation Administration crash site investigator. She is married to Iranian engineer Rezvan Mazloomi, and together the family lives in Ohio.^[4]

Women of Color Quilters Network

In the mid-1980s after trying unsuccessfully to expand her small Los Angeles-based African-American quilting circle, Mazloomi placed an advertisement in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine requesting correspondence with other quilters who shared this frustration. Her advertisement and the resulting correspondence led to the formation of the Women of Color Quilters Network (WOCQN)^[5] in 1986,^[6] a national organization of 1,700 members.

Founding members of the WOCQN included Mazloomi, Claire E. Carter, aRma Carter, Cuesta Benberry, Meloydy Boyd, Michael Cummings, Peggie Hartwell, and Marie Wilson.^[7]

Quilting

Mazloomi works in narrative quilts that tell stories through visuals. Common themes include music, inspired by an aunt who owned a Louisiana juke joint, and the African-American experience during the Civil Rights Movement.

Mazloomi currently serves on the board of directors of the Alliance for American Quilts.

Works authored on quilting

Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts (1998). ISBN 978-0609600917
Threads of Faith: Recent Works from the Women of Color Quilters Network (2004). ISBN 978-1585167739
Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition (2007). ISBN 978-0979267505
Quilting African American Women's History Our Challenges, Creativity and Champions (2008). ISBN 978-0979267512
The Journey of Hope in America: Quilts Celebrating President Barack Obama (2009). ISBN 978-0760339350

Awards

In 1999 she was awarded the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Award for Best Nonfiction book, for her work Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts.^[8]^[9]
In 2003 Dr. Mazloomi was awarded the first Ohio Heritage Fellowship Award.^[10]
In 2014 Dr. Mazloomi was a recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship, specifically the Bess Lomax Hawes Award, bestowed by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Hicks, Kyra E. (March 15, 2013). "Mazloomi, Carolyn". Oxford African American Studies Center. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.37452. ISBN 978-0-19-530173-1.
^ Women designers in the USA, 1900–2000 : diversity and difference : Jacqueline M. Atkins [and others]. Kirkham, Pat., Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2000. ISBN 9780300087345. OCLC 45486311.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^ Laitman, Nanette (September 30, 2002). "Oral history interview with Carolyn Mazloomi". Smithsonian Archives of American Art Oral History Program. Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
^ Curnutte, Mark (February 1, 2014). "The heart of a lion". The Enquirer. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
^ ""The Women of Color Quilters Network Q.S.O.S.", The Quilt Index". Archived from the original on July 3, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
^ Women designers in the USA, 1900–2000 : diversity and difference : Jacqueline M. Atkins [and others]. Kirkham, Pat., Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2000. ISBN 9780300087345. OCLC 45486311.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^ Kyra Hicks, Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook, NMcFarland & Company, 2002.
^ ^a ^b "Carolyn Mazloomi: Quilting community advocate". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. n.d. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
^ "Carolyn L. Mazloomi · Ohio University Press/Swallow Press". Retrieved April 27, 2017.
^ "PBS Arts – Home". PBS. Retrieved April 27, 2017.