“WHAT THAT QUILT KNOWS ABOUT ME” “My whole life is in that quilt… my hopes and fears, my joys and sorrows, my loves and hates. I tremble sometimes when I remember what that quilt knows about me.” – anonymous elder needleworker

Joy and more specifically communal joy is shared between people across scales, experiences, and places – and, at times, in simultaneity with sorrow. Cole’s images capture these moments of joy that often occur in the shadow of (and in ways despite) the larger surrounding societal armatures. Women in South Africa share moments of rest while people in Harlem share music as places of communal joy disappear from the private sphere leaving them to create their own public and semi-private gatherings on sidewalks, stoops and at times streets.

Quilts have a way of saying what is often unheard, of telling history while also providing embodied comfort. This project seeks to give voice to some of these stories while also becoming a vessel for creating more.