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Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South surveys some of the richly diverse quiltmaking traditions maintained by Black women in the US South during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Drawn from the Mississippi Museum of Art’s holdings, the works featured in this publication highlight a major 2022 gift of quilts collected by renowned Black folklife documentarian Roland L. Freeman. Over sixty handmade quilts, quilters’ portraits, and related objects together emphasize the importance of Mississippi and the broader South as foundational sites of knowledge production and artistic development.

In earlier studies of African American quilters, Freeman observed that popular interest in quilts had resulted in “insufficient attention to who these quilters were, what quilting meant in their lives and what it represented within their community.” While quilt revivals in the 1970s and '80s generated renewed interest in how geography and autobiography inform quiltmaking, there has been minimal consideration of the nuanced roles that race, gender, and class play in shaping the public's understanding of quilting traditions and techniques. Prevailing scholarship continues to frame Black southern quiltmaking as an exclusively improvisational artform. Of Salt and Spirit intervenes in this narrative by foregrounding the complex relational and archival practices of Black women quilters who cultivate networks of mutual support and preserve personal histories around and through their craft.

The book features ninety-five color illustrations; essays by exhibition curator Sharbreon Plummer, Lauren Cross (Gail-Oxford Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens), and Danielle Mason (folklorist); as well as a roundtable discussion among contemporary quilters facilitated by Lydia Jasper, assistant curator of the Permanent Collection, Mississippi Museum of Art.

About Homecooked:

Homecooked is a quarterly print magazine that celebrates real-life recipes and the stories behind them. Each issue brings you into the kitchens of everyday people from across America, sharing meals passed down through generations, new creations inspired by local fare, and the meaningful moments that make them special.

Our goal is to reimagine the traditional food magazine for today’s readers, offering practical, delicious recipes alongside in-depth profiles of the people and places that shape the food we love. With 164 pages of candid photography and authentic storytelling, Homecooked is more than just a collection of recipes—it’s a beautifully crafted experience that feels right at home in your kitchen and on your coffee table, where cherished memories are made and shared.

Our first issue, featuring the vibrant flavors of The Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts, launched December 1, 2024. Join us as we celebrate the heart and soul of home cooking.

Dr. Plummer began writing for Homecooked Magazine in 2024.

Since 2021, Dr. Plummer has written for Quiltfolk, quarterly print magazine that celebrates the people and stories behind the stitches. Through the art of storytelling, Quiltfolk explores the lives, work, history, and stories of our fellow quilters.

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Diasporic Threads: Black Women, Fibre & Textiles is an important publication from Common Threads Press that highlights Black women's contributions to art and history through fibre-related mediums. This publication surveys the history of Black women and textiles in North America, and spotlights five artists through a series of interviews, paying careful attention to the intersections of race, art, and cultural memory. Centering art history and education through Black feminist framework, Diasporic Threads asks readers to question how we can best honor the work and artistic creativity of Black women

“Diasporic Threads platforms a stunning selection of works by contemporary Black women textile artists and is rich in critical insight and historical context.” - Ferren Gipson, author of Women's Work: From Feminine Arts to Feminist Arts and The Ultimate Art Museum.

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By Sharbreon Plummer, Ph.D. and Joni Boyd Acuff, Ph.D.

In this chapter, Frantz Fanon’s work is used as a philosophical guide that allows the authors to conceptualize the social and racial inequities situated in the art world and artwork histories. The addition of Fanon to the Critical Race Theory discourse is very much intentional, as his work allows the authors to argue that the issue of racism is not only about the systemic invisibility of Blackness, but also about the systemic non-existence of Blackness when Whiteness is not present to “other” it. After applying Fanon’s philosophy and CRT to artwork histories, the authors narrow their discussion to a nuanced investigation of Black women’s attempts to move from a static object to a lived subject in the arts by introducing Plummer’s emergent framework of a Black Feminist Material culture.

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FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art was an exhibition comprised of artist commissions, performances, films, and public programs that will launch its inaugural edition in July of 2018. An American City: Eleven Cultural Exercises, in collaboration with museums, civic institutions, and alternative spaces across Cleveland, Akron and Oberlin, showcased an ambitious roster of projects, including performance and theater throughout the landscape and built environment. Dr. Plummer’s contributions include artist profiles on Kerry James Marshall, Michael Oatman, Odili Donald Odita, Walter Price, Martine Syms and Lauren Yeager.

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