Rasheeda Bey on Craft and Style
Thank you for your input and understanding. Enjoy!
Light,
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In the land of our ancestors, they tell this old story. They teach that when you have troubles share them with your doll.
Ra’Sheeda: Just born to do! I was raised in South Philly. Across the street from us was a post World War II factory and we used to go in there and play. It was huuuuge! I can still see it in my mind’s eyes. [There were] piles and piles and piles of what they call, “horse blankets.” This is World War II – I mean tons of cotton. I remember how the women would go in there and take those horse blankets and they would go inside of a quilt – that would be the batting. It was wool and it would just itch you. And they would cover it. I remember them taking the cotton and just pressing it on and, you know, the big stitches. They would sew the cotton down and they would put a backing on and a top. I mean a lot of women use to just go in there and get those blankets. I can just remember making the quilts. I was 3 or 4 years old. I started real young.
My first cousins… that’s all we did. It was just something you did. It wasn’t mandatory, it was just something that you did. If you were at my grandmother’s house you learned how to crochet. I had an aunt who was a master crocheter. You [also] learned how to knit.
At Christmas time we would get a new quilt. It was one of the things that you just got. In June, when my grandmother’s sisters would come up [from the south], everyone would participate. I remember cutting squares out cutting shapes out. At that time they were rag quilts – Grandpop’s shirt, Uncle Mo’s long johns, Aunt Sally’s apron, grandma’s whatever! They were just pieces and they would put them together.
Chekejai: You’ve been commissioned to do a great deal or work. You made quilts, dolls, clothes. What inspired you to make dolls?
Ra’sheeda: A lot of the dolls I make for friends – birthdays and that sort of thing.
There were dolls called “shelf-sitters”. I was looking through some old National Geographics magazines and there are several nations of women who have these long necks and they put the jewelry around their necks and rings and it would elongate their necks. And right before Imhotep (a charter school in Philadelphia where she teaches intergenerational quilt making), I think someone had brought in a pattern of them. They were little dolls but I made them bigger.
Chekejai: You patterned dolls after the women of nations?
Ra’Sheeda: Some in Borneo and some in Africa. I love how they can elongate their necks. I loved that from birth almost they could elongate their necks. I said, Wow! Look at what humanity can do.
Chekejai: You found great beauty in that.
Ra’Sheeda: I did! I really did! So I made them and everybody starting loving them. I made several dozen of them. They are so feminine. So womanly. I did one in the likeness of Oprah Winfrey and Gale - Best friends. Friendship and sisterly-friendship is very important to me. I did one of our magnificent first lady, Michele.
Chekejai: How long ago did you begin?
Ra’Sheeda: Every since I can remember I was making dolls but since the early 70’s. All kinds of dolls. I do them for Valentine’s Day - stuffed, Loveable dolls. There is one I call a healing doll. I make them for all occasions. They’re huggable. You put them on your bed. There is a worry doll. What you do is you write your worry down…and you stick them in this pocket. This is an old African tradition - folklore. While you sleep the doll will somehow help you to solve your problem.
Ra’Sheeda: There is a collection that I started called “The Grassroots Collection”. Each one also has a pocket in their belly. I stuff them with things that they say we brought through the middle passage. So I put rice, corn, beans, seeds, a little dirt, a couple of twigs. I put it into a little bag and zip it. The hair of the doll is locked. Now, about that, there is a story of the cornrow. In the story of the cornrow – was, during captivity and passage our ancestors would hide foodstuff in the braids and grow it here. Corn stuff and peas and actually hide it in the braid. Enslavers didn’t catch on. Hairstyles were so purposeful.
We (my family) used to make dolls out of socks and I still do. When I go into the schools, I tell the children, “C’mon bring an old pair of socks. If they have holes in them I’ll show you how to darn them up. Just make sure that they are clean and I show you how to make dolls out of socks.”
Make a little dress (for the girls) and the boys (she laughs lightly), you know the boys don’t want to make a doll. But I tell them, “you have action figures, it’s the same thing. A doll is a doll is a doll! An inanimate object! If you can play with an action figure you can make a doll.” They would come in there [Imhotep] and make them dolls.
They would put G.I. Joe (camouflage) fabric on them and they would really enjoy making a doll and I did that for years in the school system.
Chekejai: Yes, boys energize dolls very differently.
Ra’Sheeda: Yes they do. They want them to be muscle men! Wrestlers or something. And they would challenge each other, make them to fight each other (she laughs).
Chekejai: Kids don’t get home economics any more – sewing, is it a lost art?
Ra’Sheeda: A woman from Gee’s bend even said it, “there are only a couple of kids… for us.” For other cultures it’s a multi-mega-million dollor industry.
Chekejai: What are the benefits of sewing or any of these art forms?
Ra’Sheeda: Food, shelter and clothing.
Chekejai: Is there a spiritual component?
Ra’Sheeda: Survival, if you can do any of those things…growing your own food. It is a livelihood… it’s the genius inside of us that keeps us alive.
Chekejai: It also gives s since of empowerment and a source of pride. If you can create a way to make yourself look good. Your work is wonderful! Thank you so much!
Ra’Sheeda: You are welcome!
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