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The 2012 Black Presidents’ Day Exhibit featured portraits of nearly a dozen Story Skirters by photographers Andrew Beard,  Malik Yusef Cumbo, Ja'Tovia Gary,  and  Nasilele Holland. The following are excerpts from the 2012 exhibit:

#302 (Window). One of the 12 original BedStuy Story Skirters, rock musician Honeychild Coleman, poses with her mother’s pin cushion and scissors. She used them to sew the Obama skirt she is wearing. In the 1980’s, 30 years after school segregation was declared illegal, Honeychild’s mother and father moved into an all white neighborhood. Despite ongoing threats of violence, they helped Honeychild and her brother integrate the local elementary school.Honeychild’s skirt is made of fabric printed in Ghana to commemorate Obama’s visit in July 2009. She plans to leave it to her niece. Honeychild wore the skirt while touring with the Black Rock Coalition’s orchestra in France. She says she will tell her niece it was the 1^st time she felt proud to be an American while travelling. She says “I have worked in Italy and France since 1988, but until Obama’s election I always felt I had to hide the fact that I [was] an American [when] abroad, due to [my] embarrassment [about] the political climate here. Even during the election it felt as if the world was watching… The pride and ease I have felt travelling abroad since President Obama has been in office is immense.”

Fabric Manufacturer:  Akosombo Textiles, LTD of Accra, Ghana (West Africa). 2009
Photographer:  Ja’ToviaGary

#324. A Bedstuy Story Skirter poses with her daughter. She wears an Obama fabric printed at a workshop for the 2011 Black President’s Day Exhibition. Her daughter wears a green machine print Obama fabric, also from Nigeria.
When asked about her purple Obama fabric, this Story Skirter says “…it really brings to mind our experience travelling from the continent, through America… our experiences here… to this day when we have a black president. It’s a wonderful thing.”
Fabrics: At left, print made by BedStuy Story Skirter with artist Shani Peters on hand dyed fabric. At right, Sun Flag Classic Prints of Lagos, Nigeria (West Africa). 2011 and 2008
Fashion designer: W.O.W. by Wunmi
Photographer: Malik Yusef Cumbo 

#200A. One of the 12 original BedStuy Story Skirters poses with a serving dish that belonged to her godmother, a noted civil rights activist from Tennessee.  Her godmother was very politically minded and always looking for ways to help develop the next generation of Afro-American leaders. Since she and her husband had no children of their own, they decided to seek out a promising young Afro-American high school student and put him through college, the same way they would have done with their own child. In this way, they hoped to help raise a future black doctor, lawyer, or maybe even president.

This Story Skirter says she enjoys her skirt because “…wearing the skirt encouraged me to be more politically aware. I took more of an interest in the political climate because I wanted to be prepared to speak with knowledge about what my President was saying and doing.”

Fabric Manufacturer:  Akosombo Textiles, LTD. of Accra, Ghana (West Africa). 2009

Fashion designer:  Kebbe’s Fashions

Photographer: Andrew Green