Embroidery & Quilt artworks by Conya Gilmore Exhibited at The Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia in 2025

Title of Work: The Stars Whisper Her Name

Materials: Canvas, Embroidery Thread, & Okra Dust

"These plants are our first libraries. Their roots hold stories no book could bind."

THE SERIES This quartet of embroidered portraits—Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, Nina Simone, and Billie Holiday —projects the Elders forward in time to honor and maintain a continuity of our collective memory by bringing them into the future we seek to co-create. Each figure carries seeds, dried herbs, and remedies in their cosmic travels, stitching their legacies into the soil of our collective future.

MEDIUM & METHOD Embroidered portraits on repurposed cotton canvas Sketched drafts enclosed as backing for embroidered art.