Spring Garden Workshops: Stepping Stones to Freedom

SATURDAYS
April 13th & 20th  |  2-4pm
Join one or both sessions – free to attend

Featured artist and community organizer, Mable Sutton is literally taking a page from the book, Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad to create a set of stepping stones through the Stiles African American Heritage Gardens in the heart of Five Points, Denver. Inspired by quilt patterns that helped guide freedom seekers along the Underground Railroad, we will cast and cement squares and lay down a path to invite visitors to learn about the plant collection. During the workshop, participants will learn how to create cast cement stepping stones. Together as a community, we will embed them with natural materials, using motifs inspired by the coded patterns that offered guidance along paths to freedom. This project celebrates the deep knowledge and understanding of the landscape carried by African Americans as they used the stars to navigate their ways northwards. The cast cement stepping stones will be set as a path to guide visitors through the gardens, inviting them to pause and learn about plants collected in these grounds, including many that were used as food and medicine along the Underground Railroad.

In the 1990s, Ms. Mable helped host a book signing with one of the authors, Jacqueline L. Tobin and Grace Stiles, founder of the Stiles African American Heritage Center. As one of the first gatherings at the Center, we centered the gathering around afternoon tea served with Grace’s famous Tea Cakes. We look to these early events as we revive her tradition of hosting Saturday Afternoon Teas inspired by the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans throughout American history. Many of the plants we have planted are tea plants that have been traditionally consumed as medicine. As the plants mature, community members are invited to harvest seeds to take to their own gardens.

More information: contact director Kala Greene (Grace Stile’s daughter): 720-276-0741 
or Lee Lee: lee-lee@virtualvoices.org 
This project is supported by a grant from Denver Arts & Venues through the P.S. You Are Here program.