Follow the Stars

Community Workshops:
Saturdays, April 13th & 20th, 2-4p

Stiles African American Heritage Center
2607 Glenarm Place, Denver CO 80205

Stepping Stones: Laying paths of freedom through the Stiles African American Heritage Gardens.

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 – for which we hosted a book signing in the 1990s with Grace & one of the authors, Jacqueline L. Tobin. As one of the first gatherings at the Center, we had afternoon tea, of course, served with Grace’s famous Tea Cakes. We look to these early gatherings as we revive her tradition of hosting Saturday Afternoon Teas 🍵inspired by the accomplishments of African Americans through American History. This projects celebrates the deep knowledge and understanding of landscape carried by African Americans as they navigated their ways in secret, northwards towards freedom along the Underground Railroad.

During the workshop, participants will learn how to create cast cement stepping stones. Together as a community, we will embed them with natural materials in motifs inspired by the designs described in Tobin’s book. Coded patterns that offered guidance along the path to freedom.

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.