by Michelle Mullen<\/p>\n
In 1976, a group of local women, dubbed the \u201cquilting bees,\u201d gathered around sewing tables to commemorate America\u2019s bicentennial, stitch by stitch. Fifty years later, another generation left its own mark on Bronx history with a community tapestry for the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n
The completed project, a collaboration between Riverdale Senior Services and the Kingsbridge Historical Society will join the original quilts at the society\u2019s headquarters, serving as a visual record of what residents valued in 2026 and hope future generations will remember. Through dozens of intricate fabric squares, the tapestry celebrates the landmarks and people that have shaped greater Riverdale.<\/p>\n
Created over 12 weeks, the tapestry brought together longtime neighborhood residents, many of whom had never sewn before. Instead of relying solely on traditional quilting techniques, teaching artist Tijay Mohammed guided participants through watercolor painting, fabric collage and heat transfer methods before volunteer sewers assembled the individual squares into a single work.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an artist, my role here is to inspire the participants, to bring out the best and creativity in them to create this piece,\u201d Mohammed said when the workshops began. \u201cI\u2019m facilitating in the form of inspiration, not telling them exactly what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The finished tapestry, he explained, is less a collection of landmarks than a collection of lives.<\/p>\n
One square recalls the sweet aroma that once drifted through Kingsbridge from the Stella D\u2019oro bakery. Unable to recreate the factory herself, Luciana Pepperas asked Kingsbridge Historical Society President Nick Dembowski to help finish the panel. The bakery had employed three generations of her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband used to work as a young kid, part-time waiter, and eventually my son also worked, and my father-in-law used to be a cook there. I am so grateful, and Nick did an amazing, amazing job,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Across the tapestry, another square tells a different story \u2014 one of migration, faith and belonging.<\/p>\n
Kola K. Baysah, who emigrated from Liberia, centered her panel on Christ Church Riverdale, where she found community after arriving in New York. Around it, she stitched symbols representing Africa, her ancestry and even an image herself.<\/p>\n
For Sandra Ramos, the project became an opportunity to preserve a neighborhood landmark whose future remains uncertain, facing the threat of demolition. She chose the Church of the Mediator, a Gothic Revival church she previously served on the vestry of.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have all heard about the difficulties that the church has had over the years to maintain it, to renovate, to fix, and that\u2019s still my dream,\u201d she said. \u201cHopefully this will highlight the church, but it will be forever in these quilts, and that\u2019s what we have \u2014 our memories, our collective memory is in these quilts, and it\u2019s real for us, and it\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dembowski explained the initiative was inspired by the 1976 quilting project and invited residents to design 12-by-12-inch squares.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn comparison to the sort of national vibe in 1776, we\u2019re definitely living in a much more divided country,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I would say it became a little bit more about our local community, Bronx identity, as opposed to so much a national look at things.\u201d<\/p>\n
So many residents wanted to participate that organizers expanded the project into two tapestries instead of one, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just like a snapshot in time,\u201d Dembowski said. \u201cSomething like this gave a lot of people a chance to reflect on things that were important that they wanted to memorialize. They wanted people of the future to know what was important to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riverdale Senior Services Program Specialist Barbara Denson, who coordinated the weekly workshops, said the project became as much about storytelling as it did about quilting. After nearly a decade working with many of the participants, she found herself learning things she had never heard before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved watching the creativity,\u201d she said. \u201cI loved watching different things to see what was important to different people, and to hear the stories, that\u2019s what makes the quilt beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even before their official unveiling, the tapestries had already been displayed during Juneteenth festivities in Van Cortlandt Park. Additional exhibitions are planned at Riverdale Senior Services and the Kingsbridge Library, ensuring the community\u2019s stitched history remains on public display.<\/p>\n
For Mohammed, that enduring visibility may be the project\u2019s greatest achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want future generations to remember that 50 years ago there were people who participated in a project that saw the past and brought it to the present for the future,\u201d he said. \u201cAs they look at that quilt, they should also think about those that came before them. What did they do? How were they looking into the future? What are we also going to leave behind, so we can all build upon this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tRiverdale Senior Services,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Kingsbridge Historical Society,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t America 250,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Bronx history,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Riverdale,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t community tapestry,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t quilting,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t community art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Michelle Mullen In 1976, a group of local women, dubbed the \u201cquilting bees,\u201d gathered around sewing tables…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[33453,128,40253,84023,109568,59015,9,24,63,109569,1778,59014,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-286041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-america-250","tag-bronx","tag-bronx-history","tag-community-art","tag-community-tapestry","tag-kingsbridge-historical-society","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-quilting","tag-riverdale","tag-riverdale-senior-services","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}