Franklin County Visitors Bureau invites the public to “A Conversation with Grandmother Edna: Fabric Artist and Storyteller” on July 17 at 1 PM in the Great Room of the 11/30 Visitors Center, on the square in Chambersburg PA. Visitors can enjoy more than a dozen quilts and pillow covers, created by Grandmother Edna and learn how she expresses herself through art to tell stories of her life and America’s history. The art, called “Pillow Talk” is on display in the lobby of the Franklin County 11/30 Visitors Centers.
Williams hails from Baltimore and is displaying at the 11/30 Visitors Center through the Franklin County Visitors Bureau’s relationship with the African American Historical Association of Western Maryland.
“I reach back to move forward. It is the only way to grow,” said Grandmother Edna. Her “Pillow Talk” display includes stories that connect directly to her mother, father, and grandmother as well as highlight her meetings with poet Maya Angelou and actor Harry Belafonte. Others tell stories related to enslavement and civil justice. Williams believes storytelling is a means to connecting people and endorses the importance of history stating, “Why create a mountain when you can cross a hill.”
“Pillow Talk” is displayed as part of the Franklin County 11/30 Visitors Center’s Let The Journey Begin…People, Places, Possibilities. In addition to the storytelling quilts of Grandmother Edna, the exhibit looks at the quest for freedom from the earliest European settlers to the importance of the Pennsylvania Constitution’s Environmental Amendment.
“A Conversation with Grandmother Edna” is free and open to the public. To reserve seating, please register here. A Conversation with Grandmother Edna is presented by the Franklin County Visitors Bureau as part of the July 17 Chambersburg Comes To Life Celebration, which includes the living history portrayal and light show depicting the 1864 Ransoming, Burning & Rebirth of Chambersburg.