Gee's Bend

Lisa took me to see Gee's Bend last night. It swept me away. It was perhaps the best play I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. AMAZING talent. AMAZING message. AMAZING experience.

The story: The women of Gee’s Bend – an impoverished and isolated community on the Alabama River – created unique, bold and sophisticated quilts out of necessity and materials at hand. Now world-renowned, their brilliantly innovative quilts are featured in leading museums across the country, including the forthcoming Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. One critic dubs Wilder’s new play “a glorious piece of theatrical handiwork that uses the Civil Rights Movement as a thread for stitching together the rich emotional material of a close-knit family of quilters. With echoes of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel, Gee’s Bend is both a work of art and a bona fide crowd-pleaser.”

The description does not do the story and performance justice. While watching the play, it amazed me patrons were not aware enough to realize the main character was going to listen to Martin Luther King speak. It amazed me upon leaving the theatre just how disconnected our society is when it comes to differences, differences in race, in sexual orientation, in beliefs. So many of our citizens still live in isolated worlds. Truly sad.

This was a memorable night. Lisa and I enjoyed a quiet dinner at La Fondue. It was quiet and romantic and the perfect solution for two tired and grumpy love birds. The wine, music and good food changed our moods. The play was amazing and touching. I have to say - I am grateful to have a person like Lisa in my life to experience and appreciate such events with. At the end of the play, we both knew where we stood, we both received the message, we were both moved. Life is good. Love is good. We returned to La Fondue for desert and some port. A great way to end the night.