An interview for Sixty Inches From Center
January 2022

I’m not even sure how to frame what you’re about to read. The following interview with Dorothy Burge is a shortened version of a marathon studio visit, a two and a half hour conversation that included multiple belly laughs, tearful retellings, sounds from cell phone videos, future works, and multiple deep-cut lessons in Chicago’s social, political, and economic histories.

It is a lesson on how art works, too. Our conversation is a testimony of the natural and unpredictable development of an artistic practice and how art—actually artists—can lead the way to legislative change, in this case through a groundbreaking reparations ordinance for survivors of police torture in Chicago.

Dorothy Burge has lived many lives. These lives are defined by her personal experiences and time spent studying, teaching, and applying elements of industrial design, urban planning, policy, storytelling, and quilting to the benefit of the people around her. The ways she puts her knowledge to work have resulted in clear come-ups for countless people, but they have, too, been useful in fortifying her sense of self. She won’t hesitate to let you know that her life-long relationship to design, such as her style and her upbringing in high-rise public housing, has been a sharp tool that has led her into a deeper understanding of value systems, autonomy, privilege, and biases within educational and professional settings.

Maybe the best thing for me to do is get out of the way so that you can get into it.

Read the full interview here….

Photo Credits:
[1] A full-length portrait of artist Dorothy Burge standing in her studio at Hyde Park Art Center. She wears a top, head wrap and pants with black, yellow, and white patterns. In the foreground is a table with a sewing machine and sewing materials. Behind her is another bench with sewing and other materials. Along the wall are fabric portraits of iconic Black women including Lena Horne, Harriet Tubman, Gwendolyn Brooks, Coretta Scott King, Kathleen Cleaver, and others. Photo by Joshua Clay Johnson.

[2] A portrait of Dorothy Burge standing in her studio at Hyde Park Art Center holding a magenta-colored fabric pattern with yellow lettering that reads, “My Humanity is Bound To Yours.” Behind her is a bench with sewing and other materials. Along the wall are fabric portraits of iconic Black women. Photo by Joshua Clay Johnson.

[3] A portrait of artist Dorothy Burge sitting at a sewing machine in her studio at Hyde Park Art Center. In the foreground are various quilt pieces and sewing materials. Behind her are more sewing materials as well as artworks hanging on the walls. Photo by Joshua Clay Johnson.