Sharon Cooper-Murray: Gullah Rag Quilting

Horry County Museum 805 Main Street, Conway

The Horry County Museum and South Carolina Humanities present a program by “The Gullah Lady”, Sharon Cooper-Murray, on Friday, March 6th, on the history of rag quilting in the Gullah community.

This entertaining and educational program explores the history of rag quilting, a tradition dating to the antebellum period, when feed and grain sacks were combined with rag strips to make unique quilts. Traditionally passed from generation to generation, Cooper-Murray was taught the process by Gullah women from Wadmalaw and Johns Island. She has since set out on a mission to preserve this disappearing art form.

Sharon Cooper-Murray is a native of South Carolina raised in Florence County. After attending college in Tennessee, she returned to South Carolina and has resided Charleston County, South Carolina. When she arrived on Wadmalaw Island, SC, it was the first time she heard the Gullah language, and she was fascinated by the tone and rhythm of this Creole language. That was the beginning of what has become her life-long passion: the Gullah culture, their stories, folk music, crafts, food ways, religious folkways … their way of life. She has traveled throughout the east coast of the United States as an advocate of the preservation, conservation and development of the culture through workshops, lectures, storytelling, special events and artist in residency programs.