LACMA Acquires “North Star: Healing Generations” by Patrisse Cullors

Patrisse Cullors, North Star: Healing Generations, Wicker and leather baskets, pine logs, and banana tree, Installation dimensions approximately 12 x 12 x 5 ft, 2023. Photo Credits: ali-reza alexandre dorriz

Charlie James Gallery is proud to announce the acquisition of Patrisse Cullors's North Star: Healing Generations by LACMA.

The gallery wishes to thank Liana Krupp for her generous support of Patrisse and of LACMA. The gallery also wishes to thank Dhyandra Lawson, Clarissa Esguerra, Caitlin Spencer and the LACMA team for their support of Patrisse Cullors and this acquisition.

The North Star brand is the latest collaborative endeavor born from the Crenshaw Dairy Mart Gallery, North Star and Rita Nazareno, Creative Director of ZACARIAS 1925. The hand-woven line focuses on the movement to free Black women from incarceration. Black women are currently the fastest-growing population being incarcerated. Black women make up 13% of the country’s population but disproportionately represent 44% of women in jail, and 30% of the women’s prison population. Opposed to incarcerated Black men, Black women entering the prison system are frequently left unsupported and isolated. 

The piece features a poem from previously incarcerated Black writer Nissi Berry, and design of The North Star: Healing Generations is inspired by quilts made by enslaved Africans that were crafted to help lead them to freedom while navigating the Underground Railroad. According to “quilt code theory”, designs such as "wagon wheel," "tumbling blocks," and "bear's paw" were secret messages hidden in quilt patterns that helped direct enslaved Africans to freedom. 

North Star Project was originally exhibited at the Crenshaw Dairy Mart Gallery and curated by ali-reza dorriz and the Crenshaw Dairy Mart Collective.