Kena Tangi Dorsey (Quilt Artist, Teacher, Designer, and Owner of Kena Quilt Studio), began quilting over 20 years ago while living in Harlem, NYC. Her artistic style is a blend of contemporary, modern improv and traditional quilt making. However, it’s making portrait art quilts that really makes her heart sing! She loves creating with big, bold and beautiful colorful fabrics and then free motion quilting on them. Her favorite textiles to work with are Indonesian Batiks, African Batiks and African wax print fabrics. Early on in her quilting journey, Kena was influenced by many of the Harlem Renaissance artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Zora Neale Hurston, James Van Der Zee, and Langston Hughes, to name a few. Like them, you can see reflections of the African American experience in her work.
Teaching is another passion of hers. She teaches quilt workshops and lectures that take place in- person, on-demand, as well as online virtual classes. Over the last year, Kena has had some of her art quilts and African fabric quilts featured in festivals as well as published in the Spring, Summer and Winter 2023 and 2024 issues of Art Quilting Studio Magazine and Today’s Quilter Magazine. She is a Brand Ambassador for Benartex and also for the Grace Company for their longarm machines. When not making quilts, she teaches filmmaking and television production to high school students, and is also an adjunct professor at a local college.
Please visit her website at https://kenaquiltstudio.com/
