Yesterday I attended a magnificent brunch celebration for Martin Luther King Jr. and the upcoming historic inauguration of Barack Obama.

Freida Wheaton's home art gallery named "Studio 53" was a fitting backdrop for this salon--a gathering of the most prominent African Americans in St. Louis and its expanded metro area...reaching as far as East St. Louis and Carbondale, Illinois.

Edna Patterson-Petty, whose gorgeous quilting work is renowned, had been commissioned to make a quilt for the inauguration. She is indeed making a series of seven pieces, and these, as if inspired by the Master Quilter Himself/Herself are coming out from under her hand in record time. Anyone who has ever done any kind of hand work on fabric can well appreciate the degree of her effort and the extent of her mastery. An image from one of Edna's quilt's festooned the centerpiece chocolate cake (next to the ever-popular Red Velvet cake!).

Representatives from the Eugene Redmond Writing Club attended to read their Kwansabas---a poetic form invented by the club. One of Edna's panels featured a grouping of Kwansabas on cloth.

Mr. Caston, the director of Caston's Ballet Academie, the official school of the Caston Chamber Ballet, and still a beautiful dancer himself, was there as well...still looking as calm and elegant as ever.

Freida had put out the call for art about Obama, and her community of artists had responded lavishly...some bringing a painting just for that day, before taking their pieces off the wall to which them to other exhibitions.

Happiness is the best cosmetic, after all, and everyone in attendence---representing 3 generations---radiated happiness and the beauty it brings.

On this day in 1963, 200,000 people participated in a peaceful civil rights rally in Washington, D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Click here to view and hear on You Tube.

And last night the United States made history by nominating an African-American for the presidency. Click here to read a fine editorial in the NY Times on L.B.J.'s dream, and Obama's candidancy.