Catherine C. Quillman
Catherine Quillman has been a freelance Arts journalist since 1985 and was a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1990 until 2007.
During her undergraduate years, Catherine studied at Manchester College, Oxford University, and Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland, where she graduated with honors and earned a B.A. in English. She also holds a M.A.degree in English from Temple University, where she earned the Maurice Beebe prize for essay writing.
She has earned recognition from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts and scholarships to the Vermont Studio School and most recently to the Summer Literary Seminar in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Awarded Grants
2014
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
Related grantees
Overview
Catherine will publish Walking the Uptown, a book exploring West Chester’s West End, a historic African American neighborhood and birthplace of Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin. This is the second publication by Catherine about the West End that will focus on the early black business community and industrial job sites of African Americans from the mid-1800s to the 1960s. Walking the Uptown will also include landmarks related to Bayard Rustin, such as the restaurants and theaters where Rustin encouraged sit-ins and other forms of activism.
Partner
2010
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
Related grantees
Overview
Catherine will research, write and publish an 80-page illustrated booklet, Walking the East End. The booklet, begun more than a decade ago by her change partner, includes a walking tour and a history (to be expanded) describing a historic African American neighborhood in West Chester. Through the publication of the book, she hopes that the community will be rightly celebrated as a place of independence—one that began when the community was settled by free black men. The purpose of the booklet is to record the memories of the diminishing number of local residents and to document certain neighborhood landmarks in an area that is changing drastically. Catherine hopes the book and walking tour will draw new attention to this important historical area while also preserving the stories of its longtime residents.
