In the 1970s, Faith Ringgold collaborated with her mother, Willi Posey, a well-known tailor in Harlem, to make a number of textile works. Echoes of Harlem was Ringgold’s first quilt and her final collaborative project with her mother. The composition unifies four distinct fabrics in a recurring rhythm and frames thirty faces, which display a variety of individual expressions. Together, the faces represent the many life stories present in Harlem. In subsequent years Ringgold began constructing narrative quilts that portray different aspects of African-American life in the United States.