In remembrance of Michael Brown (1996-2014)
Social Justice Sewing Academy Remembrance Project
Next it will travel to those who will quilt and stitch it and other blocks into "activist art banners for local and national activist organizations who have requested creative statements to be publicly displayed that represent solidarity as well as remembrance. This partnership will create a visual statement to memorialize those who have been unjustly murdered by police, racial vigilantism, or as a result of their gender, sexual orientation and other forms of identity politics. These artivism blocks will honor the lives of individuals through symbolism and portrait. Their names and identities will be displayed during community activism events reminding the world that their lives mattered."
(Please visit the link above to learn more about the project and other empowering work of this wonderful organization. This line in their description strikes my heart... "When you take a step back and look at the sheer size of the exhibit you realize the tragic fact that you will run out of volunteers long before you run out of names.")
That little silver starred blue patch in the middle right is a scrap of mama love. A bit of the cloth that was used in both Blue's and Moon's baby quilts. A gift from K. when I was pregnant with Blue, and finally feeling safe enough to hope he would really come. Now, ages 22 and almost 18, my boys are here, filled with ideas and hopes, with their whole lives ahead of them.
Michael should be a 24 year old young man now, he should be making the music he loved, working at a job that his college education would have led to, hanging out with friends, living and filling his life with ideas and hopes.
This time of stitching this block and thinking on what I've been able to learn about Michael have been a journey. Reading the stories about Michael's killing, the two sides of it- He had problems/he had promise, he jaywalked and shoplifted/he was joking around, he charged the officer/he had his hands up and called "Don't shoot!".... It's easy to get lost in the "He said/He saids" of it all. But they don't matter.
What is true is that he was an unarmed human being who is now dead.
There is so much to muddle through in anti-racist work, inside and out. As a mama, a white woman and a human being, I worried about getting this square Right. Not for me, but in honor of Michael and those who loved him. I know that it isn't possible, there is no "Right" in any of this. I'm learning that it's important to being willing to be uncomfortable, unsure, wrong, and to keep trying, to do better for Michael, for those who loved and lost him, and for so many others... for all of us.
