This is the transcript and slides from the keynote that I delivered at The Maker City Summit in Knoxville, TN last week.
There’s only one group of people that can save humanity at this point – and it’s us. The creators, the makers, the doers, the conveners, the artists, the weirdos, the visionaries.
Why? We see the world in possibilities. We create what has never existed before. We experiment and play and tinker and wonder and invent. And now, I argue, it is our responsibility to bring these life-saving visioning skills to the community at large. To bring people together and invite them to think differently, to try something new, to get uncomfortable, to suck at something, to take risks, to unlearn, to open their minds, and change their worlds.
No big deal.
Artist and makers have been driving and shaping culture since the beginning of time (hell we invented time, probably just so we could invent clocks and then turn them into art objects). I have a degree in Archeology and the thing I have always found the most fascinating is how art and art objects are the things that survive. The things that give us clues into lives and cultures throughout time and across space. There is infinite value in our role in society and now that role must be centered on community.
The challenges facing us today from climate disasters to pandemics, gun violence to the growing wealth chasm, economic upheaval to political polarization present us with seemingly insurmountable challenges BUT you and I see the world in possibilities and opportunities. We have the capacity to fundamentally reimagine everything. And THAT is exactly what we need right now.
I like to think of myself as a community organizer disguised as a fiber artist. I trick people into hanging out with me by promising them that I will teach them how to embroider. They think they are going to take an innocuous little craft workshop and then BAM there they are having deep and powerful conversations with strangers about all of the things you are taught never to talk about in public.
I see art as the perfect tool for bringing people together, developing connections, inspiring, encouraging, laughing, and building power.
I find embroidery to be a perfect medium for my work.
I started out stitching simply as a way to create some digital/analog balance in my life. Quickly the content of my art fused with my activism and people really started to respond. I was using social media to share and connect and engage folks in important conversation and debate over issues related to white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism – or what I call the “big 3 systems of oppression”
But what is social media if not a vehicle for real life connection? So, I made it my mission to transition folks from social media communities to in person communities as often as I could.
I started hosting “stitch-ups” and brought together smalls groups of people wherever I went. I have built the framework of these events very intentionally and I have a pretty solid formula.
I want to share it with you simply because I want to demonstrate how easy it can be to quickly build a safe community space. The key really is to help people feel welcome, informed, and connected from the first moment.
First, I greet everyone who comes in the door with a handshake (well now with a grand curtsy) and a name tag. I either guide them where to go and what to do next or I introduce them to another participant so that they feel welcome and like they have an anchor person.
Next, we all introduce ourselves, but I don’t allow anyone to say “what they do for a living” – because that can quickly lead to weird power structures and sometimes intimidation. I ask them to share a “Fun Fact” about themselves, but I don’t allow for follow up questions – and trust me we are all usually dying to ask follow up questions. How could you not when someone says that they the world record holder for kite flying. The fun facts become an exciting jumping off point for conversation once we get to the stitching and talking part of the evening.
I ask them their experience with stitching. Most folks have none so everyone can see that they are not alone. Some folks come with experience, and I honor their skills and hold them up as someone that others can look to for different approaches or techniques. It’s important to honor the knowledge in the room.
Then I have everyone get their materials from a communal table so that they have to interact with each other.
These things seem so simple but how many times have you been to an event and you just walk in and you don’t know what to do, you don’t know anyone, and you feel tragic and uncomfortable. By ensuring folks feel welcome and that it’s clear what they should do, it creates a totally different vibe. Folks are immediately more comfortable, less stressed, and therefore more capable and willing to engage.
I spend the first 45-minutes teaching them how to embroider. Everyone is learning something new together. They are having a shared experience of being a novice at something. I try to keep it light and accessible with lots of laughter. I invite folks who are stitchers to share their techniques and approach with the group. I invite them to unlearn any ridiculous rules they learned around art and embroidery. Guess what? Who cares what the backside of your embroidery looks like! Your stitches don’t have to be a consistent length. Want to use a knot? Use a freaking knot. Liberate yourself my friends.
One of the more challenging moments of the workshop is when they are staring at a blank canvas, and I refuse to tell them what to stitch. I don’t drive the content of their art – which usually really pushes them.
I find the key to supporting them through that discomfort is a few things. I give them my rationale – and that is simply that I learned to stitch in 5th grade and I was required to make a pink bunny with a blue eye. I don’t know if you know this, but bunnies aren’t pink. I was so turned off to it that I didn’t stitch again for like 20 years until I came across a Star Trek cross stitch pattern.
No one loves Captain Picard more than me, so I bought it and stitched it and well now this (gestures at room). I never want the content to get in the way of people falling in love with the medium. This usually makes a lot of sense to them and they forgive me for making them mad. After that, I teach them about patterns and how to use others or make their own so that in the future they can find support for their artistic visions. Lastly, I ask a lot of questions to help them decide what they want to focus on that evening. Worst case scenario I suggest they stitch something like – I will not overthink this or Just Start.
Then they start stitching. And the great thing about stitching is you can talk while you do it. And now they know all of these interesting facts about the people in the room, they are working on something thoughtful, and they naturally start chatting. If they aren’t I start chatting with the folks near me – asking them questions about their stitching or their fun fact…that’s usually all it takes to get others talking to their neighbors.
Every time, without fail, something very powerful happens. The conversations become really deep, often personal, and joyfully political. I believe that these incredibly productive conversations happen because:
a. We feel connected and welcomed by this point
b. We are sitting in a relaxed environment
c. Everyone is working on their pieces, so eye contact and body language isn’t really a trigger. We aren’t staring at a stranger saying “ok…let’s talk about abortion”
d. Folks can move into or out of a conversation as they feel comfortable because they are working on something and it’s no big deal if they dip out for a bit.
e. The whole conversation is slowed down by the fact that we are embroidering so folks can maintain a sense of calm and their fight, flight, or flee reactions aren’t triggered
Lastly, I end each workshop with an intentional exercise meant to help them reflect on their experience and how they can use it to make change the very next day. They share out 1 word that describes how they feel, one thing they learned, and one thing they are going to do tomorrow to change the world. This activity has the added benefit of signaling that the party is over and while they don’t have to go home…they can’t stay here. I swear these events would turn into 5-hour events if I let them.
I used to encourage them to share contact information with folks they connected with that evening, but I no longer have to do that as it happens without prompting. Literal friendships are coming out of a 2-hour workshop. Humans are awesome.
I’ve done hundreds of these over the past few years and every single one has been magic.
The more of these community gatherings that I facilitated, the more I knew - I needed to do more. It was immediately clear that folks are longing for opportunities to connect. That adults, in particular, are looking for ways to make friends. People need people and one of the more tragic outcomes of American exceptionalism is the disconnect we have from true community and community care. And it is, in fact, this very thing that can heal and save us. So, I have committed my adult life to un-learning everything that was instilled in me as an American, that teaches us to believe that we are solely responsible for ourselves. I have re-define what success looks like to me and I now exist to center and build community.
Sometimes this takes the form of participatory community projects. I find these projects can be just the thing to welcome people in. Once there, it is my responsibility to ensure that there is a shared understanding of how we behave in spaces that I construct. Support, encouragement, unlimited thinking, curiosity, a generosity of spirit, and a willingness to be uncomfortable are paramount. I attempt to model these at all times (not always easy…especially in digital spaces) and I keep it my responsibility to address situations that arise that don’t reflect the spirit of the community. Some folks have just never been in a non-competitive space and it takes a minute to both adjust to it and trust it.
One of my earliest projects was built to support a non-profit that works with gun-violence survivors in Chicago (more on that program later). I invited makers from around the world to create fiber-based guns and send them to me. We used social media to connect with each other and engage in important conversations around gun-violence and legislation. In just two months, I received around 250 pieces from all over the world. We had community stitch-ups and I brought in a trauma expert to facilitate conversation around the impact of gun violence in our city. And we hosted a gallery show and sold the work. In two days, we were able to raise $5,000 to support the program.
After the Women’s March, I started a public art campaign – with a full Martha Stewart how to wheat paste guide – to encourage women in particular to challenge themselves to get used to breaking rules. To help strengthen their tolerance for participating in public acts of resistance.
One of my favorite conversations ever was with a woman in her 60’s who had seemingly never broken a rule in her whole life and she went out wheat pasting at night, wearing all black, with her friends (and it sounds like a few flasks). I have never heard someone so excited by their own power.
When I released the posters and the tutorial, I got requests from around the world for posters translated into various languages. Folks stepped forward and offered up their translation skills and now the posters are available in 5 languages and can be seen hanging around the world.
They are doing it.
Sometimes the opportunity to build community presents itself. When I stumbled upon an abandoned quilt project at an estate sale, I decided I had to finish it to honor the original artist, Rita Smith, who had recently passed away at the age of 99.
This project was massive so I went to Instagram and asked if anyone wanted to help me. Within 24 hours I had over 1000 volunteers. In the end, I mailed 98 quilt pieces out to artists across the country, each hand embroidering their hexagons and sending them back to me within a month. Then 30 or so hand-sewers got together in Chicago and in 8 hours hand-pieced the entire quilt top together. Members of the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild then quilted and bound the piece.
And while that is astounding (especially since it was completed in just 3 months) the truly breathtaking part of the project is the community it built among the participants as well as the global community that it created around the story. People everywhere were so totally invested in the process and the experience of seeing so many different people come together on this project. Strangers who became friends while honoring the handicraft of a woman we didn’t know in order to honor all of the female fiber artists that came before us and weren’t given the respect as artists that they deserved.
I’ve gotten so many emails over the past two years from people telling me how that project transformed how they think about the art objects in their lives that their elders and ancestors created. Suddenly that afghan grandma made them holds a totally new meaning.
As I continued to do stitch-up after stitch-up, I decided I wanted to create a project that would encourage women and non-binary folks to really explore and center their lived-experiences. We are not taught that we are the heroes of our stories. At best we are supporting characters.
Badass Herstory is my attempt at inviting traditionally marginalized voices to be seen and heard. This project is less about the outcome (though the outcome will be an astounding piece of public art…trust that) It’s really about creating space for community to support each other in exploring their narrative and then doing the hard work of translating that into a piece of art.
Trained artists spend their lives exploring the self through making and there is such value in that. I am now creating opportunity for non-traditional artists to have that experience, of being super vulnerable and sharing their story with the world.
I also wanted to be sure this project wasn’t dependent upon me to grow and actualize so I created a comprehensive toolkit and invited folks to sign up to be ambassadors of the project and host their own stitch-ups and maker groups to work on their submissions. There are over 600 ambassadors around the world now and they have made it so much cooler than I ever imagined. For example, the crew in Portland, Oregon has been hosting 6-week sessions and getting together each week to work on their pieces and then they hold a community art show to show off their work before they mail them to me. This also functions as a recruiting tool for the next session. AMAZING.
AND, the first few hundred submissions will be on display at the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia starting November 5th
These folks are going to have a museum show! How rad is that?!
If you want in, you can learn more about submitting your work on my website. I hope you will.
Through all of these experiences, I realized I had found my calling and it looked nothing like I could have ever imagined. Embroidery…who would have thought! I decided to go all in. I sold everything I owned, transitioned out my job, gave up my apartment, bought an RV and hit the road as a full-time art activist traveling the US to bring art and community to everyone that would have me.
Admittedly, this was a brilliant idea BEFORE a global pandemic.
But the pandemic hit a month before I was set to embark and there was nothing to be done but move forward. Of course, the 150 events I already had planned were cancelled. So, after a week of crying and stewing I did what we creators do and I reimagined what this adventure could look like.
I put together a google form and asked my digital community to host me in their driveways. Over 3,000 people across the country signed up. Talk about community care! For about a year and half, I’ve been circling the U.S. parking in stranger’s driveways, inserting myself into their lives, using their washer and dryers and turning them into friends and family. I even have a Knoxville family now! They are lovely and they have a very flat driveway which earns them 5-stars.
I’ve been meeting people in covid-friendly ways. Stitching in backyards and parks. And of course, living on Zoom. I hit the Zoom hard knowing that people would need an outlet and connection while sheltering at home. And I was right.
Honestly, prior to the pandemic I said I would never do this work online because “the magic happened in the room.” Then the pandemic hit and I was like – just kidding, let’s do this. And I am pleased to say that I was oh so wrong. The magic can happen anywhere.
I have taught over 5,000 people to embroider via Zoom since the pandemic started.
Then I started to see bigger needs arise. Here we were creating these 15 people international micro-communities in our workshops and then sending folks on their way with a few Instagram posts as follow up. That was not going to do it. That was not the long-lasting community connection I wanted for them.
I started hosting a weekly Sunday Stitch-up. Anyone could come. It was a social gathering. You would work on whatever you wanted to work on, get to know new people from around the world, and escape from the pandemic for two hours a week. THIS was transformative y’all. The community that has come out of those gatherings is beyond words. But the thing that has fueled me the most is not just the connection that we share; it’s the exponential impact that has come out of that experience.
What I find time and time again is that people will do more – will think bigger – if they see it as do-able and they feel supported. It doesn’t take much.
Here’s a few examples of initiatives that have come from people in the group.
Ellie is 16 and came every week. She became our digital guru – setting us up with a Slack channel so we could constantly communicate (and we do…constantly). More than that, she started a fiber club for teenagers in Philadelphia as a way to connect with folks her age and build a community of makers.
Rosie is one of many folks who joins us from the UK each week. She launched a spin-off stitch-up called Euro stitch and the European folks gather at night during the week. She also started a craftivist reading club and is bring folks together to think critically about the craftivist movement.
Jessie, launched a Tuesday night stitch-up and has a whole new community of amazing people who join her each week.
Ann is currently working with over 50 research librarians on a craftivism project and art show to bring light to the important work they do and the value of funding their work. It will be on display at Umass Amherst this year.
Diana started a robust stitching and activism group in Mexico.
Dana is a middle school teacher and started a fiber club at her school this year.
And these are just a few examples! These women are bad. ass. The ripple effect is real, and it is exponential.
Over the years, I have found that the more I listen, the more I am able to identify needs and then solve for those needs. That’s what we do right? Identify needs and solve for them.
As 2020 was coming to a close I heard a lot of people expressing relief and joy that 2020 would be over. As though they expected the clock at 12:01 to magically change everything. I was very worried for their mental health and I needed to intervene. I decided to use the momentum and energy that a new year brings but channel it in a way that reflected the moment and helped shift paradigms because I knew it was only going to get worse before it gets better.
Right? Tell me it will. Lie to me if you must.
I launched an initiative called #MakeDontBreak and invited everyone to develop a daily making practice by simply committing to make anything for any amount of time each day in January. I was hearing from people that the pandemic had totally zapped their creativity and motivation and while they had all of these plans to make or take up new hobbies while shelter, they weren’t able to. This small ask – of making without pressure or expectation and in community with thousands of other people was just the thing to get them back to making.
Some people like structure and guidance so for them, I brought together 31 of my favorite activists and community leaders. Each morning I would send out an email introducing them to one of these delightful humans and the work they do. Then these leaders would offer up a prompt that could inspire their making for that day.
Over 10,000 people participated. The magic, joy, and connection that came out of that project was revolutionary. You can still see folks using the hashtag to connect with other makers and share their work. We had Zoom check-ins for those who wanted. A slack channel. And many people put together little making groups of their own and supported each other through the challenge.
We built it. They came. And they delivered. Check out that hashtag on Instagram and marvel.
Sometimes the solutions aren’t even art-related in nature – thought I always find a way to add art in because it makes everything better.
After George Floyd was murdered and through the simultaneous exponential growth in anti-Asian violence in the US, I heard a lot of people say they wanted to do more but didn’t know what to do.
So I launched the How To Be A Good Human series. I partner with amazing organizations and leaders to offer a radical skill-share series.
These are pay-what-you-can one-off trainings to support people on their path as activists and good citizens. They also function as a fundraising moment for the organization that is bringing forward the training. Our first workshop was in partnership with Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago, and they trained 500 of my community members in Bystander Intervention techniques.
This is an ongoing endeavor and has included trainings such as:
Activism 101 for Introverts and Highly Sensitive People with Omkari Williams
So you want to go therapy but aren’t sure where to start with Laura Grimes
How to prevent a drug overdose and talking to young people about drugs with the National Harm Reduction Coalition
Some upcoming trainings include:
How to talk about sex
Advocating for yourself with medical professionals and
How to unionize your workplace
Basically, any skill-sets folks ask for, I find an expert to work with and we deliver.
And since everything in my life needs to center around embroidery, everyone who completes a training gets an embroidery pattern so they can stitch themselves a completion badge! Just like the girl scouts.
These are just a some of the ways that I am attempting to bring people together, build community, and offer support to help inspire folks to get uncomfortable, take risks, and reimagine what is possible for us.
I want to offer up some more examples of people I love who are using their mediums and their talents to build resilient communities and impact lives as additional inspiration and to demonstrate how this can be done through various mediums and approaches. Embroidery can’t solve EVERYTHING (most things though).
I have included each of their Instagram handles on the slides so as I introduce them to you, I highly recommend giving them a follow and connecting with them.
Let’s start with Pearl Dick. Pearl is a glass artist in Chicago and she collaborated with clinical psychologist, Brad Stolbach and created a program called Project FIRE. (This is the program I talked about earlier that the End Gun Violence Project supported)
Now in its 6th year this ever-growing program works with young people who have been injured by gun violence and offers them training as glass artists. These young people get paid for their labor and involvement, get entrepreneurial training, and wrap around services including case workers and group therapy. They have truly built a healing space and supportive community in Chicago.
Ed Marszewski has been pivotal in creating accessible art spaces in Chicago for over 20 years. Be it a community gallery space in an under-resourced neighborhood, to a magazine, a radio station, a television station, a brewery, restaurants, art shows, and most recently a community kitchen. This art innovator and entrepreneur just keeps following where his community leads him and gets it done.
Sara Trail, founded the Social Justice Sewing Academy in her early 20’s. She is a quilter and wasn’t seeing herself represented in the quilt community so she set out to reimagine what a 21st century quilting circle could look like. Now she works with young people across the country, teaching them to quilt and center their lived experiences and values in their art. She bridges the gap to the larger quilting community through mentorship, skills sharing, and collaboration.
Mindy Tsonas Choi, launched the Be Seen Project just a year ago to amplify the work of BIPOC artists and makers who are using their work to center marginalized voices and create social justice and cultural change. Mindy is using her work to really reimagine economic systems and challenge capitalism AND is providing micro-grants to artists of color through her efforts.
Kat Roma Greer, leads the global arts initiative, MicroGalleries. Each year she brings between 15-50 international artists together into a year-long collective for collaboration and art disruptions around the globe. Their Global Day of Creative Action coincides with the U.N. Climate Change Conference. While people sit in rooms talking about climate change and disruption, she and her team are mobilizing artists from across the world to create a visible, powerful, and tangible response to the detrimental and significant effects of climate disruption in our communities.
William Estrada is a wealth of brilliant community-centered art solutions. Two of my favorites include his custom-built mobile street art cart which provides free art projects with people on the streets in their neighborhoods and addressed issues relevant to the community.
And the neighborhood family portrait project which provides families with a physical photograph that honors their story and questions whose stories are represented, who gets to claim neighborhoods, what effect race has on people’s experiences, and what impact gentrification has on their lives.
Hoda Katebi has launched Blue Tin Productions which is an apparel manufacturing cooperative run by immigrant, refugee, and working-class women of color to build garment worker power while re-imaging and building a world without sweatshops.
And lastly, two tattoo artists who are healing community with their art. Ryun King who covers hate-filled tattoos for free with no questions asked. And Heidi Conlin who offers free 3D nipple tattoos for breast cancer survivors.
There are so many people using their talents to do this vital community building and community healing work. I’m sure this room is full of them and I can’t wait to talk to each of you and hear about what you are doing and how I can support your work.
It really is no longer enough to just make – we need to be making with purpose and vision with our eye on supporting others in growing their visioning skills, their creativity, and their curiosity.
Art has the power to shift cultural paradigms and
Creators have the power to reimagine everything.
So, let’s shake some shit up!
(presented in Knoxville, TN on September 19, 2021 at the Maker City Summit)