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The Lynch Quilts Project

This issue dedicated to Breonna Taylor. 
Spring 2021
 

www.TheLynchQuiltsProject.com
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Greetings old friends! 

It’s been a while, but you have not been forgotten. I’ve been trying to write this newsletter for MONTHS. In fact, I started to craft this installment in November with the goal of sending it out right after the start of the year. Then the January 2021 Insurrection in our nation’s capital happened and things kinda went topsey turvy again. Below you can see the newsletter that I originally crafted.
 
After the insurrection, I dove into my artwork to find a path towards stability and normalcy. That intense focus to channel my energy into creativity lead to the completion of Quilt VIII, Lawrence and His Sisters. This quilt has been the hardest. The most emotionally challenging. Maybe because I have a son this age and the terror of Laura lives within me near daily. Or maybe because I know black boys and girls, black people are abused by this system, killed by this system daily. I have no words as I am still processing the complexity of this quilt.
 
That any one of us in my large Black family and circle of friends can find ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and it will just be over. At this moment when we are remembering the one-year anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s murder, we are reminded that even one’s home isn’t a place of refuge. And this is idea of home NOT being a place of solace from the world is a very real thing for me. Over the summer shots fired on the street behind my house resulted in a bullet flying through my bedroom wall. Moments before the kerfuffle started, I had stood up to go to the bathroom and got hit in the face with plaster, grabbing my eye. I was confused about what had happened then realized a bullet had flown through my wall and missed my head by mere inches.
 
It took more than a week for me to sleep in my room again. But days on the couch lead to such a crick in my neck that it forced me back into my bed to sleep properly. It was longer still to patch the bullet hole. And weeks before I felt safe again. In that one instant years of feeling safe and secure in my own home . . . shattered. On certain days, I actually find myself still hesitating at the door.
 
Where I was standing when the bullet whizzed by my head.

But I digress.
 
The terror of the system manifests as “The Talk” or workshops about coping with “Race-based Trauma.” It is something EVERY Black mother knows all too well. So, within this quilt are tears - mine and others. The anxiety of black motherhood embedded in its stiches weaving together a type of healing to ensure Lawrence is not forgotten. And believe it or not, there is joy, happiness and love here too.  
 
After the initial parade of tears, the day I added the sisters to the quilt, I found they made me feel so much joy and smiles. A certain inexplicable happiness. Looking at those girls made me smile. So much so, I made a poster out of their shadow silhouette. Every time I worked on them, I found myself first humming, then singing along.  At first, I couldn’t put my finger on the humming, then it dawned on me it was that scene in The Color Purple playing out in my head again and again on repeat. Humming, followed by singing, followed by a little hip wiggle dance I would do. I was there in the moment with Nettie and Celie with their hand clap:
 
Me and You, Us never part
Makidada
Me and You, Us have one heart
Makidada
Ain’t no ocean, ain’t no sea
Makidada
Keep my sista way from me
Makidada
 
Makidada is Swahili for “Little Sister.”

 
 
Be honest, how many of you started to sing along too?
 
Some that worked on the quilt have voiced that maybe the two girls survived. I do not know. I just know Woody Guthrie wrote a song about them and they have disappeared from history. But given the violence that occurred that day, I doubt they survived. And on some very real metaphysical level . . . it doesn’t matter. . . kinda. Whatever happened, they are together. This I know in my heart. (The song is playing as write this. Even sitting in a chair my hips are wiggling and I am smiling.)
 
So, the quilt top is done. I’ll be working with the quilter to design the stitching, which will be simple, but not so simple. I am happy that this quilt is close in size to Quilt I, Her Name is Laura Nelson and clocks in at about 9 x 11 ft. Moving forward, these two quilts will always be shown together. Ms. Laura may stand on her own, but her babies will never be shown without her there.

While the insurrection may have been the final trigger, I knew it was time to start this quilt when in late December right before Christmas, the final piece to this puzzle arrived from one of our quilting partners in Birmingham, AL. On the panel were embroidered the words, “You are loved.” It was then time to start; the final piece in the puzzle and message to Lawrence, Carrie and the unknown baby girl had arrived. I took this as a message from Mr. Otis who died on Christmas Day to begin. He’s been waiting a long time for me to get to Quilt V, The Making Quilt. And with this quilt done, now we are there.
 
The day following the insurrection I began to organize the panels created during the February 2020 sewing workshop in Birmingham, cut the donated fabric into blocks, go through the remaining stashes of fabric and put as much of it as possible into this last quilt before the finale. I have held on to some of this fabric since 2002 when I first started gathering fabric donations from the community. Waiting a quilt where it could be included.
 
I want to thank all who donated their time, skills, fabric and/or all the above to bring Quilt VIII, Lawrence and His Sisters to completion. When I started this quilt, I would always say to the community, “Please help me wrap them in love. How do we come together and provide the love and comfort that Laura could not in the end? How do we be the surrogate collective mamas, the Balm of Gilead for this most horrible of wounds?”
 
There is no word in the English language and few in others that explain the horror of losing a child. I was so perplexed by this that I wrote to the talk radio show, “A Way with Words” to ask them to research. Nothing. Nadda. Only two words on planet earth in any human language. They offered this link to episode where the topic is discussed. A Way with Words | What To Call a Parent Who Loses a Child (waywordradio.org)
 
While words may be few, when parents lose their children there IS this soul wrenching sound called the mother scream which I have unfortunately witnessed more than once. It is the complete deconstruction of a person before your very eyes when the upending of the natural order of things rips someone’s soul asunder. As if every cell in their soul is reduced to the sub-anatomical level in that primordial scream. Despite her own death, the terror, pain and horror. . . . I feel (know) that this was what Laura experienced that day. Three times over. So, I only hope that this quilt is a small path towards healing their souls. A Balm of Gilead woven in stitches.


With gratitude for all that made this possible:
 
I also want to say thank you to a friend. About two weeks ago, I took a training on Confronting White Nationalism in Schools. For some reason, unlike other trainings, this one unhinged me in a different sorta way and I found myself having nightmares for days. As if just on time, a dear friend had been knitting me a cardigan. She called it a "love gift" to honor and celebrate all the work I do in community. It arrived one afternoon after a night spent in dreams fighting off hordes of white zombies, which woke me up screaming and in a sweat. When it arrived it was sunny and near 70 degrees. I wore it the rest of the day. Fit like a glove. Felt like a hug. Loved it and didn't have a nightmare that night. 

With gratitude to all of you,
 

LaShawnda


 




Quilt VIII: Lawrence and His Sisters 

The vision. Mock-up completed March 2018.

The completed top. March 2021.The completed top. March 2021.

Community blocks.


Photo courtesy of Nate Heck. Check out Artrageous with Nate. 


Community blocks.


Photo courtesy of Nate Heck.


The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in July 2019. 
 Rest In Power Nelson Family. Next time I go, I'll leave four bouquets. 




Prologue: Winter 2021 Newsletter
 
Welcome to 2021!
 
I hope this message finds you in good health, happiness and wholeness. I wanted to reach out AFTER 2020 ended as that year is wrapped in soooooo much trauma . . . but also possibility. 2020 was a tremendous year and I’ve tried to write this newsletter several times and ultimately felt that it was best to send after we closed out that hellion of a year.
 
Since last we spoke, I have had my nose to the grind surviving homeschooling, dodging Covid and supporting family and friends through uprisings, job losses, illness, deaths and so much more. I don’t have a lot to really say except that I am thankful. Despite all that is happening, this is an awesome time to bear witness to the transformation of our society and most importantly be a part of it.
 
I am not sure where we are headed or what the road will look like. But I am determined to do my part to move us to a more just and healed future. Through both my community development work and artwork, I have in many ways been working overtime. The arts are now more important than ever in terms of influencing what that new future can be.
 
I could spend this time reflecting on all that happened this year. But in so many ways why? We have been working around addressing and healing this history for years. More than 20 so far with The Lynch Quilts Project, utilizing the arts as the vehicle of community transformation and healing. If anything, the uprisings showcased the importance of arts in moving this work forward. With that said, I would like to highlight some of the work that has unfolded over the last year to support community transformation, healing and dismantling systemic racism / white supremacy and the many paths this has taken.
 

redlines: Civic Dreams

We continued the work with redLINES, the 1.5 ft x 426 ft and 3-inch quilt, through a community intervention at the Harvest Festival located at the Indianapolis Museum of Art @ Newfields. Using the prompt, "My Civic Hope is . . . ," community was invited to examine where do we go from here . . . after COVID-19, after uprisings, after elections. You can click here to see drone footage of the quilt and event.

Update: Since I first wrote this, Newfields’ has made international headlines when the job posting included the following language for the museum to maintain its “traditional, core, white audience.” As you can imagine, there is has been citywide and national fallout on this one. I have been watching and working with community in various ways to have these tough conversations. More to come in the coming weeks.
 

Sister Song
Much of 2020 was dedicated to bringing the project Sister Song: The Requiem to completion. This is the  second iteration the womb installation from the exhibit Keepers of My Mothers’ Dreams. For this project, I partnered with 30 artists and community members to create mini installations and healing talismans. They were each given a cast metal womb shaped vessel, each uniquely designed by me, and asked to adapt it. Their mission if they chose to accept it was to answer / explore the questions, “How do we heal these histories of what happened to Black women on these shores?” Covid has delayed the exhibition of the work. However, now that vaccines are available, we are hoping the exhibit will occur in Fall 2021. In the meantime, here is a sneak peek at one of the wombs I created, “Mother’s Journey.”
 


 
RECLAIM Project
Since 2014 we have looked at ways to address the vacancy issues in our community through The RECLAIM Project.  After 5 years of intentional fundraising and other work, this project is moving into its final stages. With more than 1000 vacant properties in a 6 square mile area at the start of the project, these properties created a ton of issues around safety with the most egregious being children reported being sexually harassed on the way to and from school. For me this is what spurred me to action. I couldn’t do everything, but I’d be damned if I couldn’t do something about this. I believed we could use art to take back our streets.
 
The work was born from a community walking assessment where K-6th grade youth revealed what was happening to them walking to school. Additional investigation with various youth-focused community partners revealed the issue was pervasive. Girls had stopped going to the rec center due to incidents where adult men followed them home. My own experience included a pimp from a neighboring town trying to convince he was a dad looking for his 15 year old daughter. When challenged to produce a photo and give us more details. He promptly described her in sexualized manner complete with outlining her body like an hourglass. The lascivious smile said it all. He ran back to his car and sped away while we called the police. Through this project we created the beloved Circle City Sweet Potato Festival to rebuild the bonds between neighbors, partnered with Wild Persimmon to offer an herbal medicine workshop entitled Backyard Medicine and hired local artists to design murals and create community hang outs in these vacant spaces.
 
Covid forced us to relocate our work to the opposite side of town due to the schools, park facilities and community libraries shutting down for the entire summer. Despite this, we were able to continue the work in an area that is quickly becoming the most violent zip code in the Circle City and holds the dubious honor of also being one of the largest food desserts in our area with only 3 grocery stores that have zero public transportation options. Sadly, Indianapolis continues to rank between 1-3 annually for that sad honor of not being able to get food to its community. Despite these issues, this side of town also holds one of Indy’s bright spots, Lawrence Community Gardens, which was birthed from the need to provide food to its community. Lawrence was willing to partner with RECLAIM through their Next Generations Farmers Program, an employment program for youth 11-15 years old dedicated to building an army of Black and Brown farmers.
 
This year we added an art component through the workshop Hip Hop in the Garden. Youth learned how to pop lock, the history of injustice that led to the development and rise of hip hop and how these injustices are at the root of the food desert, which made the farm a necessity. Youth wrote their own poetry and rap lyrics, as well as learned how to design their own graffiti tags and murals.
 
After 6 years of work from when we started, in late fall we were able to move to the final stages of RECLAIM with the harvesting of the the art sheds and murals to be upcycled by Project Lia into furniture and other fabricated items.
 
Project Lia is near and dear to my heart as they work primarily with justice-involved women to teach upcycling, crafting and furniture design skills. Recently, we’ve connected them with a program working with adolescent girls in foster care.  Below is an early prototype of mural upcycled into furniture utilizing Singer Sewing Machine base tables.
 



The Pestilence Chronicles
Well, believe or not, the Pestilence Chronicles became a reality. Working with Spirit & Place we developed a series of community discussions entitled The Corona Dialogues, which really focus on how to transform our community in uncertain times. The discussion utilizes the Civic Reflection technique and creates space for community far and wide to dive into the complexity of what does it mean to be a citizen in uncertain times. Where do we want to go after – covid, elections and uprisings? And how do we get there?

We designed a workshop with science fiction author extraordinaire Maurice Broaddus that helped the community utilize science fiction to build a world from scratch. In this workshop I went back to my original creative writing roots and walked away with at least 2-3 different potential short story and/or book ideas. All science fiction. All rooted in examining race.  The final stages of Corona Dialogues will begin on March 24th, where we circle up with community far and wide to figure out how to Build a New World together. Click here to learn more and if you want to spend an hour or two brainstorming new solutions to old problems.

 

 
End Notes 
As we end the year on a complicated note, what is always at play is the universal balance of hope and despair. Two days before I completed this newsletter, news would arrive that there would be no federal charges in the murder of Tamir Rice, the 12-year young boy gunned down by police within seconds upon arriving on the scene. As the mother of a 12 year-black boy in America, my heart clenched, then broke as I held Samaria Rice in my own heart across the miles.  Within a day news would come that two of the officers central to the murder of Breonna Taylor in her own home would be dismissed from the police department after 8 months. Maybe. We’ll see how this plays out. We’ll see how this new chapter of the never-ending saga and parade of black death plays itself out. But I’ll be honest, not keeping my fingers crossed on this one. But I am in awe of the fight for justice being sustained by the Louisville community.
 
On the first day of this year, I watched Jingle Jangles and my soul was lifted as I had to replay the opening ballad, This Day, again and again. This song became a go to soul lift during the holidays.
 
But a las, there is hope. I do feel it in my bones. On December 9th I was reminded of why we do the work we do. Granted, there are always reminders here and there. But in the heat of the moment when I am about “to put this damn project on the shelf (again),” it is always the youth that remind me. (And a part of me feels Master Quilter Otis Grove is smiling down from wherever his soul rests and occasionally reaches over and prods me to continue.)
 
Working with the youth continues to be the bedrock of how to transform this world moving forward long after I have returned to dust and closed the circle on The Lynch Quilts Project.
 
Early this summer, I also worked with youth at a catholic ministry camp. These youth were required to develop a community project of their own choosing. Of these 3 out of 12 changed their projects to be focused on racial justice, learning more about history and how they could change the world.
 
Just before the pandemic siloed us on in our homes, I had the privilege of working at a youth detention center. This is always a hard one. I try to approach this as letting the youth know that they’ve made a mistake and there is life after this mistake. That whatever “the hiccup” is this is a time for us to think about the world we want to build afterwards. I cannot go too much into what happened, but I will say as I walked the youth through the “How to Change the World” workshops, I was reminded of how passionate, creative, and determined youth are, even when behind bars, literally caged. These youth chose to talk about how to address rape, domestic violence, child abuse, hunger, gun violence and gang violence in their communities. And honestly speaking, they had solutions that could be implemented into the real world.
 
On December 9th I was reminded again, and I needed that reminder. Mr. Otis died on Christmas Day 2 years ago and it is a somber moment as until recently it has been hard to think about the quilt he was working on. But I digress. Whereas he and his beloved wife Ms. Dorothy used to be the proverbial angels on my shoulder saying, “Keep Going,” it seems the youth have started to provide the universal prod at the right moment.
 
I was invited to present to a middle school Social Justice class and discuss Artivism. They had spent the last month discussing the important role the arts play in social justice and community transformation. Those kids were on fire as they had watched the Ted Talk prior to my presentation and had questions about their own art projects.
 
One youth asked, “So where do you see yourself in 10 years?” I laughed, then replied, “Sweetie, I am waiting on you to grow up so I can hand this work off to you. For you are the change we need in the world to come.” Keep in mind that at this point we are 2 decades into this project. I explained to them the project was older than many of them and I had about 5 years to go get it all wrapped up. At that point we would be a quarter of century into this. Gasps! What? I laughed. It was inconceivable to them I had been working on a project longer than they had been alive. In the end, I was invited to speak every semester moving forward to each of the social justice classes. That’s at minimum 50-75 kids a term.
 
So here it is to you all for your continued support. May 2021 be boring as hell and that your next trip around the sun is full of love, joy, laughter, health, happiness, prosperity, and many blessings.
 
With gratitude,
 
LaShawnda
 
P.S. I HAD NO IDEA what the hell we were headed for in January 2021, when I wrote these words. LOL.
 
 

Student artwork from the middle school social justice class.
 

 

Coming Full Circle:
Quilt V, The Making Quilt

 
Now that we have officially completed Quilt VIII, Lawrence, and His Sisters, I have marked my calendar to begin Quilt V, The Making Quilt on April 6, 2021. This quilt will be appliqued. All fabric has been dyed, purchased and gathered. The templates printed and ready to cut out. All dreams, messages, offerings and other meanderings incorporated into the design. I have identified the quilter that is comfortable with lynching and will provide a custom edge-to-edge quilt design.
 
So, to put it mildly, 2021 is all about finishing the quilt tops to bring this stage of the journey to completion. Once we finish the quilt top for Quilt V, I’ll launch a crowd funding effort to raise the resources it will take to complete the quilting for these two quilts.
 
REALLY looking forward to get the needle and thread to get this one going. It has taken 17 years to get to this one when we consider when the first sketch was made. We had to take a pause when Otis Grove died on Christmas Day in 2018, but now things are moving to conclusion. The circle will come to completion soon. 

 
With gratitude,
 
LaShawnda

 
Mock-up of Quilt V: The Making Quilt (c) 2004 - present.

 

Resources to Address Structural Racism and White Supremacy
 
Check out these wonderful training opportunities. One of the benefits of the on-line world is that many of the trainings that would be hard to get are now only a click away. This has opened up the opportunity to network, as well as reduce the cost of many trainings.

Child Advocates

Race Forward

Racial Equity Institute
Western States Center

Midwest Academy

Eastern Mennonite Center for Justice and Peacebuilding




Never forget. Rest-in-Power Breonna Taylor.


Black Lives Matter Blm GIF by Center for Story-based Strategy


ARTICLES TO READ
 
 
Tess Asplund, with Fist Raised Against the Leadership of The Nordic Resistance Movement (Nrm). (Twitter/David Lagerlöf). 
Click
here to learn more about her simple, but powerful stand against injustice and hate.

 
 

RESOURCES TO GET YOU STARTED
 
As we continue to do our work in the world, here are some additional articles and resources to assist us in having these conversations.

First, I will direct you here to
The Lynch Quilts Project website, which has a list of organizational resources to help you get ready.

Second, I direct you to the site
#CharlestonSyllabus, which has resulted in a nearly 20 page bibliography of articles, books, research, etc. that explore race in America. In addition, you can click here to purchase the book (Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism and Racial Violence), which is a condensed version of the on-line syllabus.

Finally, below are a series of articles that explore these issues that have become more focused on the national spotlight in regards 

History
Understanding the past persecution of black Americans is crucial to understanding the racism that pervades the country today.
 
Artivist Work
 
Insight, Violence and Resistance

PROJECT PROGRESS REPORT


Here is where we stand so far with the quilts. We'll be focusing on Quilt V for the remainder of 2021 We'll have sewing days here in Indy starting in May or June, once the community opens back up. If you are interested in working on any of the quilts just contact me and I can tell you where we are specifically on a particular quilt and how you can participate. Unless the quilt says "complete," there is an opportunity to participate. 
  • Quilt I: Her Name was Laura Nelson, Completed May 2004.
     
  • Quilt II: RedRum Summer 1919, Completed July 2014.
     
  • Quilt III: A Partial Listing, Completed November 2017.
     
  • Quilt IV: Failed State (TBD), Completed November 2016.
     
  • Quilt V: The Making Quilt, actively in progress, ETA late-Fall 2021.
     
  • Quilt VI: Memoria: In Progress, on-going process, 2010-present
     
  • Quilt VII: That Old Black Magick, Formerly called the Ties that Bind. Actively in progress, but on hiatus. Reconsidering if this is a new series or not. It is a pivot quilt. But pivoting to what?
     
  • Quilt VIII: Lawrence and His Sisters, actively in progress. Quilt top completed March 2021.


SPECIAL THANKS

The Lynch Quilts Project is also supported in part by grants from The Indiana Arts Commission, The Puffin Foundation, Creative Renewal Grant from The Arts Council of Indianapolis and of course ALL OF YOU!!!

ARTICLES ABOUT LQP

WTHR-13
Indy Reacts to the Quilt
Indianapolis Recorder
Clutch Mag On-Line
Madame Noire
Maybe Someone Should Write that Down
Beautiful Horror of History

TEDx INDIANPOLIS

 

Creative Power for Social Change!

 

Fighting for a racially healed and just future, since 2002.
 

Copyright © 2021 The Lynch Quilts Project, All rights reserved.


Our mailing address is:
LaShawnda Crowe Storm
The Lynch Quilts Project
P.O. Box 90348
Indianapolis, IN 46290

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