craftivism.

Because craft + activism = craftivism.

Female Inmates Recreate Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party

| Betsy
Shared Dining, York 2015. Photo from the article by Susan Meiselas.
Shared Dining, York 2015. Photo from the article by Susan Meiselas.

Sometimes a story comes along and is just so brilliant and amazing that you can’t help but share. This is one of them.

Here’s the first part of the piece, please click either the photo or the linked text for more.

Two years ago, public historian and activist Elizabeth Sackler visited a high-security all-female prison in York, Conn. While there, she conducted a workshop devoted to Judy Chicago’s seminal feminist artwork, “The Dinner Party,” a banquet table with 39 place settings each dedicated to an important woman in history. But, after crafting their own plates using paper products and paint, one of the inmates had a more ambitious idea.

“She said, ‘Why don’t we make a whole table like Judy Chicago’s?’” recalls Sackler. “And the artwork they ended up creating was so wonderful, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fabulous to see it actually next to ‘The Dinner Party’?

”Now you can. “Shared Dining” — created over six months in 2013 by 10 women at the York Correctional Institution — is finally having its New York debut at the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art Gallery, where it will be on view alongside Chicago’s 1970s icon through September 13.

Check out these links for more info:
Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art Gallery
Components of The Dinner Party
The Dinner Party Gallery from judychicago.com

Photos from Craftspace Youth’s Sexuality and Gender Roles Workshop

| Betsy

The other day on Twitter, @CraftspaceYouth mentioned having a workshop on sexuality and gender roles, which I found by searching the #craftivism hashtag, as I look at it from time to time to see what craftivists around the world are up to. One thing I’m super proud of is the variety of work that people come up with, as they take craftivism and make it their own, tailoring it to the subjects that they care most fervently about in life.

In this case, this workshop tackled a sensitive issue for many and, as you can see from the photos below, the takeaway here is that everyone has a right to feel safe in their body and to love the person(s) they want to love. What I love about this project is that it allowed young people a safe space for discussion and dialogue, where they could make work that expressed how they’re feeling inside and then talk about those feelings with others. This is what makes craftivism so personally transformative, this chance to work out your feelings as you craft, both internally and externally.

As I’d like to share more of the craftivist projects that people are doing on here, I asked them to send me some photos of the workshop, which they did! Craftspace Youth is the youth section of Craftspace, am amazing “crafts development organisation” in Birmingham, UK that works with communities and artists to produce fantastic results! Ever since I had the chance to hear the director speak a few years ago in London I’ve had such an incredible crush on the work they do!

As always

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Thanks @CraftspaceYouth for sharing your workshop photos with me, and for doing the great work that you do!

Extreme Craftivism with a Zulu Voodoo Taxi and Creating the Craftivism Manifesto

| Betsy

Carrie Reichardt is not only one of my favorite craftivists, she is also one of my favorite people. Her creativity and wish to free people who are suffering in solitary confinement (with some seriously dodgy cases) is mega inspiring. I just helped back her Kickstarter campaign to create a Zulu Voodoo Taxi for Kenny “Zulu” Whitmore not only because I believe in Carrie, but because I also believe in the way she uses craftivism to create dialogue.

Check out the video above to see more of her work with the Treatment Rooms Collective (and yes, that’s me with the glasses in the red shirt!). I hope it spurs you on to donate to a worthy and amazing project.

Speaking of craftivism, dozens of international craftivists and I are creating a craftivism manifesto!

Craftivism needs you

Here’s part of the email I sent to those involved today:

Let’s create a manifesto! I’ve had a look at loads of different manifestos and I think the Holstee manifesto is a good guide for what would be great to create.

Other good examples:

* The amazeballs Craftifesto made by Amy Carlton and Cinnamon Cooper
* Sugru’s Fixer Manifesto
* The Fixit Manifesto
* And for humor’s sake, there is also the Manifesto Manifesto

In an ideal world, we’d all come up with bits of this manifesto (either via text ideas or edit ideas or just a hearty “heck yeah!”), so that it represents many different personal interpretations of craftivism.

And then someone would make it look pretty and then we would all get a copy and then sell it to interested others to cover costs if there is outside interest. (If you can either make it look pretty or print it up, talk to me.)

Sound cool?!

If so, get in touch so I can send you the Word document as a starting point. Your job is to look at it, think about it, and add your thoughts and edits… sending it back to me by August 1st.

Then, I’ll look at all the different documents and make sure that at the least, one of your changes makes it to the main manifesto*, so that we all have ownership of it. The end result? Together we will have created a document that helps people understand what craftivism is at its heart, with maybe some ideas on how to join in, too.

*However, I am reserving the right to not include suggestions that are not related to craftivism. So keep it craftivism related, m’kay?

Suffragettes… And Their Banners

| Betsy

I’ve been writing some posts on craftivism for the Fabrics Store blog, and the one that comes out on Friday features suffragette banners, along with Gandhi and the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo.

As I was looking for photos for that blog post, I came across the large photo collection of suffragette photos from the Library of Congress, and was amazed at all the different ways women used to get their message across. There are just a few of them below.

Please note that the photographs are in thumbnail version, so that if you click on them, they revert to their original size, allowing you to view them in more detail.

A 1917 photograph by Harris & Ewing of an unidentified suffragette.

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Trixie Friganza between other suffragettes on top of steps, New York, 1908. 

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Liberty and her Attendants (Suffragette’s Tableau) in Front of Treasury Building, Washington, DC, March 3, 1913.

suffragettes at white house

Suffragettes at the White House, 1900. 

bristow amendment

Suffragettes in Washington, DC, 1917. 

suffrage speaking from cart, london

Suffragette speaking from a cart, London, 1900. 

american suffragette

Mrs. H. Riordan, Suffragette, New York, 1910. 

how long

Suffragettes picketing at the Senate Office Building, Washington, DC, 1909. 

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Suffragettes in Washington, DC, 1910. 

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Suffragettes in London, 1900. 

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Margaret Vale (Mrs. George Howe), niece of President Wilson in suffrage parade, New York, October 1915.

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Suffragettes in Washington, DC, June 1917. 

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Suffragette Trixie Friganza in New York, 1908. 

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Gen. Jones “Forward,” 1914. 

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Suffragettes and young girls carrying balloons, running down the steps of the U. S. Treasury towards three awaiting women, Washington, DC, 1913.

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Mrs. J. L. Laidlaw, suffragette, 1910.

suffragettes with banners

Suffragettes with banners in Washington, DC, 1918.

suffrage hay wagon

Suffrage hay wagon, Yonkers, New York, 1913.

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Suffragette Alyce Jenks.

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Suffragettes and their umbrellas, 1910. 

suffragettes with flagsWomen suffrage hikers General Rosalie Jones, Jessie Stubbs, and Colonel Ida Craft, who is wearing a bag labeled “Votes for Women pilgrim leaflets” and carrying a banner with a notice for a “Woman Suffrage Party. Mass meeting. Opera House. Brooklyn Academy of Music. January 9th at 8:15 p.m.

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A tiny, yet mighty, suffrage banner.

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Suffragette ball butterfly dance.

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Suffragettes with banner, Washington, DC, 1920. 

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Suffragettes posting bills, 1910.

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Suffragette ball Greek cymbal dance, Washington, DC, 1918.

What was your first activist act?

| Betsy

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This thought is on my mind today, even though I first shared this photo in June 2013. I’ve been going through some old Flickr photos as I look at various new (and free*) responsive WordPress themes to change this site over to one that is more friendly with the new(ish) Google mandate about mobile-friendly themes and Google search rankings. (If you’re not sure if your website is mobile friendly, you can check it out using Google’s Mobile Friendly Test.) While my site passes the test thanks to the theme I’m currently using (Canvas by WooThemes), I decided this site needed a makeover after creating my freelance site, HelloBetsyGreer.com, and using a beautiful new WordPress theme, Sela.

While we all know I’ve needed to update this site for forever, I hadn’t because I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with it… more personal? Less personal? Sadly, there’s no sourcebook for what to do when you create an -ism! Or at least one that grows from 2 Google hits to 100,000+, because it wasn’t just me who did that, it was you, too. So what responsibility do I have to you for that? (If you have thoughts or feelings on this, I really, truly want to hear them.)

I think about this question a lot, actually. And each time, I come to the decision that I need to be the person who shares other people’s craftivism (and craftivism-esque) projects, both past and present. Because together, we created an international creative movement! Do you know how entirely rad that is? We made this thing together. I may have put out the first** public flag, but it was you that continued to do so over the past 12 (!!!) years.

In redoing the site, I’m going to make it clearer about people’s projects that have been shared here over time, so that current, curious, and future craftivists can find them. And finally obtain more academic papers to share here, so that students can find this site as more of a resource. Along with that, I’m also going to continue to write my own opinions about the craft world, creativity, and craftivism, because I think there is a place for that, too.

So nothing too drastic, but hopefully an easier site to navigate whether people want to know craftivism’s history or its present form. In the photos that I’ll be using for the site, I’m going to be using some old personal photos, as well as hopefully using the photos of others with attribution. If you have some you’d like to share, please let me know!

Oh, and my first activist act? Probably stopping eating red meat at 16. A high school frenemy gave a talk in class about the meat industry, and I went home and announced I was no longer eating red meat. While it may not seem like a big deal in 2015, in 1991, it was huge deal, as my family stuck to a meat and 2 sides regimen. In the 22 years since then, I’ve been vegetarian, vegan, and finally settling on pescetarian, even though personally I keep a strict vegetarian kitchen.

Do you remember your first activist act? (Or craftivism act?) If so, do share!

* I’ve used both free and paid themes, and have decided to go with a free theme this time. I’ve used paid themes in the past, and have gotten burned by having to pay various charges after the fact.

** Technically, the Church of Craft put out the very first flag! I first wrote about the connection of craft and activism for a grant, then told my knitting circle what I was doing. One of them came up with the word “craftivism,” so I went home and Googled it, to find that the Church of Craft had previously (this was late 2002) done a craftivism workshop, for which there were 2 Google hits.