PROJECT OVERVIEW

18,000 quilts were burned in the Tulsa Race Massacre (Hirsch 2002), resulting in a loss of history and connection to family and community as well as the practical warmth quilts provide. Quilts hold memories—the fabrics used are often scraps of other projects or clothes just past their life cycle, fabric that has lived with people and taken on their essence. The burning of quilts is more consequential than just a loss of potential warmth, it also severs ties to people and the past.

Join us to create a collaborative memorial through quilting as a restorative and reparative act to memorialize what was lost and what remains in Tulsa!

participate from outside oklahoma / Send a block

• Please send blocks 20.5×20.5 inches or 10.5×10.5 inches. Finished block size will be either 20×20 inches or 10×10 inches.

• Please include your name with your block if you wish to be included in the collaborators list.

• Send finished blocks to:
  OVAC, ℅ Katrina Ward, Greenwood quilt memorial
  1720 N Shartel Ave B, Oklahoma City, OK 73103

• Deadline to receive blocks is May 14, 2023

• Quilts made with these blocks will be raffled off to raise funds for Justice for Greenwood as they fight for reparations for the descendants of the Race Massacre

questions to reflect on

• What do you bring to this project?
  

• Think about quilts you’ve interacted with—what do quilts mean to you?

• What do you think quilts can mean in terms of connection to history and memorializing?

• What does it mean to piece things together?

• How can quilting be a practice for how we build community?

• How can quilting connect us across generations?

• How do you create spaces of care to heal?

• What work do we need to be doing in community to make a better world?

• What does justice mean to you? What does it look like?

• How are you working to dismantle systems of white supremacy (internally and/or externally)?

• How can quilts tell stories?

• How can quilting reflect joy and resistance?

• Most memorials reflect one narrative—how can quilted memorializations subvert that practice?