In Evanston, a group creates quilts as a form of resistance — and therapy

An attendee sews the name of a gun violence victim from Chicago as part of Dr. Melissa Blount's Social Justice Sewing Circle. (Vangmayi Parakala/MEDILL)

By Vangmayi Parakala
Medill Reports

Over two days in February, about 20 people gathered to sew names of women, girls, and babies who died due to gun violence between 2016-2017.

Led by Melissa Blount, an Evanston-based clinical psychologist, the attendees sewed the victim’s name and age, accompanied by a motif on each of the sewing squares.

The event, held at 1100 Florence, an art gallery in Evanston, was to result in the squares making their way onto a remembrance quilt. This is the second quilt that Blount is leading, after her Black Lives Matter Witness Quilt last year, inspired by an exhibit at Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art.

Photo at top: An attendee sews the name of a gun violence victim from Chicago as part of Dr. Melissa Blount’s Social Justice Sewing Circle. (Vangmayi Parakala/MEDILL)