Table of Contents

Foreword

Jayna Zweiman

Introduction Chapter 1: Yarn, Thread, Scissors, Fabric: A Crafter’s Tool Kit for Mending Democracy as Engaged Citizens
Hinda Mandell

Part 1: Crafting Histories

Chapter 2: Craftivism from Philomena to the Pussyhat
Sandra Markus

Chapter 3: Weaving the Way Toward Liberty: John Singleton Copley’s Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Mifflin (Sarah Morris)
Elizabeth S. Hawley

Chapter 4: Spinning, Sewing, and Soliciting for the American Revolution
Laura Elizabeth Sapelly

Chapter 5: The Anti-Craft Activism of Enslaved Americans: Conspicuous Consumption as Resistance
Katie Knowles

Chapter 6: The Underground Railroad Quilt Code Myth and the Culture of Crafted Experience Felicity Lufkin

Chapter 7: Frederick and Anna Douglass’s Parking Lot: Public Art’s Role in Combatting Historical Erasure and Urban Renewal
Hinda Mandell

Chapter 8: Stitching Dissent: From the Suffragists to Pussyhat Politics
Anne Bruder

Chapter 9: How Homespun Cotton Cloth Became the Fabric of Indian Political Life
Rekha Sharma and Gargi Bhaduri

Chapter 10: “It’s Getting Bitchy in Knitting Circles”: The History of the Stitch ‘n Bitch Movement and Internalized Misogyny
Erika Jackson

Part 2: Politics of Craft

Chapter 11: The Entanglement of Consumption, Commerce and Craft Activism
Hannah Bush

Chapter 12: How to Smash the Patriarchy: A Guide for Fat Old Ladies and Their Friends
A graphic essay by Donna Druchunas

Chapter 13: Craftivism as DIY Citizenship
Tal Fitzpatrick

Chapter 14: A Tale of Two Scarves
Máire O Sullivan, Shona Bettany and Toni Eagar

Chapter 15: ‘Consent Trumps Everything:’ Sexual Assault Discourse, Election Craftivism and the Clothesline Art Project
Jill Swiencicki and Shannon DeHoff

Chapter 16: Curating Craftivism and Rethinking our Collections
Shirley Wajda and Mary Worrall

Part 3: Crafting Cultural Conversations

Chapter 17: Gentle Doesn’t Mean Passive: The Strength of Temperate Activism in Breaking Down Corporate Barriers
Sarah Corbett

Chapter 18: It was Always Your Grandmother’s Craft, and That’s Just Perfect
Betsy Greer

Chapter 19: Mending the World
Sarah Kuhn

Chapter 20: Crafting Change Through Pliable Texture: Craft Activism for Community-Based Art Therapy
Lauren Leone

Chapter 21: In Stitches: Crafting, Crime, Harm and Justice
Alyce McGovern and Elaine Fishwick

Chapter 22: Crafting the Vulva Quilt
Michelle Napoli and Michaela Kirby

Chapter 23: Craft as a Pedagogy of Hope
Suzanne Schmidt

Chapter 24: Reshaping the Narrative around People of Color and Craftivism
Diane Ivey

Afterword: The Sisterhood of the Trump/Putin Cross-Stitch
Alison Rowley and Althea Thompson

About the Editor and the Contributors

About the Author

Hinda Mandell, Ph.D., (Syracuse University) is associate professor in the School of Communication at RIT in New York, and is the author of Sex Scandals, Gender and Power in Contemporary American Politics (Praeger, 2017), co-editor of Scandal in a Digital Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and a co-editor of the anthology, Nasty Women and Bad Hombres: Historical Reflections on the 2016 Presidential Election (full manuscript under review with University of Rochester Press).

Hinda excels at bringing diverse voices together in edited collections, often “marrying” the contributions from academia, journalism, storytelling and the arts. The proposed book Crafting Dissent: Politics, Turbulence and Handcrafted Protest Throughout History, would represent her third edited collection, and fourth book.

Her personal essays, ranging in scope from politics to parenting, have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Boston Herald, Boston Globe, Palm Beach Post, Politico. Her scholarly research on the intersections of media, gender and politics have been published in Women’s Studies in Communication, Visual Communication Quarterly, and Explorations in Media Ecology. Mandell is a regular contributor to Cognoscenti, the commentary site for Boston’s NPR station, and a contributor to the Huffington Post. Prior to the 2016 presidential election, Mandell became involved in acts of “yarn graffiti” and public yarn installations to explore the Suffragist and Abolitionist legacies in Rochester, New York, hometown to Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. She’s worked in conjunction with the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House and the Office of the City Historian in Rochester relating to her public yarn installations. She’s in production on a short documentary exploring how yarn can be put into commemorative practice to honor the currently unmarked spot of Frederick Douglass’s first house in Rochester, titled, Frederick Douglass’s Parking Lot. Hinda is also the producer and writer behind the award-winning documentary, The Upside Down Book (www.upsidedownbook.net), which is currently broadcast on the History Channel and Discovery Channels abroad; it is represented through Canamedia in Toronto. You can follow her adventures with crochet activism online: @crochetactivism. Her website is omghinda.com, and she’s on Twitter: @hindamandell

Reviews

Hinda Mandell’s comprehensive anthology arrives three years after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and the advent of craftivism’s third wave, a ripe time for an in-depth examination of political craft. The talented authors cover a lot of ground — from early Roman resistance to the Pussyhats of today — and much like the field’s communal ethos, their combined efforts result in a collective potency. Together, the contributors illuminate the many ways in which craft offers agency, cultivates resiliency, and strengthens our social fabric. As a museum curator and engaged citizen, I will be keeping this volume close at hand.
*Beth C. McLaughlin, chief curator of exhibitions and collections, Fuller Craft Museum*

Refreshingly, the contributors in this volume do not present a tidy, celebratory, step-by-step guide to handmade activism, instead they address the many contingencies of both craftivist discourse and action as they engage with issues of race, class, gender, and power. They show that handwork wielded by engaged citizens has the power to reshape the stories we build our cultures around while simultaneously requiring similarly critical transformation itself.
*Sonja Dahl, artist, writer, activist*

In a word, empowering. After reading Crafting Dissent: Handicraft as Protest from the American Revolution to Pussyhats I had to spend time reflecting with my needle and thread. This collection of thoughtful essays empowers through its stories of handicraft as it is tied to social justice. Women have had a voice for centuries, but sometimes it has had to be vocalized through their crafty creations.
*Sarah Marsom, heritage resource consultant*