Uvalde Quilt
Volunteer quilters at the Centro Cultural de la Raza and the Women’s Museum of California’s Education Center stitch together the layers of a quilt honoring the students and teachers murdered in an act of gun violence in
Uvalde, Texas, on May 24th, 2022.
They are using a vertical running stitch representing our tears flowing down the length of the quilt. Embroidered on the quilt are the following two poems by Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman:
Artist Statement
Two “American” traditions are represented here: quilts and guns.
One offers comfort
The other removes it
Our tears are represented by the vertical stitches that hold the layers of this quilt together
Hymn for the Hurting
Everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed and strange,
Minds made muddied and mute.
We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.
And yet none of it is new;
We knew it as home,
As horror,
As heritage.
Even our children
Cannot be children,
Cannot be.
Everything hurts.
It’s a hard time to be alive,
And even harder to stay that way.
We’re burdened to live out these days,
While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.
This alarm is how we know
We must be altered —
That we must differ or die,
That we must triumph or try.
Thus while hate cannot be terminated,
It can be transformed
Into a love that lets us live.
May we not just grieve, but give:
May we not just ache, but act;
May our signed right to bear arms
Never blind our sight from shared harm;
May we choose our children over chaos.
May another innocent never be lost.
Maybe everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed & strange.
But only when everything hurts
May everything change.
—Amanda Gorman
Schools Scared to Death
Words by Amanda Gorman
The stitching of this quilt is an ongoing project and the work of many hands.
If you would like to add your stitches, even an inch, please write your email address and or phone number