Join the Climate Change Quilt Movement
Welcome! My name is Pam Mischen and I am a climate activist, professor of environmental studies, and Chief Sustainability Officer at Binghamton University. I have started the Climate Change Quilt project to amplify the voices of all those concerned about climate change.
According to the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication:
73% of American adults understand that climate change is happening,
but only 25% hear about climate change in the media at least once a week,
so only 38% report that they discuss climate change with others at least occasionally
Our Inspiration-- The AIDS Quilt
The Climate Change Quilt is inspired by the AIDS Quilt Project from the 1980s. The AIDS Quilt Project raised awareness and honored the lives lost to HIV/AIDS.
(From: https://www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt-history)
The AIDS Quilt was conceived in November of 1985 by long-time human rights activist, author and lecturer Cleve Jones. Since the 1978 assassinations of gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, Jones had helped organize the annual candlelight march honoring these men. While planning the 1985 march, he learned that over 1,000 San Franciscans had been lost to AIDS. He asked each of his fellow marchers to write on placards the names of friends and loved ones who had died of AIDS. At the end of the march, Jones and others stood on ladders taping these placards to the walls of the San Francisco Federal Building. The wall of names looked like a patchwork quilt.
Inspired by this sight, Jones and friends made plans for a larger memorial. A little over a year later, a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared history would neglect. Their goal was to create a memorial for those who had died of AIDS, and to thereby help people understand the devastating impact of the disease. This meeting of devoted friends and lovers served as the foundation of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Cleve created the first panel for the AIDS Memorial Quilt in memory of his friend Marvin Feldman. In June of 1987, Jones teamed up with Mike Smith, Gert McMullin and several others to formally organize the NAMES Project Foundation.
Public response to the Quilt was immediate. People in the U.S. cities most affected by AIDS — Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco — sent panels to the San Francisco workshop. Generous donors rapidly supplied sewing machines, equipment and other materials, and many volunteered tirelessly.
On October 11, 1987, the Quilt was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It covered a space larger than a football field and included 1,920 panels. Six teams of eight volunteers ceremonially unfolded the Quilt sections at sunrise as celebrities, politicians, families, lovers and friends read aloud the 1,920 names of the people represented in Quilt.
Why a Quilt?
Quilts have traditionally been made with scraps of fabric left over from making clothes, or by worn out clothes themselves. Quilt-making was a way of turning waste into something both practical and beautiful.
Additionally, quilting was often done in "quilting bees." During these bees, which would often last all day, women would gather to collectively work on a quilt.
We are also trying to create a community of those concerned about climate change. Join with others to make your quilt!
