Radical Threads

Free the Children

Kit Miller made this quilt for a demonstration against Trump’s policy of separating families and locking kids up in cages at border detention centers. “We were protesting our Republican Congressman Amodei’s support of Trump and his inhumane policies. Bob Fulkerson of The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada is showing it off with me.”
Elizabeth Warren, a leading candidate for President, came to Reno a few days after finishing this quilt. “She liked the quilt, noticed the tears in the children’s eyes and sent our picture out on Twitter. If she  wins, she’ll stop the imprisonment of kids and reverse the evilness of trump’s border policy.”
Julián Castro, presidential candidate from Texas, came to Reno and vowed to free children from detention centers and decriminalize the border. 
Kit made this quilt, based on a New Yorker cover by B. Blitt, representing children hiding from harm, family separation and jail in Lady Liberty’s skirts. “Like everyone I know, I am outraged that Trump’s government is taking kids away from their families, and keeping children in detention. We have become a monster state. I was very moved by the drawing. It was fun to make Liberty, drape beautiful  green fabric, and imagine her big feet and hands. I decided to add two children that at the time we knew had died in ICE detention – Jakelin and Felipe, both Guatemalans. I made Liberty’s arm framing them protectively – I couldn’t stand the idea that she could only be a metal statue. I thought about who to give it to in Congress and I decided to give it to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. She comes from New York, and because people all around me were talking about her and her bravery and leadership. So I took the quilt to her office and left it with a male receptionist (on the left as you walk in). I never heard back if she got it.”

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