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We Shall Overcome Peacefully

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We Shall Overcome Peacefully
Art from "When I Don't Know How To Show Up I Think About This Butterfly" by Christine Tyler Hill. Free Download: https://christinetylerhill.com/shop/p/butterfly

Patriots,

12 more days until our next Saturday Rally on Feb 28th from 11-12PM! Send us a clear, straight on image of a sign you bring, or plan to bring, to our rallies that captures the essence of "We Shall Overcome Peacefully". They will be featured on our Facebook every day until the rally!

Think: signs that invite people in, signs that build the world we want to see, signs that reflect our values of peace, freedom, and dignity. Show us what strategic, loving resistance looks like, not just who or what we're against. We want to spotlight the creativity, strategic messaging, and welcoming spirit of our movement. Let's inspire each other!

This week we also want to highlight two beautiful ways to participate in the resistance through handcraft—because sometimes the most powerful political act is making something with your own hands.

Welcome Blanket: Wrapping Our Newest Neighbors in Love

The Welcome Blanket Project invites crafters to make 40" x 40" blankets (knit, crochet, quilt, sew, whatever you do!) along with a note sharing your family's story of immigration, migration, or relocation. These blankets are then gifted to newly arriving refugees.

It's both symbolic and practical. It says: "You belong here. We're glad you came." It transforms abstract concepts about immigration into tangible acts of welcome. And it connects us to our own histories, because almost all of us have a story of someone in our family who came here looking for something better.

Since 2017, over 6,000 Welcome Blankets have been made and gifted. Now they're aiming to blanket the circumference of the earth (24,901 miles) with 36,521 blankets. Will you help?

Learn more and get patterns: https://www.welcomeblanket.org/

Melt the ICE Hat: A Norwegian Tradition of Visual Protest

In an exhibition at Hjemmefrontmuseet (The Norwegian Resistance Museum), Oslo, you can see a newspaper cutout of the outlawing of the red hat, along with a few example hats.

In the 1940s, Norwegians made and wore red pointed hats with tassels as visual protest against Nazi occupation. Within two years, the Nazis made these hats illegal. Punishable by law to make, wear, or distribute.

As we face our own moment of crisis, crafters have revived this tradition with the "Melt the ICE" hat pattern. It's a wearable act of resistance. All proceeds from the $5 pattern go to immigrant aid agencies helping those impacted by ICE.

Imagine showing up to our Tuesday rally wearing these! A sea of red hats (yep, we're taking that back too!) each one handmade, each one saying: "We will not comply. We will not be silent."

Northampton Wools has a great display of red yarn, and a great story about these hats, if you ask! https://www.northamptonwools.com/

Get the pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/melt-the-ice-hat

Why This Matters

Resistance isn't just marching and sign-making. It's building community. It's connecting across time and space through our shared humanity. It's taking the time to make something beautiful for someone you'll never meet.

As the image reminds us: there are so many ways to work towards transformative social change, and they're all important and necessary. We need everyone. Every strategy.

Maybe yours involves yarn.

Events:

Solidarity forever, across history, and around the world!

No Kings Westfield

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