Rebel with a Cause 2020: Recent Episodes
Diane
CRAFTIVIST podcast on progressive topics in the crafting industry and political issues around our nation
In Pennsylvania, Ivey talks with Jessica Manning who works at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit which helps provide services to kids and families through school. Providing resources helps her see the crafting community as a movement within a movement. She is a mentor who much like CheyOnna, wants to interrogate further the white crafting community.
Manning said that the micro aggressive actions of her fellow white crafters make her feel that they think they are exempt from participating in the conversation about racism in this country, “There uncomfortableness with our blackness. You benefit from it. You tell people of color how we should behave…You got to get dirty. Because every time that we say anything, we get called angry black ladies. Wake up. Do the work.”
Manning is also interested in being more trauma-informed when engaging in talks about racism. She thinks that being informed about your own personal triggers and traumas help make for healthier discussions about systematic racism,
She said, “Don’t shut down the conversation and how do we talk about that. Be aware of the trauma and triggers.”
Even so, she hopes that the energy after these months after George Floyd's death does not petter out before the election in November. She is worried that activism throughout the last couple of months will get drowned out, “I want to believe what is happening now is different. But history has taught me otherwise. There is always that wait a minute. That trauma.”
Listen Now.
Diane Ivey of Lady Dye Yarns talks to powerful women in the craft-activist world about what it means to be Black, Indigenous, and vocal about the inequalities evident in the very white world of crafting. Ivey talks with three BIPOC activists in the community including CheyOnna Sewell from The Yarn Mission, Candice English from The Farmers Daughter Fibers, and Jessica Manning from the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit.
CheyOnna started crocheting granny squares from a very young age and studied criminology in college and following the murder of Mike Brown in 2014 she started knitting at street protests and demonstrations. After forming relationships with others through crafting she started The Yarn Mission where her and other knits for Black Liberation, anti-oppression. She tells Ivey that the mission is Pro-Black, Pro-Community, Pro-Rebellion, and being cast as “passive” by other white crafters simply because she knits is dismissive.
She says, “Calling out the whiteness of the knitting community is part of the work that we do.”
CheyOnna also wants to allow for dreaming and creating in Black Liberation, “We don’t need to live in the struggle of things. We can think about what things can be. These dreams of ours.”
She thinks of herself as a maker and wants to empower others with the ability to create and ground themselves through crafting.
This episode Diane sits down with Ifé Franklin to have a discussion on her work as an artist and an in-depth discussion on the black experience in America.
Diane Ivey is the owner and Creative Director of Lady Dye Yarns, an indie-dye yarn company since 2010. A knitter for 17 years and a dyer, spinner and crocheter for 12, Diane looks forward to not only expanding her company but using her expertise in growth and expansion with other BIPOC businesses to grow on a national scale. She spent 16 years in the non-profit sector. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Mass Communication with a concentration in Print Journalism from Georgia College & State University. She also holds a Masters in Public Administration with a concentration in Non-Profit Management from Suffolk University.
Ifé Franklin has worked as a professional artist and community activist for over 30 years. Born and raised in Washington,D.C., Ifé began her arts education in high school, focusing then on black and white photography.
Ifé entered The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in the late 1980’s where she studied performance art, voice, video production, ceramics, and “The Art of Africa,” where she met her mentor, Master Adire Artist Mr. Stanley Pinckney.
Ifé owns and operates IféArts®. which produces sculpture, installations, drawings, collage, photography, as well as fiber arts. Ifé's new book The Slave Narrative of Willie Mae was released in spring of 2018 and has since been donated and received by The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.
Ifé believes it is her destiny to create and use her voice to convey her passion for the arts and her love for freedom, peace and justice.
Image by Julie Rioux.