Global Craftivism since the Pussyhats

Dr. Hinda Mandell is a professor in the School of Communication at RIT in New York, where she was the director of the university’s journalism program from 2020-2024. Mandell is editor of this volume, Global Craftivism since the Pussyhats: Handcraft Responses to Violence, War, Illness and Isolation; editor Crafting Dissent: Handicraft as Protest from the American Revolution to the Pussyhats (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019); co-curator and co-editor of Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism (RIT Press, 2019); a co-editor of Nasty Women and Bad Hombres: Gender and Race in the 2016 US Presidential Election (University of Rochester Press, 2018); the author of Sex Scandals, Gender and Power in Contemporary American Politics (Praeger, 2017); and co-editor of Scandal in a Digital Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). As a journalist, her work has been published in Politico, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The LA Times, among other publications. An avid DIY’er who loves to unleash creativity in others, Mandell is the founder of her university’s annual Zine Fest. Her scholarly inquiries into collaborative handcraft as change-agents have been published in Craft Research, the Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, and forthcoming in the Journal of Feminist Scholarship. She is on the international advisory board of the Journal of Craft & Communities and on the editorial board the International Journal of Sustainable Fashion and Textiles, and her research has been funded by the Center for Craft and Fiber Art Now. In 2020 she was a guest artist with Visual Studies Workshop, whose residency funded the production of her artist book, “The Yarn Must Live: A Polemic on a Pandemic and Public Art,” which was acquired by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 2021. Since 2017, she has organized maker interventions on issues of social reform tied to geographic place reaching 2,000 craft participants. She is also under contract for an upcoming book with Rowman & Littlefield, Crafting Choice: Abortion Politics and Handwork in the U.S. She’s been interviewed by The New York Times and The Associated Press, among other global outlets, on the importance of making objects by hand. She is on Instagram: @crochetactivism.

• Table of ContentsPREFACEPART I: Crafting and Collective Action in the Late Digital AgeChapter 1The Agitation (and Comfort) of Textiles in a World on the Brink:‘Craftivism’ Enters Maturity in its Third Decade by Hinda MandellChapter 2Digital or Digit-All: A Designer’s Manifesto in the Making for Humanistic Futures through Handwork by Donna Maione Chapter 3Good in a Crisis: A Conversation on Craftivism’s Values of Craft, Collectivity and Care by Kate Just, Alyce McGovern, and Tal Fitzpatrick Chapter 4Unraveling Unity: Reflections on the Dynamics of Allyship and Economics by Diane L. IveyChapter 5The Fierce Fabric of Feminism: Feminist Embroidery as a Tool Against Sexual Violence in Sweden by Elisabeth Drion, Karin Milles, and Hanna SöderlundPART II: Craftivism as a Response to Healthcare DisparitiesChapter 6Patients before Profits: Promoting Change in Healthcare through Craftivism by Catherine McGeehin HeilfertyChapter 7Stitching aCovid-19transgression:DominicCummingsatBarnardCastle(2020) byLynnSetteringtonChapter 8Crossing Great Divides: Reckoning with COVID through Collective Threads by Heather SchulteChapter 9Roe, Roe, Roe Your Vote: How To Create your Own Craftivist Protest Piece by Elizabeth SovernPART III: Craftivism as Civic EngagementChapter 10Why Teaching 20,000 Students across Africa to Knit by 2030, is not just about Craft – but How to Learn by Elizabeth Okeyele-OlatunjiChapter 11The Story of the ‘Violet Protest:’ Deploying Socially Engaged Art with Textile Craft for Political Resistance by Ann MortonChapter 12Knit Democracy Together: Combining Craft and Education by Eve Jacobs-Carnahan PART IV: Craftivists at War, and Fighting for the PlanetChapter 13Speaking Out About the Longest Hatred, Antisemitism and Oct. 7, 2023 by Mirka KnasterChapter 14Blossoms Not Bullets: Craftivist’s Love Letter to Humanity in Response to Weaponised Games People Play by Stacey RozenChapter 15Crafting Survival: Making in Ukraine since the 2022 Russian Full-Scale Invasion by Cynthia Klima and Alla MyzelevChapter 16#FramedinBelarus: Stitch It Collective and the Fight for Human Rights in Belarus by Sasha RazorChapter 17Visible Mending as a Political Act by Sandra MarkusChapter 18Weather Wisdom and Kit Craftivism by Shirley WajdaCONCLUSIONChapter 19More than a Gimmick in the Attention Economy: Looking ahead to the Tactility of Joy and Craft Action in a Brittle, Brutal World by Hinda MandellAFTERWORDAfterword: The Chocolate-Craft of Activism from a Small-Business Perspective by Lindsay Tarnoff

Mandell’s latest anthology is essential reading for anyone interested in how a needle and thread can be used to express dissent, foster empowerment, and galvanize communities. With potency and heart, the writings illuminate handwork as a powerful tool for reclaiming human connection in an increasingly digitized world.