July 4, 2020

From Jessica:
”...the idea was to have 13 stripes of alternating color as a dark version of the US Flag, where everything is turned opposite--blue field of stars becomes a red field of memorial on this July 4...and the stripes become blue instead of red & white. I chose a famous July 4th Frederick Douglass quote for this block because one of the greatest tragedies of this pandemic is the way in which our Black and Latinx communities have been disproportionally devastated by Covid-19.

... this pandemic has affected women and our time is more taken up with childcare than before and these career and personal sacrifices we have had to make...disproportionately affect women. This has been so true in my own life. I just have less time for my own projects...and the kids take up more time.

... I'm so grateful to have been a part of the project... even my husband noticed how it was part of my meditation and processing of this great tragedy that was 2020. The act of memorializing the death and suffering of 60,000 people in one day was deeply meaningful..as was the realization that 2-3% of each blue stitch would turn up a red stitch several weeks later. Life is precious.”