Churches Weekly Newsletter - No.163, 4 June 2023
I think our having grandchildren around this half-term week, and my upcoming birthday, have combined to get me brooding over my age.... and being encouraged by what the next generation are achieving. One whom I’ve been thinking of is Sarah Corbett, who I used to chat with around the kitchen table of her home in the vicarage of St Peter’s, West Everton, when she was a schoolgirl and I was a community worker alongside her mum Jane. Sarah’s dad Henry recently retired after over forty years of ministry in one of Liverpool's lowest income communities, and Jane went on to become West Everton's city councillor and a Deputy Mayor. Sarah has said, "All we ever do around the kitchen table is talk about religion and politics."
At the age of three Sarah joined her local community squatting in social housing to save them from demolition (they won), and with her parents she later visited South Africa to learn about the Peace and Reconciliation work of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. She became a professional campaigner for NGOs including Christian Aid and Oxfam GB, and the UK Government Department for International Development (DFID). But something wasn’t quite right. In 2008, Sarah, a self-described introvert, "burned out from too much confrontation, and, doubting the effectiveness of many elements of conventional activism, starting looking for alternatives." She discovered craftivism – a term coined by American writer and crafter Betsy Greer in 2003 – and decided to have a go at creating her own craftivism projects.
Craftivism is a combination of 'craft' and 'activism'. There are limitless possibilities to what craftivists do, including hand-sewing positive messages to post to MPs, crafting colourful mini-banners for public display, helping kids create bunting expressing their desires to improve the world, and leaving crafted Valentine’s cards for people to find, containing messages inviting them to ‘brighten up someone’s day’.
Sarah says, “If there’s time for the loud, there’s also time for the quiet. If there’s time for the fast, there’s also a need for the slow. In everyone’s heart is a desire to change things for the better – it is essential that there is an activists toolkit that is as diverse as humanity.” Sarah’s unique ‘Gentle Protest’ approach to craftivism gained a following of friends and strangers around the world who wanted to get involved. And so, in 2009, the Craftivist Collective was born.
Today the award-winning Craftivist Collective has thousands of members, who Sarah supports by developing tools and projects that they can undertake as individuals or by organising their own small group 'stitch-ins'. Sarah has also delivered events, talks, workshops and events to over 12,000 people around the world. Her first book, A Little Book of Craftivism, came out in 2013, and she has since published a more in-depth guide, How to be a Craftivist: the art of gentle protest. In July 2022 Sarah was presented with an Honorary Fellowship from Goldsmiths, University of London for her "contribution to design activism and public engagement.”
This week Sarah sent news of her plans to publish The Craftivist Collective Handbook, which “is going to be a beautiful, hardback book of 20 craftivism projects and tools to help you on your journey as a positive and effective change-maker. Each project explains ‘How To’ create these ethical craftivism projects, and just as importantly ‘Why To’, so that you can fulfil the potential of your campaign with both a strong strategy and mindful process.” Being a full-time craftivist is hardly lucrative, thus Sarah’s request for supporters to finance this project. If you’re interested to read more about craftivism, or to donate towards Sarah’s work, please click over to the Craftivist Collective website.
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