ALL IN THE SAME STORM : PANDEMIC PATCHWORK STORIES

12 Dec 2020-21 Feb 2021

Overview

Set against the traumatic backdrop of COVID-19 and the resulting need for individuals and communities to support one another through it, the Refugee Buddy Project, Hastings, Rother & Wealden initiated an online version of Stitch for Change, a project that began in late 2019 to bring people together through storytelling and making. Over 70 people from refugee backgrounds and their allies met regularly over the internet to share their experiences and find a collective voice. They told their stories of life under the shadow of COVID-19 through hand-stitched patchwork squares that reveal tales of resistance, change, togetherness, isolation, loss and home. The patches, once sewn together, form four large quilts: a people’s history of a pandemic that sits within the long tradition of hand-stitching as a method of narrating individual and collective life under oppressive, unsettling circumstances.