‘In Response, We Are Changed’: Quilts of George Floyd’s Final Words on Display

By Eileen O’grady
THE CONCORD MONITOR
A textile exhibition that uses needle and thread to weave a message of racial justice is coming to Northwood and Deerfield this month, after touring the East Coast for almost a year.

The Sacred Ally Quilt Project was started by the United Church of Jaffrey, who partnered with eight other New Hampshire United Church of Christ congregations to create 10 quilts, many of which feature the words “I can’t breathe,” the phrase repeated by George Floyd before he was killed by Minneapolis police. Floyd’s murder in May 2020 prompted a racial justice movement against police brutality, racism, and lack of police accountability.

“Immortalizing these tragic words centers this expression of allyship on the words of a Black man,” said Rev. Mark Koyama, pastor of the United Church of Jaffrey. “The white man who killed Mr. Floyd did not listen to these words, but we do. We listen attentively. In response, we create. In response, we remember. In response, we are changed.”

The quilts have been displayed in a wide variety of locations, including New York City’s Positive Exposure 109 Gallery and Riverside Church, New Hampshire’s World Fellowship Center and Vermont Academy. Now, they’re coming to Northwood Congregational Church from Aug. 7 to 14 and to Deerfield Community Church from Aug. 21 to 28.

Rev. Reneé Rouse, pastor of the Northwood Congregational Church, said Thursday that holding the art exhibition will help bring awareness and dialogue to the community.

“For over 100 years, breath has been taken from people of color in our country, and so it’s part of America’s history that you will see in art form,” Rouse said. “The quilt brings a challenge to all of us when we see, in art form, the last words of a man, the last breaths being taken.”

The Jaffrey congregation spearheaded the idea of a collaborative project in the aftermath of Floyd’s death that would reflect eight stages, from discomfort and pain to death. The ninth and tenth quilts are titled “Beginning” and “Ending.”

At the end of the exhibition on Aug. 28, the Northwood and Deerfield churches will collaborate to host a screening of the documentary Stitch Breathe Speak: The George Floyd Quilts, which tells the story of the creation of the quilts, at 6 p.m. at Deerfield Congregational Church.

“We encourage people to come and be comforted or challenged,” Rouse said, “And be awakened to the reality that art has a place in bringing us common ground in the area of racial justice.”

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative as part of our race and equity project. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.