As I mentioned in yesterday’s article, art has historically been used as a form of resistance.

That idea isn’t new.

We’ve seen it across generations — people making things to push back against injustice, to memorialize loss, to make sure stories weren’t erased just because systems wanted them to be.

In that piece, I talked about the AIDS Memorial Quilt — how it transformed grief into something visible, tangible, impossible to ignore.

How it forced people to confront names, not numbers.

Stories, not statistics.

And once you sit with something like that, it stays with you.

Which is why, when I read an article this morning about QuiltCon’s Resistance Project, my first thought was:

This would be the perfect continuation of that conversation.

Because art is powerful like that.

It sticks with you.

And once you start noticing it, it becomes really hard to stop.

Resistance Is Getting Louder

Historically, resistance art sometimes lived quietly.

Hidden symbols.

Coded messages.

Underground expression.

But today?

It feels louder.

More visible.

More woven into everyday culture.

You don’t even have to go looking for it anymore.

It finds you.

It’s Showing Up Everywhere

Yes, we still see the viral protest signs.

The clever ones.

The biting ones.

The ones that travel across social media before the march even ends.

But resistance art has expanded far beyond poster board.

Now it looks like:

Knit hats instantly recognizable as part of a movement Yarnbombing transforming public spaces Embroidered protest messages Textile memorials Quilts carrying political and social testimony

Creativity isn’t sitting quietly on the sidelines.

It’s showing up — and it’s causing what John Lewis called good trouble.

The QuiltCon Resistance Project

One of the most striking examples of this lives inside QuiltCon’s Resistance Project.

It showcases quilts that respond directly to current social and political realities:

Immigration.

Racial injustice.

Gun violence.

Climate change.

LGBTQ+ rights.

Heavy topics — translated into textile form.

And what struck me most wasn’t just the quilts themselves.

It was the artist descriptions that accompanied them.

The Stories Behind the Images

The artist statements didn’t focus on technique or fabric choices.

They focused on the imagery depicted in the quilts.

Why certain scenes were chosen.

Why certain symbols were stitched.

What moments or injustices compelled the artist to create the piece in the first place.

Reading those descriptions shifted the experience entirely.

You weren’t just looking at art.

You were looking at testimony.

At witnessing.

At someone processing the world in real time through the act of making.

It reminded me so much of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in that way.

Different issues. Different era.

Same instinct:

If we make it visible, it cannot be ignored.

Craft as Protest Hits Differently

There’s something about seeing resistance expressed through craft that lands in a unique way.

Maybe it’s because these mediums — quilting, knitting, embroidery — have historically been dismissed as soft or domestic.

So when they carry bold social commentary?

It reframes everything.

Comfort mediums holding uncomfortable truths.

You walk up expecting warmth.

You walk away carrying weight.

Craftivism Is Having a Moment

We’re seeing craftivism show up everywhere right now:

The sea of pink knit hats at the Women’s March.

Yarnbombed monuments and public spaces.

Cross-stitched protest quotes.

Textile installations appearing overnight.

These works travel.

They’re photographed, shared, archived.

They become part of the visual language of resistance.

And they offer a way for people to participate — even if they never attend a march.

Once You Notice It…

Here’s the thing I keep coming back to:

Once you start noticing resistance art, you see it everywhere.

On social media.

In galleries.

In community exhibits.

In pop-up installations.

In fiber arts spaces that people once assumed were “just craft.”

Art sticks with you like that.

It shifts your lens.

And suddenly you realize how many people are using creativity to witness, process, and push back all at once.

A Call to Share What You’re Seeing

So now I’m curious.

Because QuiltCon isn’t the only place this is happening.

If you’ve come across examples of craft used as resistance — quilts, knitting, embroidery, yarnbombing, textile memorials — I’d love for you to share them.

Drop links.

Post images.

Tag artists.

Let’s build a thread (pun absolutely intended) of the ways creativity is being used to cause good trouble right now.

Because the more visible it becomes…

The more powerful it becomes.

And as yesterday’s article reminded us:

When people make things, they change what can be seen.