Stitching Stolen Lives Focuses on Building Empathy Through Quilts

CONCORD, Calif., February 10, 2022 (Newswire.com) - C&T Publishing is a family-owned craft books publisher with a list of books and products encompassing a wide range of creative arts. C&T is pleased to introduce Stitching Stolen Lives by Sara Trail and Teresa Duryea Wong, and an in-depth look at the mission and work of the Social Justice Sewing Academy Remembrance Project, founded by Sara Trail. The book was released in September 2021.

Stitching Stolen Lives remembers the lives lost due to racial injustices, with an in-depth sharing of their story. In this book, SJSA compiled extraordinary portrait art quilts that memorialize the individuals and say their names, over and over. The book shares stories and insight into the lives lost and the long overlooked, heartrending truths shared by teens and young adults. Stitching Stolen Lives Features forewords by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Stitching Stolen Lives and SJSA are focused on remembering the lives lost due to social injustice, building empathy through quilts, and amplifying voices and empowering youth through art. 

About Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA): SJSA is uniquely focused on creating opportunities for expression in a way that allows the makers to speak, to release their emotions, and to communicate with a myriad of people whom they would otherwise never reach. Through the creation of textile art, these voices are forever preserved with needle and thread. These messages of injustice, violence, racism, wealth disparity, gentrification, environmental issues, poverty, and even beauty are sewn into these quilted works of art. These voices are amplified. They are rising above the noise. And the process is helping empower these makers.

Founder of SJSA, Sara Trail, an avid quilter since childhood, started this movement in 2017 after noticing the lack of response or acknowledgment of the murder of Trayvon Martin in the textile art community. "I founded the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) in 2017 to blend my love of sewing and quilting with my passion for advocating against systemic racism, discrimination, and injustice. In the years since it was founded, SJSA has grown to be a nonprofit organization with thousands of volunteers in the United States, Canada, and around the world. Everyone who engages with the organization is a volunteer, as there is no paid staff; nor is there a headquarters building. Rather, this is a grassroots organization powered by the community."

SJSA has been featured in Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, Harvard GSE, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and many more. This is SJSA's first book publication.

Please direct any media inquiries to Lynn Ford: [email protected]

Source: C&T Publishing