Beyond Knitting
Quilting Toward Justice
One of the things that has stayed with me from my time, years back, as a seminary student prison chaplain intern in a maximum-security prison for women is the process of navigating the divide from the outside world. No many how many times I did it, making the transition was always a felt experience with the sense of crossing a threshold.
The Quilters (2024), a half-hour documentary about incarcerated quilters, shines a light on the complex realities of mass incarceration through a work of restorative justice crafted, literally, from inside the prison walls.
Director Jenifer McShane and her team follow several incarcerated men at South Central Correctional Center in Missouri, two hours outside of St. Louis. These men take part in a program of the Restorative Justice Organization, in which they create quilts for children in the county’s foster care system. They spend up to eight hours a day, five days a week, making beautiful, masterpiece quilts and other items, such as weighted vests and blankets for children on the autism spectrum.
The men speak meaningfully about their personal lives—their pasts, presents, and futures—and their work in the craft of quilting. They speak about the significance of making heirloom gifts for a group that is, like themselves, often marginalized and forgotten by society.
As quilter Chill says, referring to the sanctuary of the sewing room, “I change when I walk through that door.”
Sewing for others—a mundane, often overlooked act accorded little social prestige or value—is revealed to have deep meaning.
This is not just art; it is power.
This film—shortlisted for the Documentary Short Film category for the 97th Academy Awards—is the kind of documentary you tell your friends and family and neighbors about.
I did, back in January when I attended a screening and director discussion with Jen McShane, accompanied in-person by some of the quilts. The quilts were extraordinary—vibrant, distinctive, memorable, and expertly made. They were also familiar to me as a knitter who comes from a family with generations of quilters before her.
Fiber artists and artisans of all stripes can relate to the experience of honing a craft through hours of practice and repetition. And to the painstaking process of ripping out your work when correcting an error while creating a gift. And to the resulting satisfaction you feel when the gift is complete and you, its maker, can finally deem it “finished.”
The color stories, the piecework, the stippling, and the smiles on the faces of the quilt recipients and quilters alike in the film speak to quilting as hard work, artistry, expertise, and a form of social connection.
Importantly, this is no benign exchange. The story is about quilting as a pursuit of self, community, and a type of justice that is more expansive than the punitive. There is a larger social vision at work.
Part of the power of the film is the way it gives a glimpse of the inclusive vision of restorative justice, which seeks rehabilitation through reconciliation and repair of harm on an individual and social scale, pursuing relationship and transformation rather than inhibiting them.
By shining a light on this project, the film encourages viewers to rethink our justice systems and learn more about the systemic change needed, possible, and already underway in some places.
The Social Justice Collaboration Quilts project at Louisiana State Penitentiary is another example. This project grew out of a hospice support program established in 1997 by incarcerated individuals at the facility known as “Angola prison” to care for their dying. To raise money for the hospice program, they started making and selling quilts.
Today, the program has developed into an artistic and political channel bearing witness to incarcerated artists, their experiences, and their political consciousnesses, connecting those inside to those outside the prison. (For folks local to New England, twelve quilts from this project will be on view this September through December as an exhibition, Stitching Time, at Fairfield University.)
These connections and themes all make me think of quilter and writer Alice Walker’s comments on quilting, as recorded in her interview with photodocumentarian Roland L. Freeman in his landmark book A Communion of the Spirits: African-American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories (1996).
In response to Freeman’s question about “what she’d like to say to people in general about quilting,” Walker responded that people “should think less about collecting quilts and give more thought to making them. Because, really, that is the power.
“It may do all kinds of good things, too, to collect what others have made, but I think that it is essential that we know how to express, you know, our own sense of connection. And there is no better sense of understanding our own creation than to create and so we should do that … it’s in the doing. It’s in the creation. That’s where your joy is.”
Thank you for this. My husband and I watched the documentary and we both loved it and found ourselves talking about it even days later. Incredibly moving. As a northern New Englander I feel a road trip coming on. Thank you for the tip. This post was an excellent way to start my day!
Thank you so much for this article. What beautiful writing!
I will pass it on to my quilting friends and watch the documentary. The process is always the most important part of any project, not the final product. Living in the northeast I will also visit the exhibit.
Thank you. That exhibit and another art exhibit there at the same time are on my to-do list for September. More info here. https://www.fairfield.edu/museum/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/index.html
What a powerful documentary! I’ve watched it three times and I find the need to watch it again. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing. I have a lot on my plate right now so would have missed this.
This is SUCH important work, and so very dear to my heart.
I too have worked with men serving time, mostly due to the very bad choices they made because of chemical addictions, as with the vast majority of folks doing time. Many of the men had traumas that followed them from their childhoods; some from abuse, some from tragic early loss that devastated their families.
Most of them had good good hearts, but very great difficulties trusting others, controlling impulses &/or building and functioning in a relationship. The vast majority of “my guys” have since died from their addictions, some directly, others indirectly. Each one was a loss to me personally and to our society overall because they ALL represented a goodness that needed to be cultivated and shaped into the fullness it had been born to become. Each of them had yet to truly believe in their own goodness or portential. Without that belief, it was always too easy to fall back into old patterns & choices. Projects like this allow them to work slowly & steadily on something good that does good for others while also building the good within their own hearts & souls.
That is a double-edged sword. As they grow to see & feel & believe in their own worth, they also grow to understand their own past mistakes and debts. They cannot grow beyond until they reach that point, but it is always hard to watch and to maneuver.
THANK you for promoting this project.
I am deeply grateful to you on behalf of Jason & Tim & TJ & Jim.
What you write touches my heart, it’s such a different way to consider these people. Your compassion shines through. And how absolutely wonderful that the process of creating helps so many in different ways. I look forward to watching this film and sharing it with others. Thank you Jeania Ree for bringing this to our attention.
This moved me to tears when I watched. The film is a terrific piece of work. Thank you for your deeper insight.
Alice Walker’s story about the meaning of quilts, “Everyday Use,” has been living in my head since I first taught it 40 years ago. It’s important.
This is powerful
This documentary was so important to watch, even if you are not a quilter. When I watched it I saw so much good in these men. This speaks strongly to the need for prison reform. I am a quilter, and I would love to donate fabric to this project, but I don’t know how to go about doing this. Thank you for sharing this show with others.
Thank you for a beautiful article. I would have missed this documentary without it. I plan to watch this weekend.
Thank you for sharing this. I’m also reminded of our trip last summer to the Ohio State Reformatory, active during a time when at least part of our judicial system was focused on helping those through true reformation and not just incarceration. This gives hope and a means for change and opportunity…something priceless not just for the inmates but for us as a society as a whole.
I also recently watched “The Freedom Writers” (and now plan to read the book.) A true story about a teacher who had a real long term impact on high school students in Long Beach…would definitely recommend it!
It’s a reminder for us to look for the good in all people now matter how different we seem at first glance…and given different circumstances, we, too, could be living in a completely different place.
So happy you are featuring this documentary! Deeply inspiring. Have told anyone who will listen about it.
The film was very moving and the program was such a good example of what is possible.
And yes. The power in making is manifold.
Thank you for turning me onto this documentary- I was left wishing it was longer; although, I don’t know what else I’d like to have seen from it. Still, it looked like they were doing important, transformative work and that is a very good thing.
I found this documentary as soon as it came out. Very informative, and moving.
This was in my ‘Netflix Recommends’. The documentary is well-crafted and thought provoking. Because it isn’t focussed on an individual’s background your attention is centered on what is happening in the present. Nearly all will spend the rest of their life in prison; the project isn’t designed to earn brownie points. Entry to the program is difficult and removal is swift. I am astounded by the quality of the work. Thank you for bringing this film to our attention. It is only 30 minutes long and it is well worth your time.
Love, love, loved this show! Made me think about how we handle imprisoning people for their crimes. My opinion is that punishment doesn’t help very much; creating something with care and feeling is a better use of time spent incarcerated.