| This evening I have just returned home from the Women’s Voices conference at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock. I attended the artists’ reception Thursday night, and the Women’s Voices summit on Friday. The conference was jam-packed with women on stage and in the audience who are making it their life’s work to raise up women and girls around the world. To say it was inspiring would be…an understatement. When we heard that they had produced a companion book for the exhibit, I rushed into the Gift Shop to have a look. It took me a moment to realize…my quilt is on the cover! What a thrilling way to start the trip! I ordered 2 cases and they were shipped out Friday so we will have them next week. I will sign the page inside with my quilt. 15 artists were invited to make quilts for this historic exhibit, and we all worked on them throughout the pandemic. (The opening was delayed several times due to the pandemic.) The conference theme was the quote from Sec. Hillary Clinton’s speech at the UN Women’s Conference in 1995 in Beijing – “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” – which was also the theme for my quilt. The conference started with Sec. Clinton making some wonderful enthusiastic remarks about our art quilts, which was quite thrilling for all the artists. My thanks to Allida Black and Allison Wilbur for organizing this project. To finally be able to celebrate this accomplishment with the other incredible artists, and at the conference, was an amazing celebration. We are all looking for other venues for this show to travel after it closes in April. If you are traveling in Little Rock in the next few months, please do stop to see the exhibit. Hopefully there will be other venues around the country in the near future. The speaker who touched my heart was Shabana Basij-Rasikh, who has been working to educate Afghani girls despite the Taliban closing schools. Right now there are only 200 girls from Afghanistan being educated, and that is because they were evacuated out of the country when the US left. Her pain regarding a generation of Afghani girls being uneducated…was searing and palpable. She implored us – “Don’t Look Away” – and asked us not to forget about the women in Afghanistan. We also heard about what is happening to girls and women protesting in Iran. The former Prime Minister of Australia spoke to us (Julia Gillard) and the former President of Liberia and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (Ellen Johnson Sirleaf) also spoke. I was surprised to learn that President Sirleaf got her BA at CU Boulder, where Sophie is attending now! Christy Turlington Burns spoke about her non-profit Every Mother Counts, which addresses the high maternal mortality rate in many US states. They are working to educate a new generation of healthcare workers to fill out rural hospitals and birthing centers. The Cherokee delegate to the Congress – Kim TeeHee – also spoke to us about the history of indigenous people which we definitely don’t learn in school. I left the summit with a thirst for more knowledge on several topics, and a renewed commitment to support girls and young women who are the future of our country and our planet. Sharing your love of fabric, Luana and Paul Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas. See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, comment on our blog, or follow us on Facebook. Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews. Travel/Quilt Calendar: Dec 1-2 – Clinton Presidential Library – Artist Reception Feb 22-25 – QuiltCon – Atlanta April – Pour l’Amour du Fil – Nantes |
