A Railway Adventure into Craftivism

Craftivism? What is she on about now? Girl, are you making this up?

Pfft, like I’d make stuff up 😉 Nope, craftivism is real.

“Craftivism is a way of looking at life where voicing opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper & your quest for justice more infinite.” (Betsy Greer, “Craftivism.” Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice. 2007)

There are many advocates and practitioners of active Craftivism out there – the one I can credit with getting me into all this in the first place is the lovely Radical Cross Stitch, based in Melbourne – but this last week your Disobedient Child has allied herself firmly and shamelessly to the Craftivist Collective. And for why? Because I received an invitation, or maybe it was a challenge, from no less than Mr X-Stitch himself, to join in with A Railway Adventure: stitching a fabric train of protest to fight for fair transport fares.

Craftivist Collective, in collaboration with campaigning group Climate Rush, have organised stitch-ins at railway stations across the country on Sunday 10th April. People will be enjoying a nice cup of tea (what could be more civilized?) and stitching their protest/facts/messages onto fabric carriages, which will then be collected together and sewn into bunting and presented to Philip Hammond MP, Minister for Transport. A man who really should, given his job, spend a bit more time actually working out a half-decent public transport policy instead of shrugging Gallic-ly and saying ‘what, you’ve got a car haven’t you?’. Or words to that effect.

So anyway, as no-one else has organised a stitch-in in Sheffield, I have. If you’re still reading, you’re obviously curious, so why not come along on Sunday and see what I’m blathering on about. Join us for the stitch-in – I have fabric pens for non-sewers, there’s no excuse – or just share our tea and biscuits and have a good chin-wag. Don’t just wonder what craftivism is, come and find out!

Sheffield station, 1-4pm, Sunday 10th April. Get in touch for more details, but otherwise, see you there!

(PS: I have not credited these photos, as I found them through Google. If they are yours, please let me know. And, nice!)