The Auntie Sewing Squad guide to mask making, radical care, and racial justice / edited by Mai-Linh K. Hong.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hong, Mai-Linh K., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

COVID-19 (Disease)--Social aspects.

COVID-19 (Disease).

Social movements--United States--21st century.

Social movements.

COVID-19 (Disease)--Prevention.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (280 pages)

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2021]

Summary:

The rise of the Auntie Sewing Squad, a massive mutual-aid network of volunteers who provide free masks in the wake of US government failures during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, when the US government failed to provide personal protective gear during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Auntie Sewing Squad emerged. Founded by performance artist Kristina Wong, the mutual-aid group sewed face masks with a bold social justice mission: to protect the most vulnerable and most neglected. Written and edited by Aunties themselves, The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice tells a powerful story. As the pandemic unfolded, hate crimes against Asian Americans spiked. In this climate of fear and despair, a team of mostly Asian American women using the familial label "Auntie" formed online, gathered momentum, and sewed masks at home by the thousands. The Aunties nimbly made and funneled masks to asylum seekers, Indigenous communities, incarcerated people, farmworkers, and others disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. When anti-lockdown agitators descended on state capitals--and, eventually, the US Capitol--the Aunties dug in. And as the nation erupted in rebellion over police violence against Black people, the Aunties supported and supplied Black Lives Matter protesters and organizations serving Black communities. Providing hundreds of thousands of homemade masks met an urgent public health need and expressed solidarity, care, and political action in a moment of social upheaval. The Auntie Sewing Squad is a quirky, fast-moving, and adaptive mutual-aid group that showed up to meet a critical need. Led primarily by women of color, the group includes some who learned to sew from mothers and grandmothers working for sweatshops or as a survival skill passed down by refugee relatives. The Auntie Sewing Squad speaks back to

the history of exploited immigrant labor as it enacts an intersectional commitment to public health for all. This collection of essays and ephemera is a community document of the labor and care of the Auntie Sewing Squad.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Taxonomy of Auntie Roles

Introduction

We Go Down Sewing

Auntie Sewing Squad Map

Auntie Sewing Squad Core Values: Transparency + Passion + Humor + Kindness

Auntie Sewing Squad Bingo

Ode to the Spreadsheet of Glory

A Mary Poppins Box of Supplies

Finding Fabric

Recipe for Vegan Kimchee

Moment of Joy

Labor

Sewing as Care Work

Taxonomy of Auntie Care

The Evolution of Auntie Care

Auntie Sewing Squad Care-Van

How to Sew Masks for Fun and No Profit in the Apocalypse

Mask Ties and Earloops and Nose Pieces

Bread, Roses, and Face Masks

Home Sweatshop

Recipe for Ube Halaya

Solidarity

Sewing with Intent

Behind the Wheel of a Large Automobile Full of PPE

Badly Licked Bear Relief Van

Dreaming of My Ancestors:

Abuela’s Facultad

Solidarity Praxis

Monk Fabric

It’s in Your Blood:

Three Generations

Recipe for Tsukemono Pasta Salad

A Day in OUR Virtual Life

Survival

Sewing as Refuge

Mending Time:

Mask Butterfly and Stencil Rose

Rebirth

Sewing through a Pan(dem)ic

How to Measure, Selfie

Recipe for Nourishing Salve

Mutual Aid

Sewing the Pieces Back Together

ASS Quilt

Science Is the Light on the Sewing Machine

My Dad Sewing

Querida Abuelita Rafaelita

Sewing Machine

Treasuring Mom

Recipe for Earl’s Girl Pound Cake

Posterity

Teaching Sewing, Teaching Care

The Auntie Sewing Squad Kids Sewing Camp

To the Rescue

Technical Assistance Auntie

Connecting My Family’s One-Hundred-Year Herstory

Sewing with Mom

Sewing for the Next Generation

A Day in the Life of Westside Hub

Recipe for Chocolate Shortbread Hearts

We (can) do it

Coda

Timeline

Auntie Sewing Squad Mask Sewing Patterns

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes index.

ISBN:

9780520384019

0520384016

OCLC:

1238129806