WOMEN'S VOICES SUMMIT

When and Where I Enter

Artist:  Alice Beasley

As the suffrage battle stalled in 1879, the movement splintered.

The Fifteenth Amendment, adopted in 1870, had only extended voting rights to Black men. Racial tensions escalated. Many suffrage leaders argued that to win crucial Southern states, white women must be the focus. Others disagreed. Black women formed their own organizations. This intense and public debate ricocheted through the movement.

Artist statement: Within the suffrage movement, the leadership sometimes caved to the dictates of the Jim Crow South. Here, Ida B. Wells refuses the leadership’s directive to walk at the back of the 1913 suffrage march. Instead of traditional white, I dressed these heroic Black sisters in bright colors in salute to their diversity.

About the artist: Like a classical painter, Alice Beasley is absorbed by an interest in the human figure. Instead of pain, she finds light, shadow, and color in the patterns found in fabric.

  Stand up, Speak Out

Artist:  Allison Wilbur

Women spoke up in opposition to slavery before they spoke up for themselves. They adapted the skills they learned from their abolition activism to their own struggle for equality. In 1836, two South Carolina sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimké, shocked the nation—and risked their lives—when they dared address both.

Artist statement: Sarah Grimké challenged Southern women to oppose the mortal sin of slavery. Her 1836 pamphlet, “An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South,” drew national attention, enraged the South, and forced her to seek safety in the North.

Ridicule did not silence the Grimkés. In 1838, Sarah released “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes” to address their critics. “All I ask of our brethren,” she declared, “is that they will take their feet from off our necks and permit us to stand upright.” This declaration so moved Ruth Bader Ginsburg that she often cited Grimké in legal arguments and public addresses.

About the artist: Allison Wilbur paints with thread and fabric, combining traditional quilting with contemporary techniques. Her work celebrates the rich feminine tradition of stitching as a means of personal expression.

Tomorrow is Now 

Artist: Gail Sims

As First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt opposed poll taxes and championed voting rights. She faced harsh criticism, slander, and threats on her life. She stood her ground. In 1948, as chair of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, she insisted that voting rights were human rights—everywhere in the world.

Artist statement: Eleanor Roosevelt steered the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It took two years of unwavering dedication. Her intensity, captured in this photo, brought my work into focus. Portraying my piece in black and white depicts the stark separation of human rights on so many levels, especially today.

About the artist: Works I do reflect topics that touch my heart or depict something that just needs to be said. Dyeing and printing my fabric allows me to amplify the story through textiles.

Dreams Realized 

Artist: Hollis Chatelain

Women today vote in record numbers. They vote more often than men, more regularly than men, and, although women don’t always vote for the same candidate, they are, most often, the deciding factor in local, state, and national elections. No candidate can afford to ignore their influence or their interests.

Artist Statement: When the Women’s Right to Vote Act passed in 1920, only white women had the right to vote in every state. It wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965 that all American women could vote. African American women seized this right, organized their communities, and now take their whole neighborhoods to the polls.

About the artist: Through a dynamic and characteristic style marked by dreamlike imagery, elaborate use of color, and intricate thread detail, Hollis Chatelain creates unique compositions that address challenging social, environmental, and political themes.

Equality

Artist: Hollis Chatelain

Each generation of women stands on the shoulders of those who preceded them, their human rights secured by their foremothers, who fought to vote, control their wages, end war, care for their families, lead their communities, and hold governments accountable. As the quilt declares, “Each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women.”

Artist statement: In 2014, I dreamed of this image in hot pink. My daughter was standing in a field with a baby on her hip. The sky was full of quotes about women. The quilted crows appeared to me afterward. The piece is dye-painted and machine quilted with 400 relevant quotes.

About the artist: Hollis Chatelain is an internationally renowned and award-winning artist. Through a dynamic and characteristic style marked by dreamlike imagery, elaborate use of color, and intricate thread detail, Hollis creates unique compositions that address challenging social, environmental, and political themes.

Undaunted

Artist: Hollis Chatelain

Across the nation, women organize to protect the right to vote. Whether as legislators, activists, poll watchers, or canvassers, they summon Americans to vote and demand each vote be counted. “Democracy only works when we work for it,” they argue. “When we fight for it. When we demand it.”

Artist statement: Women are natural organizers. Using their place at the center of community life, they rally their neighbors to speak out and to act. Their collective efforts expand and protect justice, equality, and freedom. This piece is a tribute to women organizers for their undaunted efforts to protect voting rights in America.

About the artist: Through a dynamic and characteristic style marked by dreamlike imagery, elaborate use of color, and intricate thread detail, Hollis Chatelain creates unique compositions that address challenging social, environmental, and political themes.

Women’s Work

Artist: Lea McComas

Throughout history, women have worked to make their communities caring, vibrant, and inclusive. Some focused on the right to vote or the right to education, while others focused on combating disease, poverty, discrimination, and violence. They shared one overarching conviction—women are citizens, and their human rights must be respected.

Artist statement: Across time and cultures, women risked all they had to make democracy whole. History struggles to recognize their actions—much less tell their stories. Painters and sculptors honor men whose ideas shaped their world. My quilt challenges that view and salutes 57 women—from Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Malala Yousafzai—who dared fight for equality and justice.

About the artist: Award-winning artist, author, and teacher Lea McComas creates realistic pictorial art quilts. Her work has been featured in numerous publications and exhibited in galleries and juried shows nationally and internationally.

Women’s Rights are Human Rights

Artist: Luana Rubin

In 1995, women from around the globe gathered in Beijing, China, for the Fourth UN World Conference on Women to address the challenges women confronted. Hillary Rodham Clinton, rejecting press and congressional calls to boycott China and the conference, flew to Beijing to stand with the women. If there was one message the world should know, she declared, it should be that “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.” Her words galvanized the movement.

Artist statement: When I traveled to China in 2003 to adopt an abandoned baby girl, her rights as a human being were in jeopardy. When Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Beijing and stood up for women’s human rights, her words resonated with me. My quilt captures this and my hope for my daughter’s future.

About the artist: Luana Rubin is an artist, designer, photographer, and world traveler who lives in Boulder, Colorado. Her company, eQuilter.com, has raised $1.7 million for environmental and human rights nonprofits.

  Shirley Chisholm for President

Artist: Michael Cummings

In 1969, Shirley Chisholm, an outspoken nursery school teacher from Brooklyn, surprised the establishment to become the first Black woman member of Congress. Governing as “the people’s politician,” she cosponsored the Equal Rights Amendment and helped found the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Women’s Caucus.

Artist statement: Shirley Chisholm, a pioneer on a political landscape dominated by men, symbolizes a dramatic challenge to politics as usual. This quilt design reflects her spirit, her campaign poster, her campaign theme, and her bold advocacy for women and people of color.

About the artist: I was a painter when I accidentally discovered quilting. I then taught myself to sew. My narrative quilts illustrate my African American history and feature appliqué and other embellishments.

  Bolts of Thunder

Artist: Nancy Turbitt

Carrie Chapman Catt managed a divided movement. By August 1920, after 72 years, American women’s right to vote depended on ratification by the Tennessee legislature. Camped out in Nashville, Catt directed this last—and pivotal—campaign. Once again, suffragists targeted state and local leaders, lobbied the president, and pressed state legislators. They won—the Nineteenth Amendment became law.

Artist statement: Carrie Chapman Catt’s unwavering conviction has inspired a portrait that brings her ideals to life in full resplendent color. Her powerful stride, clapping and echoing like thunder throughout time, summons her modern-day allies to join her in building a world defined by equality.

About the artist: Nancy chooses fabric to create her colorful, dynamic work. Often employing a touch of whimsy in her storytelling style, she focuses commentary on global environment or human rights issues.

Shoulder to Shoulder

Artist: Patricia Kennedy-Zafred

Suffragists staged dramatic public events to promote women’s right to vote. They held torchlight parades, delivered speeches atop soapboxes, led petition campaigns, and crammed into politicians’ offices to press their case. They staged pageants and, in 1913, organized the first national march on Washington. Opponents physically harassed them and questioned their womanhood.

Artist statement: As an artistic storyteller who works primarily with photographic images, my creative imagination was captured by local and regional leaders, and the countless unnamed heroes of the suffrage movement. Their images, silkscreened on hand-dyed fabrics, reflect women who were brave, resilient, and proud, their mutual delight and camaraderie evident.

About the artist: Using textiles as her medium, Patricia Kennedy-Zafred creates thought-provoking narratives that incorporate fabric, dyes, silkscreens, and ink to initiate a visual dialogue with the viewer.

Mrs. Hamer

Artist: The Pixeladies, Deb Cashatt and Kris Sazaki

Fannie Lou Hamer insisted, “It’s time for America to get right.” Voting was the key. She tried to register in 1962, was fined by the government and fired by her employer for her efforts; tried again in 1963, only to be beaten after passing the literacy test; and ran for Congress in 1964. Undaunted, she declared in 1971, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

Artist statement: The indefatigable Fannie Lou Hamer spoke truth to power. Her words galvanized the nation, so we used specific text snippets in this portrait to salute Mrs. Hamer’s call to action. How shameful it is to still witness the threat to voting rights. No cotton was used in the making of this piece.

About the artist: A love of language and a sense of social justice drive our art. Our collages are created with snippets from newspapers and magazines, which are printed onto fabric and quilted.

Right is No Sex, Truth Is of No Color 

Artist: Sandra Sider

In 1848, crowds packed a chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, for the first women’s rights convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton had drafted the Declaration of Sentiments—the convention’s call to action. She included a call for the vote in the declaration, proclaiming it the “first right of citizenship.” That was so radical, her husband left town and the audience got nervous. Then Frederick Douglass rose. He explained the power of the vote—and the words stayed in. Their relationship would withstand the racial divide that split the movement.

Artist statement: Frederick Douglass’s newspaper announced the Seneca Falls meeting and printed the Declaration of Sentiments. To honor him and the other Black Americans who supported women’s suffrage, I reproduced his version of the declaration and adopted his motto as the title. I then stitched the layers together, tying “2020” charms across the surface.

About the artist: Sandra Sider, a New York quilt artist since the early 1980s, works mostly in photographic processes. She is the editor of “Art Quilt Quarterly” and curator of the Texas Quilt Museum.

The Future is Female

Artist: Shin-hee Chin

The combined power of women’s votes and women’s voices continues to change the world. The women represented here have been elected heads of state, human rights commissioners, and Nobel laureates. Their foundations, nongovernmental organizations, and grassroots activism tackle issues most ignore. Their policies promote human rights. Their voices give courage, hope, and vision to an uneasy world.

Artist statement: This piece portrays female leaders of our age who have made significant contributions in furthering social, political, and environmental justice. The circle represents the state of wholeness. Circles are used in the manner of a nonhierarchical structure, highlighting each one’s independence as well as interconnectedness and solidarity among them.

About the artist: Shin-hee Chin is a fiber artist and professor of art at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas. Chin has created a coherent narrative addressing issues of the female body, cultural identity, and sense of belonging.

The Radicals: A SJSA Community Quilt

Artist: Sara Trail and the Social Justice Sewing Academy

Courage and risk transcend generations and inspire action in new arenas. The young activists of the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) who made this quilt created dozens of quilt blocks for this exhibition—all of which vividly illustrate their determination to continue the struggle for equality and their belief in the power of their votes and their voices.

Artist Statement: The struggle for suffrage is a complicated history, and voting rights remains a contentious topic to this day. The blocks in this quilt depict the struggle to ensure that all women living in the United States have the right to vote, and the courage women display in demanding that right.

About the artist: The Social Justice Sewing Academy, based in Antioch, California, leads hands-on quilting workshops in schools, prisons, and community centers that encourage youth to express their hopes and fears through art and to become agents of change.

Hillary 2016 Herstory: 8 of Potholders in the Kitchen Tarot

Artist: Susan Shie

Throughout Hillary Rodham Clinton’s precedent-shattering 2016 campaign, she told America we are “Stronger Together” and that it was time “to shatter the highest, hardest glass ceiling.” In her concession speech, she challenged the nation to “never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it. It is worth it.”

Artist statement: Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign tapped into the hopes of women and girls worldwide. They believed that a woman who had spent her life fighting for women, children, the poor, and minority rights could lead the nation. Her loss shattered my 12-year-old granddaughter, who wrote Secretary Clinton the letter I captured in my quilt.

About the artist: I draw, paint, write, and sew to capture the events that shape my life. I believe that the personal is political, and that truth, love, awareness, persistence, and witnessing are essential and healing.

La Lucha de Dolores / Dolores’s Fight 

Artist: Sylvia Hernandez

Dolores Huerta challenged corporate farmers, state governments, and the American labor movement to address the rampant discrimination, violence, and poverty farmworkers confronted. Since 1955, she has organized strikes and grape boycotts, negotiated contracts, written legislation setting wages and work safety rules, and run voter registration drives. When people doubted change was possible, she insisted “¡Sí, se puede!” (Yes, it can be done!)

Artist statement: This quilt celebrates Dolores Huerta. For more than 60 years, she has organized against greed and discrimination. She cofounded the United Farm Workers of America, championed human rights, and defended voting rights. “You can protest ’til the moon turns blue,” she preached, “and it’s not going to change anything if you don’t vote.”

About the artist: Sylvia Hernandez uses her award-winning handcrafted art to address human rights. A dedicated teacher, she helps marginalized communities in Brooklyn and Puerto Rico create art that captures their lives and dreams.

Because of Them We Can

Artist: Valerie Goodwin

The Black women of Selma, Alabama, hazarded all they had to vote. Beaten as they tried to register, arrested, and fired, they continued, afraid but determined. They endured tear gas, cattle prods, and club-swinging mounted police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. But they marched from Selma to Montgomery. Their courage resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Artist statement: As I worked on my piece, I kept thinking about how important it is to understand history with all its actors and how it relates to the present. Amelia Boynton, Diane Nash, Sister Mary Antona Ebo, and Viola Liuzzo are among the brave unsung women who helped steer the Movement. We owe them a great debt.

About the artist: Valerie S. Goodwin is a mixed-media fiber artist and professor of architecture. A love of aerial views of landscapes, cities, and maps inspires her work.

Dean Victoria DeFrancesco Soto

Support educational institutions such as the Clinton School of Public Service in developing critical toolkits for future public service and change-making leaders.

Jaclyn Corin

Sign the March For Our Lives petition for the U.S. Senate to conduct a vote on banning assault weapons before the end of this Congress.

Reshma Saujani

Join Marshall Plan for Moms in its fight for paid family leave, affordable child care, pay equity, and maternal care.

The Honorable Kimberly Teehee

Learn about the movement to seat the Cherokee Nation Delegate to Congress. 

María Teresa Kumar

Get involved with Voto Latino to help empower a new generation of Latinx voters. Research Run for Something if you’re considering running for office. Consider taking a leadership role in a grassroots group in your community.

Fatima Goss Graves

Get involved with the National Women’s Law Center to advocate for workplace justice, education equity, reproductive freedom, and other issues facing women and girls.

Dr. Angie Maxwell

Make sure that your voice is counted in every primary, general, and special election. Make a recurring appointment in your calendar every January where you check your voter registration, transfer your voter registration to your new place of residence, or register anew in your city if you’ve moved. 

Christy Turlington Burns

Watch the Giving Birth in America film series to help advocate for high-quality maternal health care and birth equity in the U.S. and around the world. 

Dr. Nirvana Manning

Engage with individuals, organizations, and leaders in your community to act on improving women’s reproductive health care.

Alexis McGill Johnson

Support the movement. Donate to abortion funds, independent clinics, local Planned Parenthoods, and support people who need abortions.

Dr. Joy St. John

Help lift the voices of girls and women in your community to realize a world of equity, inclusion, unity, and action. Create an environment where we are all healthy and free from the effects of climate change.

Dr. Jessica Coker

Get involved in your state’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) if applicable or encourage the development of a committee if one does not exist. These reports, often legislative, help identify resources and ways to end the maternal mortality public health crisis.

MK Pritzker

Use your voice, your experience, and your leadership to make sure that no law is passed, no policy is discussed, and no priority is determined without your voice being heard.

Reema Nanavaty

Help establish a women’s livelihood and climate resilience fund in your community to build an economy of nurturance.

Mónica Ramírez

Join this year’s National Latina Equal Pay Day of Action on December 8th and help lift up Latina families and their communities.

Jennifer Hyman

Support initiatives that invest in female founders and women-founded businesses, such as All Raise, to help build a more prosperous, equitable future. 

Amy Tu

Emphasize the importance of working together to create a more equal world. This will take leadership, engagement, and purposeful action from courageous women, and men, to elevate the conversation and drive toward solutions. In order to make a difference, we must learn from those before us and advocate for those after us. Stand up. Speak up. And show up. Make your voice heard.

Alyse Nelson

Sign the open letter calling for the removal of the Islamic Republic of Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Spread the news about the issue and open letter using #IRIoffCSW.

Gissou Nia

Sign the open letter calling for the removal of the Islamic Republic of Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Spread the news about the issue and open letter using #IRIoffCSW.

Shabana Basij-Rasikh

Contact your representatives in Congress and urge them to speak out about injustices imposed on women and girls by the Taliban.

Helen Kezie-Nwoha

Advocate for women to be centered in peacebuilding. Help transform current practices within institutions. Provide support and protection for women peacebuilders.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Watch the discussions on gender from COP27 and include women in the climate conversation. Push for an end to child marriage in the United States. Make certain that those deploying capital in the private and public sectors include women, invest in women, and are women. 

Melanne Verveer

Contact your representatives in Congress and urge them to provide life-saving assistance to the people of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal war.

The Honorable Julia Gillard

Invest in research and creating the new knowledge we need to ensure every initiative on gender equality is evidence-based and has the maximum impact.

Honorable Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Urge all countries to adopt legal frameworks that promote women’s access to leadership positions in all sectors, and implement policy actions that protect girls from violence.

The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development (EJS Center) exemplifies this by championing women’s ascension to the highest levels of leadership, and by challenging systemic barriers to girls’ and women’s advancement.