The Ohio University Women’s Center co-sponsored “#SayHerName: Remembering Black Women and Girls Killed by the Police” in the Multicultural Center.
Morgan Gresson, a sophomore studying interior architecture, was the last person to finish her embroidered square patch at the Ohio University Women’s Center’s event “#SayHerName: Remembering Black Women and Girls Killed by the Police.”
“I didn’t know we were going to do (embroidery) … and I was determined to finish,” Gresson said chuckling. “I also didn’t know there were so many black women killed by police. Even in 1997. … I really didn’t know about those (women killed), but I’m glad I found out about this information.”
Gresson along with nearly 80 students, faculty and Athens residents stitched more than 90 embroidered patches Thursday night to honor women of color who died while in police custody.
The Women’s Center, LGBT Center, Multicultural Center and Unified Sisters co-sponsored and hosted the event.
The #SayHerName campaign was created as a way for the public to understand and address black women’s experiences of profiling and policing.
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The event was an interactive workshop, which gave attendees the opportunity to stitch embroidered patches with messages or names of women of color murdered by the police. The patches will then be sewn together to create a quilt which will hang in the Women’s Center.
The night began with a brief introduction from M. Geneva Murray, director of the Women’s Center, reading findings and various statistics from the African American Policy Forum, which is an organization aimed at "dismantling structural inequality," according to its website. After the introduction, attendees had the opportunity to teach themselves embroidery by stitching a colorful patch with a message or name of a woman who died.
Murray said she hoped attendees gained a better insight and understanding of the #SayHerName message.
“What I’ve heard so far is that people were able to kind of sit and concentrate on the #SayHerName movement and to think about what it means,” Murray said. “If they were able to do that then I think the event was a success. … Whether or not they agree with everything ... we want people just to be inspired and to just engage with the information.”
For Tyrin Rome, a junior studying music production, the event made him feel relaxed and made him think about the reasons for his attendance.
“I was able to reflect on all the stories that I heard and the new stories that I heard tonight,” Rome said. “It’s sad and kind of hard to deal with. … It’s a recurring theme we see in our country … and it just solidifies why I am here.”
Briana Smith, a senior studying biological sciences, said the most memorable moment of the event was learning about the women and how to embroider.
“I learned more about the trans women who were attacked, especially how their stories were framed … and how they were not taken seriously as who they are,” Smith said. “I also learned that I could embroider, and I liked that a lot.”
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