The month began with the “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" exhibit at the Portland City Hall. The exhibit showcased Vision Quilt panels from students at Northwest Academy in Portland. Ted Wheeler, the mayor of Portland, visited with youth during the opening (pictured above). ​

Vision Quilt panels were also displayed at Oakland City Hall throughout the month of June (pictured above). The exhibition began with an opening reception on June 6th, which also served to feature Oakland’s Violence Prevention Coalition. Coalition co-chairs Melvin Cowan and Almaz Yihdego as well as Reverend Melva Fonteno spoke about the Coalition, its role in Oakland, the new Department of Violence Prevention, and the needs of the Oakland community. ​

In other news, Vision Quilt was featured in an article by Pam Rocco for the April/May issue of Quilting Arts Magazine. We are thrilled to receive such support from the quilting community, and we hope many magazine readers are inspired to create their own Vision Quilts!

In the United States, 735 people die in the from gun violence each week, reports the Center for Disease Control. In March, youth from March for Our Lives created a powerful art installation and memorial to personalize this tremendous statistic. Staged on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., "A Week in America" visualizes these deaths with a memorial marker for each individual. 

To learn more about "A Week in America," watch this short video produced by Now This. We applaud and support the March for Our Lives youth for their courage, tenacity, and lucidity -- they are powerful leaders in a much needed movement.

Vision Quilt is excited to join artists from the Soul Box Project for "Art Revealing the Gunfire Epidemic," an upcoming exhibition at the Multnomah Arts Center Gallery in Portland, Oregon.

Soul Boxes are origami boxes commemorating lives lost to gun violence -- on February 15, 2019, the project brought 36,000 Soul Boxes to the Oregon State Capitol Building. Like Vision Quilt, Soul Boxes are a powerful way of responding to the gun violence epidemic through grassroots art. 

Participants in the Soul Box Project design and create an origami box made from two 8.5 inch pieces of paper. Like Vision Quilt panels, Soul Boxes are a simple way to make a powerful statement, and anyone can participate. Over 44,000 Soul Boxes have been created since the project began in October 2017, and they plan to collect 200,000 boxes in total by 2020. In the United States, over 35,000 people are killed by gun violence each year. 

Vision Quilt and Soul Box are kindred projects and we are excited to partner together for this upcoming exhibition -- we hope you will join us. Together our work provides spaces for healing while providing a clear message that this country's gun violence epidemic must be stopped. 

The Multnomah Arts Center Gallery exhibition opens on April 5 with an opening reception from 7-9pm. The show will run through the month of April. The Multnomah Arts Center is located at 7688 SW Capitol Highway in Portland, Oregon. For more information, call the center at (503) 823-2787. 

This 2018 midterm election season, Vision Quilt has been active in supporting youth groups in getting out the vote. The youth led Empower Coalition is shaping a new future by bringing their #PowerToThePolls. Under the umbrella of the Women’s March Youth Empower, Vision Quilt is collaborating with over 100 organizations and youth groups to address critical issues on this year’s ballot. Youth and college toolkits were offered to encourage students to launch voter registration drives on their campuses.   

Working through a national online network, the Empower Coalition created teams to develop a strategic social media campaign. Our goal is to encourage young people to learn more about areas of legislation that will affect their future. Along with the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, MOMS Demand Action, Students Demand Action, Giffords Courage Campaign and the Parkland students’ #Road to Change,   Vision Quilt promoted voter registration and education on legislation around gun reform. Vision Quilt is a non-partisan organization, but we are committed to preventing gun violence and youth empowerment.  

Team Enough is creating an inclusive platform for young people to speak out about gun violence prevention. Visit https://www.teamenough.org/who-we-are/ to learn more about Team Enough and the work they are doing to challenge gun violence in America.

Vision Quilt urges people of all ages to go the polls to vote for Gun Sense candidates. Over 2,200 Gun Sense candidates are on the ballot on November 6.

​PLEASE VOTE- we need to elect candidates who will commit to end gun violence.

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Alex Caulderon, a Parkland student and member of March for Our Lives #RoadtoChange tour said, “We all experienced something that should never have happened because of gun violence and because the laws that could have prevented it weren’t in place.”

They will continue their national campaign through mid-August. Vision Quilt looks forward to meeting again with the core members of this powerful youth-led movement this September for a Brady Campaign fundraiser.

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We’re pleased to announce that Vision Quilt’s short film focused on our work at Lighthouse Community Charter School was selected for inclusion in the SAQA exhibition. The students created Vision Quilt panels and then organized a community exhibition in downtown Oakland, California, as part of their three-month unit focused on gun violence. ​​

The intention of Guns: Loaded Conversations is to spark conversation and make bridges across an often polarized conversation. “Artists have been a catalyst for difficult societal conversations throughout history,” says the exhibition website. “Guns: Loaded Conversations seeks to engage viewers of differing opinions to listen to each other and to encourage community initiatives that may inspire action in seeking solutions.”

We hope to see you at the exhibition opening later this month or at an exhibition near you! ​

Through the National Walk Out Day and the nationwide March For Our Lives events on March 24th, youth around the country are urging everyone to end gun violence. We applaud the youth for their courage, passion, and vision – this is exactly what the country needs right now!

What is #March For Our Lives?
Scheduled for March 24, March For Our Lives calls for an end to school shootings. The main march will take place along the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and there are hundreds of regional Sibling Marches taking place around the country. View the full list here. If there is no march planned for your area, consider hosting one!

Youth are the future, and they are speaking up. We urge adults to heed the message. We must end gun violence!

One of the key inspirations for Vision Quilt is the work of the Cure Violence, founded by epidemiologist, Dr. Gary Slutkin. According to Cure Violence, the issue of violence prevention should be treated like a contagious disease. They use  a model in which they detect and interrupt violent conflicts and use outreach workers to identify those at highest risk to reach and maintain a non-violent path to conflict resolution. Furthermore, Cure Violence engages communities in rejecting the idea of violence as an acceptable behavior to resolve conflict. 

Vision Quilt celebrates the international success of Cure Violence and encourages communities to adopt their model to help prevent violence.