The
Traveling Quilts on Display!
On October 31, the red quilt was displayed in
Gainesville at the Green Halloween event which draws around 5000
spectators. Our booth created a lot of
attention and the quilt, in particular, drew positive comments, and at times,
tearful emotions. Through this event many people learned more about the
Farmworker’s situation and the FWAF and its mission.
Then, the quilts went to
Tallahassee, 11/2-11/3, for the Florida A&M University Environmental
Law & Justice symposium.
There they were both displayed as
Jeannie Economos spoke on “Moving
from Food Security to Food Sovereignty: How Injustice in Agriculture
Impacts Climate Change”, and Alex Saunders, an AmeriCorps
volunteer, paneled Yolanda Gomez’s presentation on “Accessing Fresh Foods in
Rural Communities: The Fellsmere Community Farm”.
On November 8th at Rollins College, in
Winter Park, an evening panel discussion, supporting Food Worker Awareness Week,
was arranged by Rollins student, Heather Miksa, who works as an intern for the Farmworker
Association. The agenda included the
film, Los Naranjeros (The Orange
Pickers), presentations by both Geraldean Mathew and Linda Lee, and a panel
discussion including Jeannie Economos and Emily Helm, President of
Orlando YAYA.
At this event the blue quilt was displayed. Thanks to the YAYA group for their attendance
at this event!
The next night, 11/9/2012, at the conference, “Hidden
Stories of Rights Denied”, held at the DoubleTree SeaWorld
Hotel in Orlando, Geraldean Matthew
and Linda Lee spoke movingly of their childhoods and pervasive, chronic health conditions
from their years as farmworkers . The conference agenda covered the Jim Crow
era in Florida and the violence and cruelty perpetrated, especially, towards African-Americans during
that period.
The red quilt was displayed in front of the audience
as Linda Lee described how the idea of a quilt arose and how the making of the
quilt pieces was a healing process for her and, later for others.
Winter Park Harvest Festival was the next stop, 11/17/12,
where both quilts and their stories attracted much attention and in many cases
memories and stories of Lake Apopka as it was many years ago. Thanks to Farmworkers
was our theme at this event.
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