This quilt, “Forward Movement”, was made in the summer of 2020 as the protests over police brutality were at their apex. I took my family to a Black Lives Matter march and we loved on our BIPOC friends and neighbors, but we still felt powerless in the face of systemic racism.

Turning to my collection of African fabrics, I began to create "Forward Movement" in my attempt to turn my sadness into something constructive. The simple shape of a triangle helped me express my desire for forward movement. As I hand sewed the piece, I prayed for African descendants to receive breakthrough, so that there would be movement from where they have been. As a continuation of my prayer, I arranged the arrows so that some were moving forward while others faced backwards, representing that this period was a time of change.