Dearly Beloved is a commemoration initiated by two Black mothers in New England who are also professors in Black studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, Political Science and Crime and Justice Studies. The goal is to memorialize and honor those who have been murdered through state sanctioned violence. The 1st inauguration of our quilt was held on October 2nd 2015 at Umass Dartmouth. Through the coordination efforts of Viviane Saleh-Hanna, Julia Jordan Zachary, Dara Bayer, Dania Sanchez and Priscilla Carrion.
We support the growing movements against the militarized institutions of the criminal justice system. We understand that Black and Indigenous lives have perished through this system for centuries, through jim crow and its lynching mechanisms before it, reform schools and their attempted exterminations through all of that, starting with chattel slavery, colonial land-theft and genocide.
These are the struggles of a “Stolen people on Stolen Lands” (Ulali, Song: Going Home, Album: Mahk Jchi, 1996).
We stand here today, survivors of 500 years of this system. We stand in grief for we cannot forget those who have fallen victim to this system’s vicious ways: our community, their loved ones and their families.
A large collective of intergenerational organizers and artists have painted 32 portraits of people who have been killed by state sanctioned violence. They range in age from 7 to a 107 years old. They include Black and Indigenous children (one of them unborn), men, women, and transwomen who were killed between the years of 1969 and 2015. The portraits have been printed on cloth and are being sewn into a large quilt by a large group of mothers and daughters.
Dara Bayer, an artist who coordinated the portraits has contributed several pieces, including this portrait to commemorate and memorialize those whose names and faces we don't know. This was sewn at the center of the quilt, coordinated and sewn together by Priscilla Carrion.
Kayla Moore.
41 years old. 1971-2013, Berkeley, California
painted by Ankana Barua, quilted by Gryer and Angela Alston
Sandra Bland
28 years old. 1987-2015, Waller County, Texas
painted by Dara Bayer, quilted by Jade Lopez
Mya Hall
27 years old, 1988-2015, Baltimore, Maryland
painted by Wilton Tejeda, quilted by Priscilla Carrion
We presented 33 portraits and a quilt with prints of the portraits sewn into it. Students members of the Divine Gospel Choir sang slave spirituals, members of the Pan African Dance group performed Funeral dances and members of the Black Student Union eulogized and spoke about the lives and deaths of the victims we have memorialized in the inaugural event. Indigenous elders came to hold ceremony as we gathered to remember, name and mourn those who have been killed by this system.
We are our own record keepers.
Quilters and painters for the Dartmouth quilt
In 2017 we completed the 2nd Dearly Beloved quilt with a Providence collective of intergenerational organizers and artists, we painted 33 more portraits of 33 people who had also been killed by state sanctioned violence. Through the coordination efforts of Viviane Saleh-Hanna, Julia Jordan Zachary, Dara Bayer, Dania Sanchez and Priscilla Carrion.
Providence quilt presented at Trinity Rep January 2019 during the Black Odyssey production.
Deciding who we would include in the two quilts of memorialization was daunting, for there are so many who have died through state sanctioned violence. After much work, collaboration and prayer, we chose an intergenerational group again.
“We are our own record keepers.”
List of quilters and painters for the Providence quilt. Quilters included friends from Providence and MA area, included people completely new to sewing to long time quilters from MA area guild “Sister’s in Stitches Joined by the Cloth” Painters included artist’s in Providence organized through Julia Jordan Zachary and Dara Bayer.