Craftivism

Making a #NoKings Day Banner

March 29, 2026 was another No Kings Day protest organized by Indivisible.org. I was shocked to see one of the protests close to home on the map. It was a Saturday when I didn’t have firm plans. There was no excuse for me to not be there.

I spent a couple weeks wondering what kind of sign to make. The first No Kings Day, I dressed as Leslie Knope and carried my huge orange umbrella with black electrical tape spelling out No Kings. I generally have my umbrella or a smaller parasol for outdoor activities to keep the sun off of my skin. Using it as a protest sign was convenient.

This time, it was sunny, but also windy—not that I knew that it would be during my planning stage. It was merely by chance that while cleaning the garage, I found an old vinyl banner that hadn’t seen the light of day in at least 15 years, if not more. I double-checked with my father to make sure I could have it.

I cleaned it and sanded it lightly hoping that would make paint stick better. I had less than a week to get to work on it by the time my schedule freed up some hours. Gus was not happy. He hates when I’m out there without him.

I took some video and photos of the upcycling job I did on the banner. Then I took pictures and a few seconds of video at the protest. I was there as a participant, not press, so I didn’t give any thoughts to capturing the speeches or trying to get things as best as possible. As I said, there was wind, and speeches were kind of hard to hear even with two microphones. The sound on the videos made with my phone wouldn’t be great and I didn’t care about it. My purpose that day was to present.

I learned the portmanteau craftivism from Shannon Downey’s book, Let’s Move the Needle: An Activism Handbook for Artists, Crafters, Creatives, and Makers; Build Community and Make Change! While this author claims craftivism is new, I assure you it is not. There are a lot of YouTube videos about how quilting and knitting were used during wartimes going back to the Civil War. There may be history prior to that I don’t know. The roles of the knitters and quilters might not be called activism as it was more used as covert operations. Perhaps, this is why Downey states that it’s a new activity. Regardless, Let’s Move the Needle is a fantastic book with clearly outlined plans for creating your own local community of people who love artistic outlets and are also motivated to bring attention to societal change. It was one of my favorite books read in 2025.

“While the term craftivism (craft + activism) is relatively new, introduced by Betsy Greer in 2003, the use of art and craft as tools for activism has been in play for a very long time.” – Shannon Downey

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.