Traveling quilt exhibit honors drone victims

Built of squares of fabric that list both the identified and the unidentified, the Drones Quilt Project was created to acknowledge the deaths caused by United States drone strikes and to memorialize victims.

The Drones Quilt Project is currently exhibited in the first floor gallery at the Monroe County Public Library. The Bloomington Peace Action Coalition and the Bloomington branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom brought the traveling quilt exhibit to Bloomington.

Unidentified victims are remembered through words such as “Unnamed Woman” or “Beloved Grandfather.” Others are identified by name. Together, these squares are sewn to create the quilt.

As many as 948 civilian deaths in Pakistan alone, including nearly 200 children, have been reported, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

The Drones Quilt Project is complemented by informational panels, which share information about U.S. drone policy and those it directly affects.

It was first shown at the Veterans for Peace convention in Madison, Wis., in August 2013.

The exhibit has since traveled to locations in Iowa, Oregon, Maine, Ohio, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Artists from across the country who contributed to the Drones Quilt Project share their reflections on the project’s website.

“To maintain our humanity, we need to remember that each victim of war was a real person, a beating heart, someone who laughed and loved and had dreams,” wrote Laurie Childers from Corvallis, Ore. “Working on this piece of fabric was a meditation in our shared humanity.”

In addition to its exhibit at the Monroe County Public Library in Bloomington, the Drones Quilt Project will be displayed at the Plainfield and Trafalgar public libraries and at the Art Sanctuary in Martinsville.

The exhibit opened to the public Saturday in Bloomington and will remain on exhibit in Bloomington through May 18.

The exhibit will then travel to North Carolina, New York and other locations in the U.S.
People are encouraged to partake in the Drones Quilt Project by contacting project organizers or building blocks for future quilts. More information about the project can be found at dronesquiltproject.wordpress.com.

Anu Kumar