The community is invited to the unveiling of a remarkable quilt made by young men from The Outlet in collaboration with the Social Justice Sewing Academy through a partnership with the Downtown Springfield Rotary Club. The quilt will be part of the “Noir V: Resilience” exhibit at the Illinois State Museum, curated by Austin Wells and Elijah Miller, in partnership with Juneteenth, Inc. It will be on display beginning Friday, June 13, as part of ISM’s Juneteenth Family Day and can be viewed through Sept. 7.
“This is a special opportunity to experience the power of art and storytelling and to hear firsthand the perspectives and experiences that shaped this meaningful project,” said Dr. James Applegate, a member of the Downtown Rotary Club.
The Outlet is a mentoring organization that serves males ages 8-22. Twenty boys from The Outlet created their own quilt squares and artist statements telling their personal stories about what it means to be a young man in Springfield and the U.S. The squares were transformed into a full-sized quilt by SJSA. The quilt is a “moving work of art that captures the real thoughts, emotions and experiences of growing up in Springfield and across America as a youth,” said Jamila Patterson, program director of The Outlet.
The project came about as a result of the Springfield Rotary Club’s commitment to become a Rotary Peacebuilder Club, the first such designated club in this region. Rotary Peacebuilder clubs commit to engage in projects that promote positive peace in their communities and across the globe.
“We discovered that peacebuilding work is at the heart of what Rotary is all about,” said Applegate, co-chair of the club’s Peacebuilder Committee that spearheaded the work. “We learned from groups across our community as we tackled tough issues like racism, homelessness and financial literacy. We realized that the key to real change is partnership with these groups.”
The Springfield Rotary Club received grants from Healing Illinois and Rotary District 6460 to partner with the nationally recognized Social Justice Sewing Academy and The Outlet to create a community quilt. The SJSA is a nonprofit organization based in California that works with youth and community organizations on projects where textile art becomes a catalyst for raising awareness of local and national issues affecting marginalized communities. The Outlet works to help male youth develop the ability to make responsible life decisions, hold spiritual values, explore their gifts and realize their dreams.
SJSA led a workshop academy, and for three nights the boys talked about what it means to be a young man in Springfield and America. SJSA staff and experienced quilters helped the boys translate their ideas and emotions into visual images imprinted on quilt squares. The participants also created artist statements expressing what their squares meant to them. The SJSA then took the quilt squares and worked with a network of volunteers to embroider the squares, sew the blocks together, layer with batting and backing, and machine quilt the final product and add a border.
“The end result is a beautiful and poignant statement of the lived experience of these young people from which our community can learn a great deal,” said Applegate.
A second Rotary grant will support a series of community events following the exhibition to showcase the quilt and spark community conversations about what Springfield needs to do to address the issues raised by these young men.
“The Downtown Rotary Peacebuilder Committee embraced this project with our partners to give a voice to those often not heard in our community,” Applegate said. “Their voices, embodied in this powerful work of art will, we hope, help make our city a fairer and more peaceful place for all its citizens.”
The quilt will also be loaned for displays at national quilting expositions and museums along with the estimated 45 other community quilts created to date by SJSA. The Outlet will be the ultimate home for the quilt.Â
Karen Ackerman Witter is a member of the Rotary Club of Springfield Sunrise which has also helped to support The Outlet through its community grants program.
This article appears in Juneteenth 2025.
