Ep 107 | Auntie Sewing Squad 2: Supporting Communities on the Fringe Through Caring

Dec 14, 2020

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A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Kristina Wong and Valerie Soe are back to talk about the Auntie Sewing Squad. When they were last here (on episode 75) the Auntie Sewing Squad was about two months old with over 600 members. A lot has happened with the Auntie Sewing Squad since then.

As you listen to the episode, you might be wondering why is there a dog crying in the background as Kristina talks to us? And what major announcement is Valerie going to make about yet another off-shoot project? You might want to go back and listen to episode 75 first or at least read this description of the Auntie Sewing Squad from their website:

The Auntie Sewing Squad was founded on March 24, 2020 by performance artist and comedian Kristina Wong as a casual effort to connect with other friends sewing homemade masks for essential workers due to the Federal Government’s failure to prepare them with proper personal protective equipment.

Auntie Sewing Squad has been featured on CNN, NBC, KCRW, Washington Post, Good Morning America and many more. We Go Down Sewing, a cross between an anthology, memoir, and a visual record of the work of the Auntie Sewing Squad will be published in Fall 2021 by University of California Press. The Aunties also collaborated with the Kronos Quartet on the film “Radical Care: The Auntie Sewing Squad” which uses music by Kronos and testimony and footage provided by the Aunties. We are a college course at San Francisco State University. We also have hosted two rounds of an online summer mask sewing camp for kids. Our relationship with various First Nations has extended to include fundraising and sending them sewing and relief supplies. We have sent several vans filled with sewing and hygiene supplies to the Seamstresses United Navajo & Hopi Nation for distribution throughout both reservations.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

How the Auntie Sewing Squad has developed and changed since we last spoke
How Kristina’s role has changed
How masks, mask wearing and mask making have become a political statement
How the Auntie Sewing Squad’s work is about supporting communities forgotten by the federal government such as first nations, incarcerated communities, poor communities of color, migrants at the border
How sewing masks is a political statement for many of the aunties
The Auntie Sewing Squad’s Core Values
The Auntie Sewing Squad’s fiscal sponsor Art2Action which allows donations received by the Auntie Sewing Squad to be tax deductible
Historian Shakedown Auntie Rebecca Solnit
The Karl Marx quote that applies to the Auntie Sewing Squad
How Auntie Care started with an offering of hand salve
The Auntie Sewing Squad’s collaboration with the Kronos Quartet on the eight-minute short film, “Radical Care: The Auntie Sewing Squad”
The press that the Auntie Sewing Squad has received
Kristina’s Good Morning America appearance
The coat and clothing drives that the Auntie Sewing Squad has organized for Lakota Nation and the Navajo Nation
The book about the Auntie Sewing Squad, We Go Down Sewing
The full-length documentary film about the Auntie Sewing Squad that’s in the works
The crazy requests for masks that the Auntie Sewing Squad still receives
Monk robe fabric that was donated to make masks
How the Auntie Sewing Squad has become a sort of national network that supports various communities in need- from people affected by California wildfires to migrants in need of masks in Tijuana
How Kristina’s show and live tour “Kristina Wong for Public Office” became a Zoom and an online experience
The Auntie Sewing Squad’s Kid Sewing Summer Camp