Heather Koponen in front of the Drones Quilt Project display at the Noel Wien Library, December 2017. Photo by Rob Mulford.
Two quilts from the Drones Quilt Project are on display in the Noel Wien Library lobby throughout the month of December. The Drones Quilt Project was created as a way to remember the thousands of people who have been murdered by missiles launched from American combat drones. The use of combat drones is immoral, illegal and ineffective, yet the U.S. continues to use them, killing countless people whose names they don’t know, and don’t want to know.
Combat drones were first used by President Bush, then expanded rapidly during the Obama administration. Recently President Trump gave carte blanch to the CIA to target and kill people with drones.
The idea for a Drones Quilt came from some women in the UK who started the project as a way to memorialize the victims of U.S. combat drones. Anti-drone activists in the U.S. wanted to make their own version of a Drones Quilt, and so the idea traveled across the Atlantic. The idea is to collectively create a piece of artwork which connects the names of activists with those killed. The names humanize the victims and point out the connectivity between human beings.
In addition to the two quilts that will hang in the Library, there will be a quilt on display at the Friends (Quakers) meeting house and another at the Unitarian Fellowship Hall. The Alaska Peace Center and North Star Veterans for Peace are sponsoring the display. Thanks to John Spitzberg, Veterans for Peace, Wasilla for initiating the idea. The flyer for this display is here.
Alaska Peace Center 