A dying man’s last words were enshrined at a ceremony at Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge Sunday afternoon, when a series of quilts honoring George Floyd and other victims of police violence were unveiled for the first time.
The Sacred Ally Quilt Project, as its known, took several months, dozens of sewers of all ages, and members of nine church congregations to complete, and is a “an illustration of an issue that people are deeply divided over,” said the Rev. Mark Koyama of the United Church of Jaffrey.
The phrase “I can’t breathe” – the last words of Eric Garner while he was put into a chokehold by police – have become a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement. Those three words were also among the last words said by other Black men who died during encounters with police, including Javier Ambler, Manuel Ellis, Elijah McClain, and most recently, George Floyd.
Floyd, 46, died after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes while he was being arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit bill in May of 2020, causing a resurgence in calls for police reform and widespread protesting across the country.
In Jaffrey, Koyama saw Floyd’s last words printed in an email. They were striking, he said. Floyd told police he couldn’t breathe, asked them not to kill him, and called for his mother.
“They were normal, everyday words, but they were the last words of a man pleading for his life, to no avail. As I read it, my stomach was dropping out, and I was deeply pained,” Koyama said.
He said that in rural New Hampshire, which has such a high Caucasian population, it’s easy to sit back and bide your time on the issue of systemic racism. But the George Floyd incident, like it did for many other areas in the country, sparked the conversation within the United Church of Jaffrey.
“When George Floyd was killed in such a brutal, horrifying way, the folks at my church were ready to come out and take a stand on the issue – a strong stand.
The church put their support of the Black Lives Matter movement on their church sign, and a parishioner offered to sew a Black Lives Matter banner for the church. That offer, Koyama said, sparked an idea.
“There are a lot of people in my church that like to sew. I started to think about how to make this a larger project,” Koyama said.
The eventual idea was to create a series of quilts, representing Floyd’s last words, reminiscent, Koyama said, of the AIDS Quilt project, a memorial project where quilts are created for every person who have died of AIDS-related causes.
“From that, there is a precedent of quilts being used as an expression of a caring response to a national crisis,” Koyama said.
Not only did about 20 people within his own church commit to the idea, Koyama said, but he also reached out to other churches across the state, and a total of eight others agreed to create a quilt as well. The entire collection of churches broke Floyd’s last words into short stanzas, and a total of 10 quilts were sewn by United Church of Christ congregations across the state.
For the United Church of Jaffrey, it was also a point to start the conversation, Koyama said, and the church members had Zoom calls to discuss the issue of race and racism as the quilt was being sewn.
“It was a deeply meaningful process in that way,” Koyama said.
The quilts were officially blessed and dedicated at the Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge on Sunday. From there, Koyama said, the churches plan to have the quilt exhibition travel to the member churches who participated for display. After that, he said, the group will have to discuss the next step for keeping the conversation going – because that’s the goal.
“It’s become clear to us that we’ve created something of a monster. It’s a beautiful and moving exhibit, and it’s also an awesome responsibility,” Koyama said.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.