An Oakland woman teaches people how to stitch together their own stories of activism and belonging. <\/p>\n
Sara Trail learned how to sew when she was four years old, and today, she teaches sewing as art and activism.<\/p>\n
“Sewing can give a voice to those who are not typically heard,” said Trail.<\/p>\n
In 2012, she got some pushback when she made a quilt to remember Trayvon Martin, the African American teenager whose killing sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n
“That kind of made me pause, reflect, and say, ‘Well if the quilting world didn’t want to celebrate something that mattered to me, I can take quilting and bring it to spaces that do want to celebrate diversity and equity and social justice,'” Trail explained.<\/p>\n
So she started the nonprofit, Social Justice Sewing Academy to empower people through quilting. Trail showed CBS News Bay Area an example, a quilt made recently by Richmond High School students.<\/p>\n
“I started creating more spaces where sewing could be free,” she said. “So we all made quilts about issues that mattered to us.”<\/p>\n
Issues from discrimination to gentrification.<\/p>\n
Trail takes the free workshops to about 500 people a year, mostly on campuses, community centers, and jails in the Bay Area and across the nation. Participants design their own block of the quilt, then they’re all stitched together.<\/p>\n
“I’m facilitating a space where all voices can be heard,” she said.<\/p>\n
Sewing instructor Brittani Kaigler finds her an inspiration.<\/p>\n
“We’re able to create art, use our voices to promote the things that we see are going wrong in the community,” Kaigler said.<\/p>\n
Trail added a new program last year: The Social Connection, an inclusive hub for neurodivergent participants who have felt excluded and isolated from many community activities.<\/p>\n
Dozens of people come from all over the East Bay each day to its center in Lafayette to build leadership, life, and employment skills.<\/p>\n
“It’s really just a fun space for anyone 18 and up to make friends, learn skills and most importantly, have fun,” Trail said.<\/p>\n
From cooking classes to job readiness, participants gain self-confidence and independence.<\/p>\n
Michael Davis said, “I enjoy making new things.”<\/p>\n
Emilio Pedro added, “I learn about everything. It makes me feel happy.”<\/p>\n
The Social Connection members also take trips outside the classroom. For example, they’ve traveled together to Lake Tahoe, and Trail and her team are helping them plan a summer cruise to Mexico.<\/p>\n
Tekeya Ford, who directs The Social Connection Day Program, credits Trail’s leadership.<\/p>\n
“She’s a great person, a genuine person with a big heart, always looking to help others and seeing where she can help them with anything they need,” Ford said.<\/p>\n
For providing a space for activism and community through the Social Justice Sewing Academy and The Social Connection, this week’s CBS News Bay Area Icon Award goes to Sara Trail.<\/p>\n