Stitching Holiday Traditions with Florence Taylor

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Lisa Woolfork

Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English, specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory, and American slavery. She is the convener and founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. #Charlottesville. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.

Florence Taylor

Florence Taylor is a firm believer that “clothes to fit the body, not the body to fit the clothes”.

Insights from this episode:

• What Christmas meant for Florence’s parents
• Family traditions at Florence’s house
• Things that fill up Florence’s family
• What Christmas means for Florence and her family

Quotes from the show:

• “Christmas for them (Florence’s parents) was not about what we wanted or what we needed, such as heavy and beautiful winter clothes, boots, snow pants, mittens, socks, and such. To adolescent children and teens, this was not exciting at all” —Florence Taylor in “Stitch Please”
• “I wanted my children to understand that they have a responsibility to our local community, to have the opportunity to provide amazing imprints of who they were as individual character” —Florence Taylor in “Stitch Please”
• “So Christmas for them (her kids), is about those little that one big thing that speaks to who they are as individuals” —Florence Taylor in “Stitch Please”
• “Christmas for us, whether it’s the food that we partake in, the gifts that we share, are about filling our children and the people that we love, their souls, their spirits and their bodies” —Florence Taylor in “Stitch Please”
• “We want our house to be filled with warmth and creativity. We want the spirit of Christmas to be about being altruistic (…) it is about community, it is about building, it is about sustaining family and traditions” —Florence Taylor in “Stitch Please”
• “In my family, Christmas is about sights, sounds and smells. The sounds of laughter and music, the sight of color and imagination, and the smells of how I show my love to them in terms of baking and how I wanna nourish them” —Florence Taylor in “Stitch Please”

Stay Connected:

Lisa Woolfork

Instagram: Lisa Woolfork

Twitter: Lisa Woolfork

Florence Taylor

Florence’s Blog: Carissa Knit Corset Crop, Top, Mini, Dress, Midi & Maxi 

Instagram: Florence Taylor

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.