MAY 28 - 31, 2026

Keynote Speech: Weaving Resistance, Emily Mace, Intern Minister at Unity Temple in Oak Park, IL

Emily started her presentation by passing out strands of yarn. She called them “Charms of Hope.” As you tied the string around your finger, consider that we are not alone. She said “think of it as our best shared future how it is braided with our present and our destiny.” The tied string can be for hope or for whatever support you need. As we untied the strand we were “letting go of our burdens and bleakness.” Letting them fall away.

She told the story of her friend Tracy Wright, who started a Knitters group in Portland, Oregon, “Knitters Against Fascism.” I learned a new term “Craftivists” – Crafters who are Activists. Tracy invited knitters to come to the ICE detention center in Portland to show the world that Portland was not in flames! Tracy said, “Bring your camp chair and coffee and come and stitch.” First there were 5 stitchers, then 10 and then it made NPR. They were “Weapons of Mass Construction." Emily said her friend was part of a much bigger tapestry. A garment of destiny. Emily quoted Dr. Martin Luther King – “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”