Shirley Chisholm: Black History Month

I've made ornaments of Maxine Waters, Michelle Obama, Maya Angelou, Angela Davis, and more. My voice isn't the one that should be heard the loudest in celebrating these accomplished women. However, these are women that I admire and that deserve representation, recognition, and...maybe felt ornament portraits? I'm not even scratching the surface on who I'd like to make: Zora Neale Hurston, Josephine Baker, Sojourner Truth, Marian Anderson, Bessie Smith, Mae Jemison, and on and on and on.

This Shirley Chisholm quote was brought to my attention when, in her swearing-in, @tamayaforcincy brought a folding chair. Badass. 

"If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."

Go out and do your magnificent things.

With the sentencing of Larry Nassar to up to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting many, many young athletes, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina pronounced: "I've just signed your death warrant."

And I was really, really tempted to embroider that on a felt ornament. But alas. Instead I chose a slightly more uplifting quote; her statement to the victims: "Leave your pain here, and go out and do your magnificent things."

Shortened: "Go out and do your magnificent things."

I've been working on a book (yeah, of felt stuff! Feminist felt stuff, to be exact), so I haven't been doing much for myself--but I couldn't let that powerful quote slip by. So here is the honorable Rosemarie Aquilina herself, complete with burgundy highlights.