The Guerrilla Crafts Podcast Frida Arnqvist Engström

I am really glad to welcome Sarah Corbett to The Guerrilla Crafts Podcast. Being a former activist becoming a craftivist in 2008 she has ever since been working with successful campaigns using craft as a tool to change the world.

She started the Craftivist Collective 2009, and through this network she has worked to change laws, policies, hearts and minds around the world with quiet, and compassionate craftivism.  She is a professional campaigner and spokesperson for her craftivist methodology  - she is running workshops and giving talks on the subject.

Her latest book is called How to be a Craftivist, the art of gentle protest and in this episode we are talking about the gentle protest as a way for her to work with subjects that engage her - injustices, climate changes, living wages and inequalities.

We are also talking about what keeps her motivated, if she has reached her goals and how she manages to stay true to the motto of being the change you wish to see in the world.

The third guest in The Guerrilla Crafts Podcast is Rufina Bazlova. She was born in Belarus and has lived in the Czech Republic the last 13 years. She is an artist, illustrator and crafter who uses her cross stitches to tell stories about the current political situation in Belarus. She started her Instagram account in august 2020, and quickly became a spokesperson in craft regarding the questions that came after the fraud election on the current president of the country, Alexander Lukasjenko. As soon as the demonstrations started in Minsk, she posted the events describing and commenting on them in stitches. Not using many words but expressing her message through the traditional folk art symbols of her country. 

In this episode we get to hear more about her work supporting the revolution in Belarus and how she found her way to politics through folk art.

The second guest of the Guerrilla Crafts Podcast is Tal Fitzpatrick. The israeliborn craftivist and artist lives in Melbourne from where she is running various socially engaged projects on spot and digitally. Here is an interview made over the internet a few months back, discussing how to use the power of craft to make social change and to get people to engage in the hands-on practice of democracy.

The first guest in The Guerrilla Crafts Podcast is the american craftivist Betsy Greer. She has been called the godmother of craftivism, the term craft and activism were put together to craftivism in the year 2003 and Betsy was the one poularizing the term. She is still a strong voice on the craft scene, giving talks and writing about the subject, as well as being a craftivist herself. Here is an interview from Washington made at the beginning of this year.