CultureWorks students and staff nurture a community of belonging by restoring a ripped Pride Flag.
In early March, Emily Christensen (she/her) walked into CultureWorks with a bright bundle under her arm: the upper half of a torn Pride Flag. The flag had been torn down from the exterior of Hope Church, where Christensen is a member, and was the fourth flag to be destroyed since they began displaying them in 2015. Rev. Jill R. Russel (she/her) said “We realized at some point that it was important to witness to our community all year round that we celebrate the presence and gifts of all of our members and neighbors who are LGBTQIA+. Because our society and especially many parts of the Christian community have explicitly condemned what we see as the beautiful diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities or qualified their welcome within the church, we needed to be explicit about our unqualified welcome and affirmation. For us, this is a witness to the gospel. You belong because God created you and calls you the beloved.”
Hoping to give the flag a new home and a place of honor, Executive Director Christensen brought it with her to CultureWorks and asked coworkers and students about hanging it in the art studio space. CultureWorks is a faith-inspired non-profit that serves middle and high school students with after-school art programming on a pay-what-you-can model, and seeks to be an empowering space for LGBTQIA+ youth. It seemed natural that instructors and students might be excited to give this flag a new home, but at first, community members at CultureWorks were concerned that displaying the damaged flag could have a negative impact.
As Russell pointed out, “The Pride Flag has come to represent the welcome and affirmation of a whole community of people who experience very real discrimination, rejection, condemnation, harassment, and abuse throughout our community and country. The rejection and condemnation have led to the alarming rates of anxiety and depression.” Some CultureWorks employees worried that seeing the torn flag would be retraumatizing for young people they serve who already experience discrimination and resulting mental health concerns on the basis of LGBTQIA+ identity. Others felt the flag could be a powerful symbol of resilience and give a voice to those that violence has sought to silence.
A similar idea had occurred to the folks at Hope Church years ago, when they first discovered their Pride Flag in tatters. Russell explained “When a Pride flag is torn down and destroyed, this is an act of hatred and violence that is designed to put fear into the minds and bodies of the LGBTQIA+ community. We won’t live in fear, though. Our scriptures exhort us with this word: ‘There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…’ (1 John 4.18) To be clear, fear is wired into human bodies and brains as a way to protect us. We don’t want to make someone feel ashamed for feeling fear. What I mean to say is that as a community of faith we want to lean into the ideals of our faith and find a way to respond that goes beyond any first visceral and normal reactions of fear.”
Each time a flag has been torn down, Hope Church has called police to alert them to the act of hate, ordered a new flag, and then rehomed damaged flags with families around town so that their witness to welcome and inclusion would grow. What started out as a single flag hanging at the church multiplied into rainbows fluttering in the wind all around Holland.
Ultimately, the CultureWorks staff, alongside members of the Student Advisory Council, decided to get in on the action, bringing their unique artistic flair and collaborative ethos. Rather than hanging half a flag, they grabbed a sewing machine, piles of colorful fabric, and embroidery thread to replace what was missing, reassemble the flag, and do so in a way that made the mending visible and beautiful. At least seven sets of hands participated in quilting, embroidering, collaging and stitching the Pride Flag back together.The finished flag is a project in restoration, a reminder that it takes more work to put things together than to tear them apart, but that beautiful and strong communities are well worth the effort.
The finished flag will be returned to its rightful home at Hope Church.
~Miranda Craig, Program Director
