Photography by Matt Marcinkowski
Susan Colangelo
Susan Colangelo used to stitch stories, clipping news from the paper and expressing it in embroidery as an art form. But one day in 2012, the artist read a headline—and couldn’t pick up her needle. Destinee Clemons, a 17-year-old, had been shot and killed in a drive-by as she stood on her University City home’s porch. Months later, two brothers were arrested for the crime and charged with second-degree murder.
“I tried to stitch about it, and I couldn’t,” Colangelo says. “I just felt stupid, like this was too big for what I was doing.” Colangelo approached artist and activist Juan William Chávez and asked to host a “stitch and bitch” to talk about what was happening in St. Louis. In Old North, Colangelo met with Chávez and six others and wrote a mission statement for what would become the Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective. The arts organization helps St. Louisans ages 16–24 tell their stories, often marred by gun violence and trauma, through song, performance, art, and podcasts. And this year, it’s getting a big boost: Story Stitchers was awarded a $500,000 accelerator grant through The Lewis Prize for Music.
At Story Stitchers, culturally relevant mentors work with young people, who benefit not only by coming to a safe space where they can be heard but also by earning money for participating in programs. “We want peace in our region,” Colangelo says. “We think that listening to the youth and what they’re saying they need is probably the smartest and least expensive way to get out of the situation we’re in.”
Photography by Matt Marcinkowski
From left: She’Kinah Taylor, Emeara Burns, Chris Pendleton, and Caleb Taylor
By hosting performances in the community, Story Stitchers also aims to promote understanding and healing. At an outreach event in Wellston, a young woman recites a poem, talking about coming from a place “where cops stop you if you look a certain way, where kids walk around dressing like twice their age.” A woman in the audience approaches. Crying, she hugs the poet. The piece reminds her of her son, who was killed when he was 19 years old. Story Stitchers performers then launch into their original song “Who’s Ready?” They lead a call-and-response. “Who’s ready?” they ask. “We ready,” the crowd responds. “We ready for the violence to stop.”
The Lewis Prize money is meant to shore up the organization. But the accelerator application also called for a “big idea.” Colangelo presented the one the kids have been talking about for a year: their own youth center. It’s going to require corporate sponsorship, but Colangelo takes the long view. “We trust [that the young people] know what’s needed,” she says. “They have more vision, because they have a longer road ahead than we do.”
Get a Stitch Fix
Three ways to engage with Story Stitchers
Story Stitchers has a whole host of programs in the works, including a slate of podcasts produced in its StitchCast Studio. Here are three events and podcasts you can check out this spring and summer.
Peace in the Prairie, which will run June 15–29 at Laumeier Sculpture Park and July 3 at the National Blues Museum, will explore why there are often dramatic changes in children when they’re given the opportunity to explore nature.
The Divided City is a series of four podcasts that delve deeper, with the help of scholars, into topics that often come up in youth-led Story Stitchers podcasts. Those include trauma and storytelling as healing in Black culture.
Wade, a video that’s part of Story Stitchers’ project The WHY of MY City, looks at the “history, endurance, and fellowship of St. Louis’s African-American citizens.” It’s on view at the Bruno David Gallery through March 13.
