In true Portland fashion, a group of knitters and crocheters gathered outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in South Portland on Thursday to protest the best way they knew how – with yarn.
“I’m just a self-proclaimed yarn punk,” said crocheter Vincent Green-Hite, “and I think crafting is one of the most punk things you can be doing right now.”
Green-Hite, who has a sizable Instagram following for his fiber art, set up a small folding table with yarns and crochet hooks alongside other protesters across from the ICE building. He was offering free crochet lessons for anyone interested.
“I know many generations have used crochet and knitting as a tool for resistance,” he said. “I figured since I already teach classes, been doing it for years, I may as well come out and to show anyone how to do it. Crochet, knitting, all fiber arts are for anybody. And so is the city of Portland.”
Green-Hite himself was working on a crocheted frog scarf, inspired by the protesters in inflatable frog costumes who call themselves the Portland Frog Brigade.
“The frogs have done a great job of showing the world that it’s just silly to call Portland a violent place,” he said. “It’s a weird city, a really creative one, and one for the crafts. So, we’re just out here displaying our First Amendment right to just craft in peace.”
He was pleasantly surprised to find a group of knitters also at the protest site, who joined him around the table.
Knitting has been a staple of Portland protest movements. (Remember the pink pussy hats?)
Later this month, a group called Common Cause Oregon will host a Knitting In protest from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 25 at the corner of Southwest Park Avenue and Mill Street during the Portland Farmers Market. Participants are encouraged to bring a camping chair and a knitting (or other craft) project to protest the Trump administration’s plan to deploy federal troops in Portland.
Other knitting groups are getting involved in protests.
Earlier on Thursday, Michele Lee Bernstein, who runs the PDX Knitterati website and social media accounts, was among a group of about eight knitters protesting outside the ICE building. The women brought folding lawn chairs and knitting projects, and propped up a sign that quoted the Book of Exodus: “And if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will send a plague of frogs.”
“My aim for the protest is to show that our beautiful city of Portland is not burning to the ground, is not war-ravaged, and is not out of control,” Lee Bernstein said. “We don’t need a federalized National Guard to come in. Peaceful protest is a constitutional right, and that is what we are doing.”
She said she knitted from about 9:30 a.m. to noon, and spoke with several tourists who were curious about what was going on in the protest block that has drawn national attention.
“I spoke with people from New York City, Nebraska, Florida, Colorado,” she said. “They were all very supportive of our craftivism.”
Courtney Dowell showed up around 4:30 p.m. Thursday with four other knitting friends. They stood across the street from the ICE building, joining Green-Hite. Dowell was knitting a hat with the words “Knitters Against ICE” across it.
“We have such a big, lovely knitting community in Portland, that’s how a lot of my friends know each other, and we thought you need to have a fun protesting, and that’s how we have fun,” she said. “Also, I think it makes fascists look stupid.”
The knitters stayed until about 6:30 p.m. and left as it got dark.
Conflicts between protesters and federal officers are more likely to occur after sunset. That’s when officers emerge from the building and into the street to allow vehicles to come or go from the facility. (Vehicles pass without this added security during the day.) Some protesters get close to officers to yell at or film them.
Shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday, officers broke from their standard formation to rush into the crowd and detain someone. In the process, officers crashed into Green-Hite’s table of crochet supplies. Skeins of partially unraveled yarn were left scattered in the dirt.
Green-Hite was fine, though. Other protesters helped pick up the yarn, reset the table, and he continued to crochet.
“Art is political, always, inherently, and this is just another way to show it,” he said. “I can’t wait to see how other people are creative with their resistance.”
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