June 13, 2019
Art student takes part in national 'Her Flag' project, will present in Topeka June 17
Jenn Hudson, master's student in fine arts, is one of 36 female artists across the U.S. taking part in "Her Flag," a national collaboration celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Each female artist is creating a stripe to represent her state, and the 36 states are those that ratified the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
"This project is about moving forward," said project founder Marylin Artus. "This project is not about Democrats or Republicans. It is about Americans. It is about celebrating an important anniversary in our history. And it is about evaluating how we can encourage more women to run for political office."
Hudson will present her stripe at 6 p.m. Monday, June 17, at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. Hudson's stripe includes marigold doves and buttons. Marigold was the color of suffragettes, and doves were part of an original Kansas suffrage banner that included the text "we fight a peaceful war for equal suffrage."
Artus is traveling the path of ratification to collaborate with the female artists in the 36 states that ratified the 19th Amendment. Artus will be at Hudson's presentation in the capital city to sew her stripe into the larger flag. Each artist will be presenting a stripe, and Artus will publicly stitch the stripes together to eventually form a whole flag.
"The culmination," says Artus on her website, "will be a new flag sewn as a thank you and a love letter to the states that gave women the right to vote."
To learn more about "Her Flag," visit herflag.com.