While working as a 911 dispatcher in 1994, Sidney Brodie received a call about a two-year-old who died from a shooting in Durham. Struck by frustration and grief, he was moved to create the Durham Homicide and Victims of Violent Death Memorial Quilt. Since 1996, every homicide and violent death in Durham County has been documented and honored with a single quilted patch featuring the victim’s name and date of death. After the death of another child in 2017, Brodie began bringing the quilt to annual vigils and other outreach events around Durham. Thirty years later, the quilt is filled with over 1,000 patches and spans nearly 200 feet. While serving as a vivid reminder of the devastating toll violence takes on our communities, the quilt is also a powerful educational tool for sparking conversations about how we can begin to curb community violence.
To learn more about the quilt, visit Sidney Brodie’s artist page.