Every Saturday of 2026 I am inviting people to help me embroider the names of children killed by guns in the US in 2026 on black hats. The hats symbolize mourning and remembrance for the children abandoned by an American culture that has now all but completely accepted the horrifying reality that the number one cause of death of our children is guns - as if this was just "normal", a fact of life. This underlying acceptance of violence is what I believe permeates American society and has caused us to get to where we are today in all the many forms of violence that plague our society.

 

Each Saturday morning I gather the names of the children killed in the previous week from the Gun Violence Archive, and later that day from 2 to 4 PM I sit in public spaces primarily in NYC and occasionally in other US cities, embroidering black hats with the children's names and I invite people to join me (no skills required, I show you how). At the end of the year the hats will be worn by individual participants in a human insallation and form a large human public traveling artwork titled "While We Thought & While We Prayed" depicting all of the children lost to gun violence in a typical year in the US.​ 

 

As of: 2/12/2026:

139 children 17 & under killed by guns.

Average day: 3 children killed by guns.