SHARING HEARTS, SHOWING LOVE
Crafters reach out to console others in wake of Tree of Life shooting
The small crafted hearts that have been turning up in unlikely spots around Pittsburgh were created as a compassionate response to the senseless attack on worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill.
But Pgh HandMade Hearts founder Barbara Grossman hopes people will keep making and sharing hearts long after the initial shock begins to fade.
“Ultimately what I’m envisioning is you start with a grassroots movement and then it grows and grows and grows,” the 63-year-old Monroeville resident said.
By the beginning of this month, nearly 1,400 hearts had been made and more than 800 distributed. They’ve been left on library shelves, upon coffee shop counters, at bus stops and in many other places.
When Ms. Grossman heard about the Oct. 27 shooting, she “couldn’t stop sobbing,” she said. “I felt this was just the last straw for me. I felt anger and violence were just spiraling out of control in our country.
“It was something that hit home. This was our own backyard. I’m a Pittsburgher through and through, and this cut deeply. I thought I have to do something positive with my energy or this will break me. And what do you do?”
Ms. Grossman’s thoughts naturally turned to crafts and the caring expressed through handmade objects. Fifteen years ago, she founded the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival, now the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival, which she organizes with the help of her sister, Ann Szilagyi.
“I have tons of material, and there are tons of people that I know. I can reach out to other people,” she thought.
Members of her family were on board, including husband and former Pittsburgh Steeler Randy Grossman and daughters Sarah and Lucy, a recent University of Pittsburgh graduate and a Pitt employee, respectively. They all distribute hearts, but she is the only maker in the family and the campaign’s prime mover.
“I usually have a pocket piece everywhere I go,” Ms. Grossman said. “They’ve sort of made their way around.”
Generally she leaves the hearts quietly, anonymously, but occasionally she’ll reveal herself.
“If I see a mom with a cranky child, I’ll stoop down and hand the child a heart. It calms them down. ‘Mom, can I keep it?’ the child usually asks.”
She recently came across 2-year-old Anthony Martinez happily visiting the Carnegie Library of Squirrel Hill with his mother, Kittimaporn Sathon. His response was fairly typical: “They get a really sweet look on their face and give a big thank you,” Ms. Grossman said.
As the tiny tokens of comfort appeared through the community, so did interest in becoming part of the movement. Attached to each is a tag that says: “If you find this it’s yours to keep, or you can pass it on. #ShareAHeartPgh”
Earlier taglines included “Be kind,” “Pittsburgh strong,” “Love is greater than hate” and the hashtag #PghHandMadeHearts.
The idea is to spread the word and love — by word of mouth and other methods. Finders post pictures of their hearts on social media. Some finders keep them while others release them at spots of their choosing.
People will tell Ms. Grossman or a family member, “I’ve seen those, or one of my friends picked one up in Oakland.”
Ms. Grossman credits as inspiration the Kindness Rocks movement that spread across the country in 2017 and had its own Facebook group Pittsburgh Rocks. Participants painted small rocks with cheery designs and left them for people to discover and leave elsewhere.
“We decided not to put a name on the tags. It’s not about us. It’s about people being kind to one another. The color of your skin, your religious belief, if you walk with a limp — these don’t matter.”
Ms. Grossman has led a number of public and private workshops, and teachers and congregants have held their own in schools and places of worship. Gateway Middle School students made more than 200 hearts before their holiday winter break, and continue actively “making” in their school in Monroeville. Students at Pittsburgh CAPA are wet felting hearts.
In this season of valentines, hearts are being sewn, wrapped, cut out, knit, crocheted, shaped from clay and more. Inquiries to join in have come from a South Hills church, Central Catholic High School, the Oakland Montessori school and a quilt guild.
A Feb. 1 workshop held at Songbird Artistry during Penn Avenue’s Unblurred drew about 15 people who made close to 75 needle felted and clay hearts. Among them was a friend of brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, who were among those murdered on Oct. 27.
About 50 attendees made more than 100 hearts during a Feb. 2 workshop at Contemporary Craft in the Strip District.
A public workshop will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 27 by Repair the World, a branch of a national nonprofit, at 6022 Broad St., East Liberty (15206). Admission and materials are free.
For those who can’t attend a workshop, hearts may be dropped off at 17 locations from Cranberry to the Strip District. For a complete list, go to https://pghknitandcrochet.com.
The ultimate workshopping will take place during this year’s Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival on March 15-17 at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Green Tree. (For registration, tickets or a schedule, visit https://pghknitandcrochet.com and look under Special Events.)
“I plan to use the festival as a platform to focus and concentrate on making hearts,” Ms. Grossman said.
A Maker Space and a Creative Open Studio, which are annual events at the festival, will be devoted to heart making. They will be open daily. The global nonprofit Every Child Inc. will lead heart making for kids all day March 17.
Ms. Grossman has been receiving donations of fabric, needles, yarn and other supplies from festival sponsors around the country. Materials, space and studio access are free, but participants must pay festival admission, which is $15 per day or $30 for all three days. (There are discounts for early purchase.)
The festival draws more than 4,000 attendees and vendors from across the U.S. A mother and daughter who now live in Washington, D.C., and Kentucky meet annually at the festival. Two college roommates, now living in New Mexico and Massachusetts, use the event as a chance to catch up. Three generations of one family are attending this year.
Hearts made at the festival, along with those contributed from earlier workshops, will be distributed to attendees to take back to their respective neighborhoods and towns.
This will be the official launch of the campaign, but it’s not the end. Ms. Grossman will continue to lead public workshops after the festival.
If this all sounds large it’s because Ms. Grossman thinks big.
“We could hang a huge piece of sailcloth, maybe 15 feet across and 9 feet tall, from hooks at the airport or Downtown. We’d cover it with hearts and invite people to take one.”