Threads of Resistance: Wear the Words. Defend Democracy.
After creating this collection of designs, I wrote to historian Timothy Snyder and asked if I could turn his lessons into something you could wear. He said yes — enthusiastically. What you're looking at is the result: wearable civic art, made with care, offered with his full permission and encouragement.
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The Story Behind These Designs
When historian Timothy Snyder responded to a cold email from a Colorado designer asking permission to put his words on wearable art — he didn't just say yes. He was enthusiastic.
That email changed everything. In 2020, during a moment of global upheaval, I had turned to design as a way to steady myself, creating artwork inspired by the chapter titles from On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. What began as a private creative exercise — shared quietly in a Daily Beans podcast community inspired by the Mueller She Wrote creator — grew into something I couldn't keep to myself.
A fellow listener encouraged me to reach out to Dr. Snyder directly. Around that same time, I won a Gold Medal at the Nebraska Book Awards for cover design for the book Feisty Righty (a breast cancer memoir by J.D. James), and that recognition gave me the courage to actually hit send. His enthusiastic response, and coordination with his agent, turned a personal project into this collection.
I manage every aspect of this work myself. If you haven't read On Tyranny, I'd encourage you to. The audiobook is on YouTube and it is a powerful listen.