Ep 7: Community Care with The Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths
I have a confession to make. When I first started planning this episode on community care in craft, I wasn't planning to feature blacksmiths. I had assumptions about who stands at a forge.
That image, the solitary strongman at the forge, has a very specific origin. In November 1840, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published "The Village Blacksmith". It described "a mighty man" with "large and sinewy hands." The poem built an image that's stuck ever since: the blacksmith as white, as male, as solitary. It was already a myth when Longfellow wrote it.
"We look back through the lens that we have now of like, people must have been making weapons of war and it must have been men and this violent thing. But there was a specific collection of tools from Africa... it was a lot about farming implements. Blacksmithing as life giving."
Joy Fire, Blacksmith & Metalsmith
The Guild of St. John the Baptist in Hull, in medieval England, established that any member who became "infirm, bowed, blind, dumb, deaf, maimed or sick" would receive weekly payments "so long as they lived." These guild structures weren't exclusively male. The Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths' 1434 charter lists two "sistren" alongside sixty-five "brethren."
In August 2018, eleven women gathered in rural Oregon. What emerged was the Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths.
"Let's not just make a space for women, but a space for women and everyone else. When we think of blacksmithing, we have a picture in your head of a man, a big man with a beard. Let's change what happens when people think about blacksmithing."
Joy Fire, Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths
Lisa Geertsen talked about something I had never considered: the height of an anvil. Ergonomics as inclusivity. If tongs are difficult to hold for someone who has difficulty with hand strength, you're not going to have a good time. That's part of what makes the difference between "blacksmithing is for people like me" and "blacksmithing is for everyone."
In Cradley Heath, in the English Midlands, women chainmakers worked in outhouses behind their homes. In 1910, led by Mary Macarthur, over a thousand of them walked out. After ten weeks, they won the first enforceable minimum wage in British history.
SIBS built a genuine mutual aid system: tool grants, professional grants, educational scholarships, travel stipends, and the Money to Burn program, a random drawing every month. Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center in Minnesota recently installed an adjustable-height anvil, allowing wheelchair users to forge.
What emerged was SPARC: Smiths for the Promotion of Accessibility, Representation, and Community. Led by BIPOC blacksmiths, for BIPOC blacksmiths, with SIBS providing financial support and infrastructure.
Nathan Ford, an improvisational quilter in Kansas City, saw that Dee Dee's House, the first trans-led shelter in Kansas, had blankets on their Amazon wishlist. Together with Maret Miller, they put out a call for quilt blocks and received enough for three quilts from across North America.
"You don't have to do all the things. You don't have to be out in the streets protesting if it gives you anxiety. The world needs you the way that you are. Being authentic, showing people what's possible. The people will find you if you are out there."
Kimmie Dearest, Artist & Community Organizer
"Metal is not just hard and unforgiving and sharp. Metal, you heat it up. You work with it. It's a living thing."
Joy Fire
Metal as a living thing. Anvil as part of living systems. The forge belongs to everyone.