Interview with Cenders Bailey

Authors

Cenders Bailey

Files

Biography

Cenders Bailey is an African American woman who is empathetic to disenfranchised communities. She is retired physician’s assistant, a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and a Sewing Auntie in the Auntie Sewing Squad. She learned to sew from the women in her family and used her sewing skills to make masks during COVID-19.

Thematic Summary

(00:00) Cenders Bailey discusses how she learned to sew from her mother and sisters and how to make a pledge for a mask campaign in the Auntie Sewing Squad. (08:24) Bailey then shares why her experiences as a woman of color influenced her approach to making masks for those forgotten or underserved. (16:27) She then discusses several aspects of how and why she joined the Auntie Sewing Squad, including the questionnaire she answered before being accepted into the group and how her sister, who was ill with and eventually died from COVID, served as an inspiration for her to sew. (25:22) Bailey shares about the various forms of Auntie Care like Sauntie Care and how she always added a personal note to her mask packages. (32:21) Lastly, she talks about what she is doing in the period of ASS retirement, including donating masks to local schools and pantries, as well as learning to sew handbags.

Interview Date

12-1-2021

Interviewer

Viviana Martinez; Ayva Savoy

Recommended Citation

Bailey, Cenders, "Interview with Cenders Bailey" (2021). Auntie Sewing Squad Interviews. 61.
https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/auntiesewing_interviews/61