Marion Rodriguez (far right) poses for a picture with two women in the park at Witness To Mass Incarceration’s annual Suitcase Sunday event highlighting business owners who are formerly incarcerated people. Credit: Courtesy of Marion Rodriguez

Marion Rodriguez’s work-from-home schedule during the pandemic mirrored millions of other Americans’ schedules.  

Each day, she moved from her bed to the computer and the couch, repeating the process. 

She found one way out of the pattern, through: sewing. 

This shift allowed Rodriguez to create a brand of tote bags called “?MUVSU?” — a name that is meant to be a call to action and play on the question, “What Moves You?” Rodriguez, who was formerly incarcerated, began making the tote bags for justice-impacted women. That was what moved her. 

The bags are meant to give formerly incarcerated people a lift and a chance to have a personalized handmade bag to carry their belongings after being released from prison. The bags are also available for purchase and sold for $25.

“Sadly in this state of the world, many people know people who are coming home,” Rodriguez said. “So I carry my bags everywhere I go.”

The MUVSU bags are available locally at Recess Coffee on Harvard Place and 2nd Chance Sisters Store at 224 Harrison St. Rodriguez’s brand has been displayed and distributed at community events in Syracuse, New York City, Texas, and many other places. 

One of her most recent bag giveaways was at the artist talk of “This Woman’s Work,” an art exhibit curated by Syracuse University professor Rochele Royster at the Community Folk Art Center. Rodriguez donated 100 MUVSU bags.

Rodriguez makes bags per order for events and organizations. The bags are given empty to women being released from prison and each has a card inside. 

“It’s empty for a reason because when we get locked up, we lose our possessions. I know I did. Everything I owned was gone,” Rodriguez said. “So the empty bag represents a fresh start and a new beginning.”

Rodriguez uses the tote bags as a canvas. She buys tote bags from Amazon but creates designs using fabrics and paints on them. 

Much of Rodriguez’s work includes depictions of women, though she does make other designs for special occasions or by request.

“I’m always working, and that’s not work, it’s an outlet,” she said. “I benefit from creating the bags. It’s my safe space, my quiet place.”

Rodriguez uses the profits from selling each bag to purchase new materials. Some of her fabric is repurposed from clothes, curtains, or other materials donated by community members. 

She has made bags for people she’s met virtually on Zoom, through phone calls with inmates and at rallies. She’s even shown up to court and jails to give bags to women and their families. 

Rodriguez first gifted a tote bag in 2020, to her longtime family friend Diane Miller. Miller was honored by the gesture and still carries the bag. 

Angela Davis inspired ?MUVSU? tote bag designed by Marion Rodriguez. Credit: Courtesy of Marion Rodriguez

Her bag displays a depiction of a circle on top of a cross — the sign for the female gender —  in blue and white. There are specks of black and white.

“She made one thought come to life, she’s given those bags out to so many people and women who have been formerly incarcerated,” Miller said. “Sometimes that bag is the thing that they carry their resumes [in] and they need it.”

To Miller, the bag symbolizes uplifting people and the power of women having a voice as activists. 

Rodriguez learned how to sew from her mother while growing up in New York City. Her mother taught her embroidery skills and used to sew all of Rodriguez’s and her siblings’ clothing.

She later applied her skills to designing clothing, prom dresses, and costumes for her own daughter, Arissa Johnson, as well as for relatives and friends.  Rodriguez often turned to her sewing skills when she needed an extra dollar or as a way to show her daughter how to make money.

Rodriguez used her skills to instill an entrepreneurial drive in Johnson. They ventured to Washington Square Park to sell handcrafted shorts they designed together. When Johnson wanted to go to Six Flags Great Adventures, Rodriguez encouraged her daughter to handcraft earrings and they sold them in Manhattan on Museum Mile.

“If you sell $30, we’ll go to Great Adventure,” Rodriguez recalled telling her daughter.  Johnson remembers her mother offering to match the profit of her earnings and fulfilling the promise, she said. 

Johnson owns QueenRi’s Boutique, a business that sells traditional African print skirts and headwraps. She showcases her line at the annual Syracuse Fashion Week in the Spring and Fall. 

She has watched her mother go through incarceration to rebuild her life from scratch and, in turn, help others. 

“It’s important to give back. I think the concept of women having their possessions and things taken away (and) having the bag to start anew comes from a woman who has been there, who has done that, and can really speak from experience,” Johnson said. “I’m just really proud that my mom took like nothing and turned it into something so major.”

Rodriguez’s advocacy work spans more than two decades. She is involved in several legal system reform organizations, including Project Mend, Center for Community Alternatives, Freedom Agenda and lead organizer of the Telephone Justice through the Center for Constitutional Rights. 

“I’ve been doing everything I can to stop mass incarceration, work with formerly incarcerated, currently incarcerated, families of the incarcerated,” she said. “I know women who are coming home every day.”

In early March, Rodriguez will be graduating from a leadership training program, The Women Transcending Collective Leadership Institute at the Center for Justice at Columbia University.

Angela Davis is expected to attend the event as a guest. Rodriguez plans to gift Davis a bag along with 21 bags to her cohort members, she said. 

All of the educational and leadership training Rodriguez participates in helps her to become more equipped to support incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. 

Her goal is to give away and produce as many bags as possible, however, Johnson gave her the extra push to sell them as well, she said. 

“She just wanted to give them away. I’m like, “Mom, it’s your time. I understand you want to do that, that’s great, but it’s your time.” Johnson said.

The woman Rodriguez was at the time of her incarceration and the person she is today are opposites, she said. Issues she was unaware of regarding the prison system, she experienced it firsthand. Now activism is at the forefront of her life. 

“I’ve been an activist since I walked over that bridge,” Rodriguez said. 

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Yolanda Stewart was raised in the Bronx, New York City. Before choosing a career path in journalism she found a voice in writing plays, short stories, and a myriad of other creative outlets. She is a 2022...