At this year’s annual fireworks celebration of Independence Day, Auburndale resident Diane Kemsley stood out with her unique interactive American flag display featuring stars adorned with handwritten messages from children about what they love about America.
Kemsley’s patriotic project began in 2018 when she was reading an article about patriots and realized she wanted to reclaim the narrative around American patriotism.
“I thought, you know what, I’m a patriot, and I love my flag, and I love my country,” Kemsley explained during an interview at the fireworks event. “There’s a certain group of people that kind of take hold of that and rally it hard, but I wanted to show that patriotism can be unifying.”
Her latest creation is a durable, laminated flag designed to travel around Newton and beyond, featuring removable stars attached with Velcro. Each star contains a message written by young Americans about their love for the country.
Originally from a digital tour of America
This project grew out of Kemsley’s original initiative, a “digital tour of America” on Facebook, based on children’s submissions to the federal America 250 commission, which is planning events for the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026. Her project featured essays and artwork submitted by children to a road-trip contest on the America 250 website. The young contributors were asked, “What does America mean to you?”
“Almost all of them would have this theme of ‘America is a mixed bag. We got a lot of problems, but here’s what I love about America..’,” Kemsley said. “I featured those stories.”
From that, her project evolved from an initial rough, handmade attempt at a physical flag display to today’s professionally designed, weather-resistant display that can withstand outdoor events.
Bringing the flag to community events
Kemsley was very pleased with interactions at Newton’s Fourth of July celebration. “I’ve had a lot of deer-in-the-headlight reactions over these five years,” she admitted. “People have not engaged because things are confusing, right? But I really wanted what we got today.”
Now Kemsley is taking her interactive flag on the road, seeking invitations to visit schools and community programs and events. Her next scheduled appearance is with Historic Newton on July 13 at the Jackson Homestead for the community reading of Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?.
“In that venue, we can talk a little more candidly,” Kemsley noted, explaining that while her flag project remains strictly non-partisan, different settings allow for deeper conversations about patriotism and American identity.
Kemsley maintains strict guidelines for her project to keep it unifying rather than divisive. Any messages for the flag stars must be something “most people agree or many people agree with” and cannot be partisan.
For those interested in learning more about Kemsley’s project see NewTV’s Newton News video interview with Diane Kemsley.
