Threads that Unite Us 2: Rafu / Mending

Join us for our second collective Threads that Unite Us art event, Rafu/Mending and Layers: A Cross-Cultural Embroidery and Mending Workshop with visiting textile artist Sharmistha Kar. In the first Threads that Unite Us workshop, embroidery became a language of resistance against growing authoritarianism, white supremacy, and threats to 2SLGBTQIA+ communities and trans lives. Our second event will also incorporate the practice of repair.

In this hands-on textile workshop and drop-in art event, Kar will guide participants in exploring the art of mending through layering, patching, and embroidery, inspired by rafu (mending), a century-old textile repair tradition from India. We will also talk about other textile repair traditions from around the world. Through slow making, embroidery, and shared conversation, we will reflect on care, sustainability, and the stories cloth carries. Together, we will embroider new art, finish embroideries from our last event, and use traditional mending stitches to connect the individual embroideries from both Threads that Unite Us events into a final tapestry.

Special Rafu Workshop with Sharmistha Kar: 10:00 am
Drop-in Anytime to Participate: 9:30 am – 4:30 p

No prior experience necessary. All are welcome. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Faculty of Information and Media Studies and the Rogers Chair of Studies in Journalism and New Information Technology, the Department of Anthropology, the Department of Visual Arts, the Department of Languages and Cultures, the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador project, the Liberia CRSV project, and Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen. It is also supported in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.