ADMISSION:
Admission is free. Reservations required.
The panel and workshop are open to all.

RSVP

COVID-19 Protocols: Although masks are not required, per the LA County Department of Public Health, it is strongly recommended that attendees wear masks for their own protection and the protection of others.

DESCRIPTION:
Exploring issues of race, privilege, access, and representation in the world of quilting, sewing, and crafting, members of the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) will share their experiences as “sewcial justice” warriors and makers from diverse backgrounds and marginalized communities. They will also explore their collective call for anti-racism actions in the sewing industry and to amplify the place and voice of Black and Indigenous sewists and makers of color.

After the panel, all attendees are invited to participate in a hands-on workshop led by SJSA founder Sara Trail. Small groups will brainstorm and create justice-oriented quilt blocks that will be incorporated in future SJSA community quilt and embroidery projects.

Schedule:
3–4 p.m.: Panel
4:30–6 p.m.: Workshop

About the panelists:
Kimberley Bennefield is an avid sewist, modern quilter, and bagmaker who began her quilting journey in 2015. She began in part to explore a new creative outlet, but quickly found a community of supportive and talented quilters and found her way to a local Modern Quilt Guild chapter. She combines her passion for crafting, sewing, and technology through her company, BlackWebDiva.

Chawne Kimber is Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Professor of Mathematics at Lafayette College. In 2008, she began creating highly politicized quilts and blogging about them, beginning with a series of quilts inspired by George Carlin’s “seven dirty words” and by racist and sexist graffiti on her college campus. Her work has been associated with the “modern quilting” movement, with geometric designs and provocative content that elevates social issues including the killing of African Americans and sexual assault. Kimber’s quilts have been shown by the Paul Mellon Arts Center and included in the Quilts and Human Rights exhibit at the Pick Museum of Anthropology at Northern Illinois University.

Caster Pettway is a master quilter at Gee’s Bend, a peninsula of land formed by a bend in the Alabama River where slaves made quilts to stay warm. Over time and through many periods of hardships and oppression, their descendants carried on the tradition. Today, several generations of people from Gee’s Bend continue making quilts that are now recognized as spectacular works of art and sold to the public via Etsy.

Eulin Toussant is the creator behind seweu, an athleisure brand where weird is the norm and designs are new and dope yet vaguely familiar, ranging from modest to bizarre.

Sara Trail is an author, sewing teacher, and pattern and fabric designer who learned to sew at the age of 4. She wrote Sew with Sara at 13, starred in Cool Stuff to Sew with Sara DVDs at 15, and then created two fabric collections for Simplicity. While attending UC Berkeley, Sara created a quilt in memory of Trayvon Martin and her love for sewing and passion for social justice intertwined. After graduating from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, she founded the Social Justice Sewing Academy to be a platform where youth create art that engages and educates communities.

Shannon Gibson (moderator) is a decade-long faculty member and professor of International Relations and Environmental Studies at USC, where she teaches courses on social movements, environmental politics, public health, and social justice and normative research. After being gifted her grandmother’s handmade quilts, she taught herself the craft through YouTube. When she’s not teaching, she makes quilts, clothes, and bags for herself, friends, and family.


Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by Shannon Gibson (Political Science and International Relations).