Help spread the magic of textile work

The Stitching Hour is a one-night live labor performance 2018

exploring the wonder of traditional textile production

as fiber and textile artists illuminate storefront windows

on the Avenue of Fashion in detroit

turning them into studios for spinning, dyeing and weaving fabrics

coming fall 2018

taking place from June - October 2017, Each performance and workshop helps us reach our matching grant goal for our Knight Art Challenge project "The Stitching Hour". 

night bazaar // experience // august 19th

The market is where the ideas, goods and customs of many cultures come into contact, are exchanged and are changed in the process of shared exposure.

Musical entertainment, fortune telling, local food and crafted goods highlighting Southwest Asian, Eastern European and North african diaspora in Detroit.

We invite you to bring yourself into the bazaar, ready to exchange goods, ideas and emotions.  

$10-15 suggested donation at the door // more info here

MORE COMING SOON

past events

Are We On the Same Wavelength? // performance // june 2nd 2017

An experiential poetry and live labor performance exploring large scale weaving as a metaphor for the nature of the cosmos. Levon Kafafian and Ava Ansari created a room-size audio/visual tapestry using real time analog and digital feedback from the audience. 

TENSION // workshop // June 29th 2017

A special workshop in collective creation and the metaphors of weaving. Melding the process of the textile artists of Fringe Society (Levon Kafafian) and experimental performance ensemble The Hinterlands (Liza Bielby, Richard Newman), this three-hour workshop  viscerally explored concepts of weaving, such as working in the space between opposition and union, through the lens of performance. 

Blue Gold : The alchemy of indigo// workshop // July 23rd 2017

A transformative workshop exploring the dyebath as metaphor for the process of gestation and birth. Utilizing the scarab as a symbol of rebirth Shiva Honey and Levon Kafafian guided participants through a dual transition. Indigo resist dyeing served as a roadmap for a journey through personal healing.

Participants came away with a patterned silk scarf/handkercheif as a talisman of their transformation. 

unbroken chain // performance // july 27th 2017

Taking the process of crochet as metaphor for structures of kinship and inheritance, Vanessa Reynolds creates looped, interlacing fabric through sound as Levon Kafafian builds a physical large scale fabric. Through personal, ancestral narratives Kafafian and Reynolds map the trajectory of familial and cultural ties in time through live labor performance and experimental sound.

Deep in the blues // performance // August 5th

Costumed in the colors of the indigo dye bath performers will lead a bereavement ceremony through movement and song, followed by a participatory grieving ritual.  

Loss is symbolized through writing on strips of fabric dyed indigo blue. 

These strips are tied into a site-specific installation, becoming part of a larger group narrative on loss, healing and community.