Mending is a revolutionary act. To repair is to reject disposability. It is taking something that no longer serves us and making something new - something that is fundamentally stronger than it was before. In 2024 I am undertaking a year of repair. Spending a year engaging with people and communities involved in profoundly needed repair work - not just mending objects, but healing the earth, healing our bodies, healing our communities from the harms of policing and incarceration. Over the course of the growing season, I will be partnering with community gardens to grow plants that are both dye plants and also bio-remediators - plants that heal the earth by removing pollutants and toxins from the soil as they grow. While these plants grow, I will be hosting a series of public mending circles in partnership with groups engaged in repair work. While we mend our clothes and objects, we will hear from people about how they and their organizations are engaged in repair. At the end of the growing season, we will harvest the dye plants, dye fabric, and create a quilt that collects together all of these stories of harm and repair.
Year of Repair is supported through individual donors on Patreon.
Sign up for occasional emails about Year of Repair and upcoming events.
Year of Repair Activities to Date:
Year of Repair at Narrow Bridge Arts Club, Chicago - March 16-29
We're excited to welcome fiber artist Rachel Wallis as the first artist in residence at Narrow Bridge Arts Club. From March 16-29th she will be exploring a myriad of approaches to community repair through her project Year of Repair. During her residency she will be completing a community quilt exploring strategies of repair with materials grown and dyed over the last year.
Circles: Join Rachel in Mending and Quilting gatherings
Bring a project that needs repair to Rachel's drop in mending circles and get help darning holes, patching rips, and securing buttons on your beloved garment. Or come to a community quilting circle and join in on creating a community quilt documenting the places we need repaired and the strategies to mend them, using donated fabric dyed with plants that regenerated the soil as they grew.
Schedule of Circles:
Potluck dinner: March 16th at 6pm. Email [email protected] to RSVP
Drop in Mending Circle: Weds March 19th 1pm - 4pm, no RSVP necessary.
Community Quilting Circles: Sat Mar 22nd from 1pm - 4pm and Friday March 28th from 6pm to 9pm. Email [email protected] to RSVP
A bit about Narrow Bridge Art Club:
Narrow Bridge Arts Club, 6028 S. Champlain, Chicago is a dynamic hub within the Woodlawn neighborhood. By joining Narrow Bridge, people join an experiment in a carbon neutral future, transforming a historical space of worship into a community of artists and makers. Bringing together people, materials and local knowledge that translates into an abundant future, we recognize that we all already have what we need. We are so excited to host Rachel, as her practice beautifully aligns with our material and makerly ethics.
Accessibility/Covid
For the first time in 101years the building is wheelchair accessible. We also have 2 accessible bathrooms. For additional access needs contact [email protected]
We ask that participants refrain from attending if they have any symptoms of illness or have recently been exposed to covid. Masking is strongly encouraged and masks will be available to participants.
Year of Repair Quilting Circle - Thursday February 27, 2025, from 6pm - 8pm at Dye Mad Yarns.
Join us for the first Year of Repair Quilting Circle. We will be embroidering quilt squares dyed with the plants grown during the year of repair with messages shared during our summer mending circles. While we work, members of Central Ohio Food Not Bombs will talk about their approach to mutual aid as a form of repair. No experience necessary, free and open to the public, masks requested, refreshments will be served.
RSVP on Eventbrite
Thursday February 27, 2025
6pm - 8pm
Dye Mad Yarns
1530 S. High St.
Year of Repair Book Club and Mending Circle: The Year of Repair Book Club has been meeting monthly since February, diving into some of the texts that have been foundational in my thinking about mending what is broken in our lives, our bodies, and our world. So far we have read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmer, Let This Radicalize You by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes, and My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem. In May we will be reading Saving Our Own Lives: A Liberatory Practice of Harm Reduction by Shira Hassan.
We meet for two hours once a month on Zoom, learn new mending skills as we discuss the books, and our meetings are recorded for folks who can’t make the time slot. Sign up for the book club on the Year of Repair Patreon. Although the book club is technically a reward for the $40 a month Patreon supporters, I’m happy to include anyone who’s interested at any donation level, just let me know you'd like to be added to the email list.
Partnership with Franklinton Farms: Franklinton Farms in Columbus has generously stepped in to be the main site for a variety of Year of Repair Activities.
Partnership with the Returning Artists Guild: For the last year I’ve been quilting with the Returning Artists Guild, an incredible collective of formerly and currently incarcerated artists from across Ohio. They’ve developed their own project under the umbrella of the Year of Repair, exploring what it looks like to repair communities and lives shattered by incarceration. They’re currently developing a collaborative quilt project between artists inside and outside prison in the state, and we’re preparing to deliver dozens of yards of donated fabric to the Dayton Correctional Institution for our inside artists to begin work on the quilt! If you’d like to donate fabric, sewing machines, or other supplies to the project, get in touch!
If you'd like to get involved in the year of repair - either by growing dye plants, hosting a mending circle, sharing repair work that you're engaged in, or something else - let me know at [email protected]
Year of Repair is supported through individual donors on Patreon.
Sign up for occasional emails about Year of Repair and upcoming events.
Year of Repair Activities to Date:
Year of Repair at Narrow Bridge Arts Club, Chicago - March 16-29
We're excited to welcome fiber artist Rachel Wallis as the first artist in residence at Narrow Bridge Arts Club. From March 16-29th she will be exploring a myriad of approaches to community repair through her project Year of Repair. During her residency she will be completing a community quilt exploring strategies of repair with materials grown and dyed over the last year.
Circles: Join Rachel in Mending and Quilting gatherings
Bring a project that needs repair to Rachel's drop in mending circles and get help darning holes, patching rips, and securing buttons on your beloved garment. Or come to a community quilting circle and join in on creating a community quilt documenting the places we need repaired and the strategies to mend them, using donated fabric dyed with plants that regenerated the soil as they grew.
Schedule of Circles:
Potluck dinner: March 16th at 6pm. Email [email protected] to RSVP
Drop in Mending Circle: Weds March 19th 1pm - 4pm, no RSVP necessary.
Community Quilting Circles: Sat Mar 22nd from 1pm - 4pm and Friday March 28th from 6pm to 9pm. Email [email protected] to RSVP
A bit about Narrow Bridge Art Club:
Narrow Bridge Arts Club, 6028 S. Champlain, Chicago is a dynamic hub within the Woodlawn neighborhood. By joining Narrow Bridge, people join an experiment in a carbon neutral future, transforming a historical space of worship into a community of artists and makers. Bringing together people, materials and local knowledge that translates into an abundant future, we recognize that we all already have what we need. We are so excited to host Rachel, as her practice beautifully aligns with our material and makerly ethics.
Accessibility/Covid
For the first time in 101years the building is wheelchair accessible. We also have 2 accessible bathrooms. For additional access needs contact [email protected]
We ask that participants refrain from attending if they have any symptoms of illness or have recently been exposed to covid. Masking is strongly encouraged and masks will be available to participants.
Year of Repair Quilting Circle - Thursday February 27, 2025, from 6pm - 8pm at Dye Mad Yarns.
Join us for the first Year of Repair Quilting Circle. We will be embroidering quilt squares dyed with the plants grown during the year of repair with messages shared during our summer mending circles. While we work, members of Central Ohio Food Not Bombs will talk about their approach to mutual aid as a form of repair. No experience necessary, free and open to the public, masks requested, refreshments will be served.
RSVP on Eventbrite
Thursday February 27, 2025
6pm - 8pm
Dye Mad Yarns
1530 S. High St.
Year of Repair Book Club and Mending Circle: The Year of Repair Book Club has been meeting monthly since February, diving into some of the texts that have been foundational in my thinking about mending what is broken in our lives, our bodies, and our world. So far we have read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmer, Let This Radicalize You by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes, and My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem. In May we will be reading Saving Our Own Lives: A Liberatory Practice of Harm Reduction by Shira Hassan.
We meet for two hours once a month on Zoom, learn new mending skills as we discuss the books, and our meetings are recorded for folks who can’t make the time slot. Sign up for the book club on the Year of Repair Patreon. Although the book club is technically a reward for the $40 a month Patreon supporters, I’m happy to include anyone who’s interested at any donation level, just let me know you'd like to be added to the email list.
Partnership with Franklinton Farms: Franklinton Farms in Columbus has generously stepped in to be the main site for a variety of Year of Repair Activities.
- Therapeutic Sewing in the Learning Garden - This month I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with a group of women in recovery to create some outdoor cushions to make their meeting space a more comfortable environment. Although all new to sewing, the participants jumped in and helped create four massive cushions entirely out of textile waste salvaged from the landfill.
- Growing Dyes to Heal the Soil - Led by the brilliant Nadia Mullhall we’ve begun planting the dye plants for the Year of Repair. We’ve selected Hopi Sunflower, Lupine, Brown Mustard, Plains Coreopsis, and Rapeseed for our garden beds. In addition to creating beautiful natural dyes, these plants all remove toxins from the soil, support pollinators, and/or fix nitrogen or other vital nutrients to enrich the soil for future crops. We have extra seeds of all of these plants if you’re interested in growing them in your own garden and contributing the dye materials to the final quilt! Just let me know.
- Mending Circles at Franklinton Farms - During the growing season we will be meeting at the Franklinton Farms Learning Garden the each month from 3:30pm to 5:30pm for a free, drop in mending circle. I will supply supplies and materials to mend most basic clothing repairs, as well as tea and snacks! We will also have a guest speaker from a local organization engaged in some aspect of repair in our communities.
Our first mending circle will take place June 27, July 18, August 22, September 26 and October 24th from 3:30 to 5:30pm at 154 Hawkes Avenue. We’ll be meeting rain or shine, in a covered, wheelchair accessible, outdoor space with seating and a nearby accessible bathroom.
Partnership with the Returning Artists Guild: For the last year I’ve been quilting with the Returning Artists Guild, an incredible collective of formerly and currently incarcerated artists from across Ohio. They’ve developed their own project under the umbrella of the Year of Repair, exploring what it looks like to repair communities and lives shattered by incarceration. They’re currently developing a collaborative quilt project between artists inside and outside prison in the state, and we’re preparing to deliver dozens of yards of donated fabric to the Dayton Correctional Institution for our inside artists to begin work on the quilt! If you’d like to donate fabric, sewing machines, or other supplies to the project, get in touch!
If you'd like to get involved in the year of repair - either by growing dye plants, hosting a mending circle, sharing repair work that you're engaged in, or something else - let me know at [email protected]