Tracing Threads: Queer Storytelling Through Embroidery
UPDATED DATE: 20 of November, between 15 and 17 hs.
Place: 12.38 Social Science Building
The event is limited to 25 participants. Enroll here
Materials for the activity will be provided.
The Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies is delighted to invite you to the workshop Tracing Threads: Queer Storytelling Through Embroidery, organised by our visiting PGR Yuri Fraccaroli. This event is supported by Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Innovation Fellowship.
Although we always think of paper and ink when it comes to recording history and/or oneself, fabrics and threads are also important resources for constructing LGBT+ narratives and memories. An example is the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, a U.S.-based project that has celebrated the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes since 1985. The Brazilian artist Leonilson also used fabric and thread to map out his daily life through simple embroidery, using objects from his day-to-day routine.
In this workshop, the exercise is simple: draw lines on a piece of fabric and begin embroidering with a basic stitch. You can bring a printed photograph on A4 paper to use as a model, take inspiration from Leonilson’s lines and observations of everyday life, remember and celebrate someone’s life like in the AIDS Memorial Quilt project, or simply use the fabric and thread for a personal piece. The idea is to create a space for artistic creation, exchange, and dialogue. No previous experience required.
Yuri (they/them) is a PhD Student at the Feminist Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, currently working as a Teaching Assistant within the department. Currently, they are one of the 2024/25 ACLS/Mellon Dissertation Innovation Fellows with the project Archivo vivo! An Ethnography of the Archive: Latin American Sex and Gender Community Archives.
Their research interests are situated in the following areas: Gender and Sexuality studies, Queer/Trans of Color Critique, Latin American Studies, Critical Race Theory and Black Studies. In addition to their academic roles, Yuri is an active member of Acervo Bajubá, an LGBT+ community archive in São Paulo. Within this vibrant community, they function as an educator, artist, and researcher, harnessing various modes of expression and inquiry to advance the archive's mission. Yuri's artistic endeavors include charcoal drawing, and they actively explore alternative research methodologies involving the arts and creative writing. They have published in peer-reviewed journals like Gender and Development, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Homocultura, Revista Uruguaya de Ciencia Política, Psicologia Política, and book chapters in anthologies like História do Movimento LGBT no Brasil.