ABOUT US

Who We Are & What We Do

Founded in 2017, the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) is a non-profit organization that aims to empower individuals to utilize textile art for personal transformation, community cohesion, and to begin the journey toward becoming an agent of social change. Prior to COVID-19, youth workshops and programs were at the core of the organization.Through a series of hands-on workshops in schools, prisons, and community centers across the country, SJSA used social justice and art education to bridge artistic expression with activism.  Many of our young artists made art that explored issues such as gender discrimination, mass incarceration, gun violence, and gentrification. The powerful imagery that youth created in cloth demonstrated their critique of issues plaguing their local and larger communities. These quilt blocks are then sent to volunteers around the world to embellish and embroider before being sewn together into quilts to be displayed in museums, galleries, and quilt shows across the country.

While youth programming remains at the heart of SJSA, the civil rights movement of 2020 and the concurrent COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted SJSA’s programming. Due to no longer being able to provide in-person programming and limited virtual youth workshops, SJSA launched a series of new initiatives to critically respond to the times. With each project, SJSA bridges the differences between age, race,and socioeconomic status to facilitate conversations about and encourage action toward social justice issues in households across the country. 

Mission, Vision, and Values

Mission: SJSA empowers individuals to use textile art as a framework for activism. 

Vision: SJSA envisions a world where textile art is a catalyst for raising awareness of local and national issues affecting marginalized communities. 

Values:

 - Integrity: Value the experiences and perspectives of all with the intent to elevate the voice of marginalized and disenfranchised communities

- Accountability: Educate on and advocate for social justice in a way that moves beyond performative activism to produce lasting change

- Inclusion: Operate with an intersectional, equitable lens that promotes diversity and inclusion. 

- Innovation: Strive for continuous improvement by allowing time for reflection as well as ongoing and intentional assessment of practices

- Sustainability: Place emphasis on the well-being of stakeholders as social justice work can have a mental and emotional impact.

Our Projects

“The murder of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old unarmed teen who was deemed “suspicious” by George Zimmerman for walking through a gated community where his father lived in Sanford, Florida, ignited outrage through America. When I learned that Trayvon was only 14 days older than me I was shook to the core because he could have been me or any of my friends. His death illuminated how society perpetuates a sense of black unbelonging and authorizes and empowers anyone with white skin to violate black citizenship rights through racial profiling and other intrusive forms of surveillance and policing. For 13 years, I quilted the same traditional patterns and followed industry standard, spending thousands of hours refining my craft in the company of quilting mentors. However, in these privileged spaces I began to realize that conversations of social justice were deafeningly absent. No one spoke about Trayvon's death, the protests, or the acquittal of his murderer and I felt like I needed to do something to change that. The "Rest In Power Trayvon" quilt is the first time I mixed my passion for quilting with social justice art, a mix that has made the Social Justice Sewing Academy what it is today. When I combined quilting and social justice I gained a completely new understanding of what it means to quilt with a purpose. This quilt commemorates the life of Trayvon Martin and serves to remind society that as the years pass, his life is not forgotten.” - Sara Trail