SOCIAL JUSTICE SEWING ACADEMY
  • HOME
  • Shop
  • ABOUT
    • THE MOVEMENT >
      • WHAT WE DO >
        • Quilts of Remembrance
        • The SJSA Remembrance Project >
          • Remembrance Project Page
        • Block of the Month
        • SJSA Business Incubator
      • TESTIMONIALS
      • OUR COMMUNITY QUILT PROCESS
    • MEET THE TEAM
    • SJSA AMBASSADORS >
      • Audrey Bernier
      • Bryan Robinson
      • Cecilia Charney
      • Kailah Foreman
      • Ann Guiam
      • Carina Cabriales
      • Chloe Gorski
      • Fia Carlone
      • Yohana Tecleab
  • DONATE
    • SPONSOR
  • GET INVOLVED
    • EMBROIDER A BLOCK >
      • Examples of Embroidery
    • HOST A WORKSHOP
    • JOIN THE TEAM
    • HOST THE ART
  • GALLERY
    • WORKSHOPS >
      • Arts in Corrections Conference
      • Alliance Gertz-Ressler High School
      • Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
      • Cambridge Rindge and Latin
      • Jefferson High School
      • Girls Garage Workshop
      • Lakota Youth Speak
      • Obama Portrait Workshop
      • Pollination Project Workshop
      • RAC x Latina Center Workshop
      • Stitch. Resist. Persist.
      • Overton High School
      • Vallejo Probation
    • PROGRAMS >
      • SJSA x SJQTM >
        • Community Action Projects
      • 2019 SUMMER INSTITUTE
      • 2018 SUMMER INSTITUTE
      • SJSA Summer 2018
      • Berkeley Summer 2016
    • Quilts >
      • Individual Quilts
      • Berkeley SJSA Class of 2016
      • Art Behind Bars Volume I
      • Art Behind Bars Volume II
      • Community Quilts >
        • 2016 Community Quilts
        • 2017 Community Quilts
        • 2018 Community Quilts
        • 2019 Community Quilts
        • 2020 Community Quilts
      • 2021 Community Quilts
      • Cuba Series
      • Obama Portrait Series
    • Exhibitions >
      • Current Exhibitions >
        • UC Riverside
      • Past Exhibitions >
        • Connecting Threads: SF Jewish Center
        • Fuller Craft Museum
        • Pacific International Quilt Festival 2018
        • Threads of Truth Gallery Guide
        • Panorama Framing Gallery
        • Pick Museum at NIU
        • Mule Gallery >
          • Mule Gallery Guide
        • Museum of Design Atlanta
        • New England Quilt Museum
        • QuiltCon 2018
        • QuiltCon 2019
        • QuiltCon 2020
        • Richmond Art Center
        • Ross Art Museum
        • San Jose Museum of Quilt & Textiles
        • Utah Quilt & Sewing Marketplace
        • Voices in Cloth
        • World Quilt Tampa 2019
  • PRESS
    • ARTICLES >
      • A Stitch in Time - Fuller Craft Exhibit Review
      • Brentwood Press
      • Britex Fabric
      • BTMB Magazine
      • Chicago Tribune
      • Craftivism Blog
      • Crafty Planner
      • Create Whimsy
      • Creativity Project
      • Harvard GSE
      • Huffington Post
      • Hyperallergic Article
      • Mercery News
      • Midwest Craft Con 2020
      • Modern Patchwork
      • Quilt Trip
      • Quilting Art Magazine
      • Quilting as a Social Medium
      • Seriously Badass Women
      • Stonemountain and Daughter
      • Teen Vogue
      • Urban Plains
      • Washington Post - Injustice Block
    • PODCASTS >
      • Close Knit Podcast
      • Craft Alliance Podcast
      • Crafty Planner Podcast
      • JCCSF Panel
      • Just Wanna Quilt - Colleen Haraden
      • Just Wanna Quilt - Nancy Williams
      • Just Wanna Quilt - Sara Trail
      • Law and Disorder Podcast
      • Positively Creative Summit
  • CONTACT
  • Resources
  • New Page
Picture

ABOUT US

Founded in 2017, the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) is a youth education program that bridges artistic expression with activism to advocate for social justice. Through a series of hands-on workshops in schools, prisons and community centers across the country, SJSA empowers youth to use textile art as a vehicle for personal transformation and community cohesion and become agents of social change. Many of our young artists make art that explores issues such as gender discrimination, mass incarceration, gun violence and gentrification. The powerful imagery they create in cloth tells their stories, and 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. This visual dialogue bridges differences in race, age and socioeconomics and sparks conversations and action in households across the country.

SJSA empowers young people to use sewing to express themselves and create opportunities for growth and change.


WHY SOCIAL JUSTICE + SEWING?

Picture

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. 


SUMMER 2016 | SJSA Program at UC Berkeley

SJSA began as a six-week summer program in Berkeley in 2016, followed by two weeks of summer workshops in Chicago. 
​SJSA continued evolving once Sara relocated to Cambridge, MA to attend Harvard Graduate School.  

Fall 2016 | The Cambridge School of Weston Workshop

At Harvard, Sara created and implemented a five week-long SJSA programming class of 11th and 12th graders about race, class and privilege. 
Picture
Picture
Picture

HOST A WORKSHOP

Interested in hosting an SJSA workshop? Sign up below!
SIGN UP

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Address

Social Justice Sewing Academy
​PO Box 2473 
​Antioch, CA 94531

Email

info@sjsacademy.com
  • HOME
  • Shop
  • ABOUT
    • THE MOVEMENT >
      • WHAT WE DO >
        • Quilts of Remembrance
        • The SJSA Remembrance Project >
          • Remembrance Project Page
        • Block of the Month
        • SJSA Business Incubator
      • TESTIMONIALS
      • OUR COMMUNITY QUILT PROCESS
    • MEET THE TEAM
    • SJSA AMBASSADORS >
      • Audrey Bernier
      • Bryan Robinson
      • Cecilia Charney
      • Kailah Foreman
      • Ann Guiam
      • Carina Cabriales
      • Chloe Gorski
      • Fia Carlone
      • Yohana Tecleab
  • DONATE
    • SPONSOR
  • GET INVOLVED
    • EMBROIDER A BLOCK >
      • Examples of Embroidery
    • HOST A WORKSHOP
    • JOIN THE TEAM
    • HOST THE ART
  • GALLERY
    • WORKSHOPS >
      • Arts in Corrections Conference
      • Alliance Gertz-Ressler High School
      • Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
      • Cambridge Rindge and Latin
      • Jefferson High School
      • Girls Garage Workshop
      • Lakota Youth Speak
      • Obama Portrait Workshop
      • Pollination Project Workshop
      • RAC x Latina Center Workshop
      • Stitch. Resist. Persist.
      • Overton High School
      • Vallejo Probation
    • PROGRAMS >
      • SJSA x SJQTM >
        • Community Action Projects
      • 2019 SUMMER INSTITUTE
      • 2018 SUMMER INSTITUTE
      • SJSA Summer 2018
      • Berkeley Summer 2016
    • Quilts >
      • Individual Quilts
      • Berkeley SJSA Class of 2016
      • Art Behind Bars Volume I
      • Art Behind Bars Volume II
      • Community Quilts >
        • 2016 Community Quilts
        • 2017 Community Quilts
        • 2018 Community Quilts
        • 2019 Community Quilts
        • 2020 Community Quilts
      • 2021 Community Quilts
      • Cuba Series
      • Obama Portrait Series
    • Exhibitions >
      • Current Exhibitions >
        • UC Riverside
      • Past Exhibitions >
        • Connecting Threads: SF Jewish Center
        • Fuller Craft Museum
        • Pacific International Quilt Festival 2018
        • Threads of Truth Gallery Guide
        • Panorama Framing Gallery
        • Pick Museum at NIU
        • Mule Gallery >
          • Mule Gallery Guide
        • Museum of Design Atlanta
        • New England Quilt Museum
        • QuiltCon 2018
        • QuiltCon 2019
        • QuiltCon 2020
        • Richmond Art Center
        • Ross Art Museum
        • San Jose Museum of Quilt & Textiles
        • Utah Quilt & Sewing Marketplace
        • Voices in Cloth
        • World Quilt Tampa 2019
  • PRESS
    • ARTICLES >
      • A Stitch in Time - Fuller Craft Exhibit Review
      • Brentwood Press
      • Britex Fabric
      • BTMB Magazine
      • Chicago Tribune
      • Craftivism Blog
      • Crafty Planner
      • Create Whimsy
      • Creativity Project
      • Harvard GSE
      • Huffington Post
      • Hyperallergic Article
      • Mercery News
      • Midwest Craft Con 2020
      • Modern Patchwork
      • Quilt Trip
      • Quilting Art Magazine
      • Quilting as a Social Medium
      • Seriously Badass Women
      • Stonemountain and Daughter
      • Teen Vogue
      • Urban Plains
      • Washington Post - Injustice Block
    • PODCASTS >
      • Close Knit Podcast
      • Craft Alliance Podcast
      • Crafty Planner Podcast
      • JCCSF Panel
      • Just Wanna Quilt - Colleen Haraden
      • Just Wanna Quilt - Nancy Williams
      • Just Wanna Quilt - Sara Trail
      • Law and Disorder Podcast
      • Positively Creative Summit
  • CONTACT
  • Resources
  • New Page