EXTRACTION, COLOR, TRADE

Textiles and dyes made from natural materials have a long history connected to trade, oppression, and colonial extraction. Today, craft and color are often discussed without this history. This course looks at the social, political, and economic stories behind four dye materials: Haematoxylum campechianum (logwood), Isatis tinctoria (woad), cochineal, and kakishibu (persimmon tannin). Each week, students will dye fabric with one of these materials while tracing its history and the trade routes that spread it around the world. 

Throughout the class, learners will create a map that connects the movement of these materials with the people, places, and political systems that shaped their histories. Together, these stories will help us think about how the legacies of trade, colonialism, and resource extraction continue to impact the world today.


​THIS CLASS IS AVAILABLE IN PERSON
​AT ABRONS ARTS CENTER:
466 Grand Street, NY, NY

MONDAYS 6-8 PM (EST)
September 28 - October 26 , 2026
(no class October 12 for Indigenous People's Day)
4 sessions +
culminating share out on Friday, October 30
Sliding scale tuition: 
$45, $120, $220, ​or $320
+ $30 non-refundable registration fee

INSTRUCTOR

Megumi Shauna Arai is an interdisciplinary artist interested in radical and collaborative pedagogy. She  has facilitated long term community projects using textile as methodology to examine fragmentation, exchange and transformation. She's  hosted weekly gatherings for a group of Asian American elders in the East Village to encourage social engagement and dexterity through the format of a quilting circle. She has taught with Yto Barrada at her eco-feminist color laboratory in Tangier, Morocco, foraging plants from the land and creating color, while investigating the social, political and cultural histories of the dye material.
Image credit: Megumi Shauna Arai
This program is supported, in part, through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Additionally, our classes are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.