Lily Lloyd Burkhalter is a French-American writer. She learned to sew in Cameroon and to weave in Chicago. Her poetry, essays, and fiction have been published or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, DIAGRAM, The Collagist, and elsewhere. She is working on an essay collection and a novel that explore the intersection of text and textiles. 

Kasai Velvets from the Kingdom of Kuba 

Margaret Dugger is an artist from North Carolina currently based in Chicago. She is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree at SAIC, usually working in the Fiber and Material Studies department. Using weaving and needlework, she explores themes of absence, loss, and the everyday experience. Originally trained as a professional hand-weaver, this class offered a lot of excitement in the opportunity to learn from a community of textiles from all over the world. 

Following the Thread Lines 

Lydia Abigail Mudge is an undergraduate student in their senior year at the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago. They specialize in textiles with a heavy emphasis on knitting, spinning and tapestry weaving. They hope to use these skills in their post graduation exploration of historic textile research and recreation through experimental archaeology.  They are currently in the application process for a Fulbright grant with which they intend to travel to Norway to research their rich textile history. When not engaging with the historical aspects of fiber, they create protest pieces concerning environmental destruction, mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples, Black Lives Matter, reproductive rights, and the LGBTQIA+ community. Outside of fiber, their interests include writing fiction and communal storytelling with their friends using the tabletop role playing game Dungeons and Dragons. 

Following the Threads: Finding the Culture of Origin by Analyzing Motif and Form

Lee Miko Romero is an interdisciplinary artist from the Bay Area, living and working in Chicago, Illinois. Their work emerges from a drawing practice centered on depictions of animal behavior and knotted forms as personal reflections on connection and transformation. Through repetition of threads, tangles, and molting creatures, melding masses become netted blankets of comfort and protection. Considering knots and their utility, as well as cultural significance and symbolism. Thinking of tangles as a result of neglect or failure, as well as something that can be undone and transformed. 

leemikoromero.com

Knots, Tangles, and the Ways We Make Connections 

Erin Sugg is a Chicago-based visual artist primarily working in fiber art, specifically quilting and soft sculpture. Much of her work is inspired by rocks and the geometry of nature, leading her to explore hardness through softness. Sustainability is important to her work. All fabrics she uses are second-hand, either donated by friends and family or purchased from strangers. She is currently a third-year undergraduate studying Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She intends to pursue a pathway to a  career in textile conservation after graduation. This summer, she is excited to be completing a curatorial internship in collections care at the Naper Settlement in Naperville, IL.

https://erinsugg.weebly.com/ 

Khayamiya:  More Than Canvas

Textured Thinking: Fiber Renderings of Spaces 

Sitong Yin is an interdisciplinary visual artist, rooted in fiber & textile but also exploring and cooperating with videos, performances and installations. Her works draw inspiration from natural materials and phenomenons, inviting and translating elements like texture and landscape in her arts to explore the ambiguous and poetic space in-between endless searching for meanings and nihilism. Her works are also inspired by Chinese landscape painting and Chinese classical philosophies. 

Sitong is from Shenzhen, China. She currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois, as a MFA candidate in the Fiber & Material Studies Program of the School of the Art institute of Chicago. 

https://www.yinsitongarts.com

Du-jinsheng Brocade: Weaving the Modern Chinese History 

Rivers Qinnan Zhu is a visual artist whose works include textile techniques such as weaving and lace-making, as also drawing, sculptures, and other mix-media. She values patient slow-process in craft, the presence of sustainability; and confronts issues in her personal silenced family history. Over the last two years, her current studio practice has been exploring the sense of displacement of her family and floating identity through zooming and subverting everyday life objects and moments.

Rivers was born in Hangzhou, China, and came to the United States to pursue her education at 15 years old. She currently lives and works in Chicago, IL, with her two kids(cats), ChowChow Zhu and KnowKnow Ossie Zhu. She is an MFA candidate in Fiber & Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.