2023 Symposium: The Collective

2023 Symposium: The Collective

Join us April 20-22 in Florence, Alabama.

PROJECT THREADWAYS

Project Threadways is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) that records, studies, and explores the history and impact of textiles.

 

We seek to understand the impact that textiles and their creation—from raw material to finished good—had on our local community, the American south, the nation, and the world—connecting the people, places, and materials.

WE TELL UNTOLD STORIES.

We share stories and collect data to tell the larger story of textile culture in the South, and to create a future for the industry based on mutual success.

WE SEEK TO COLLABORATE.

We will work with organization that share our goals and visions and can help further our project.

WE HAVE NO AGENDA BUT THE TRUTH.

We are proud of our region but aware of the pain that surrounds the research we undertake. It is our responsibility to tell all truths, not just the convenient ones.

We commit to responsible practices.

We carry out this work with integrity, respect, and responsible environmental practices.

3

Symposia and counting

10

Community Events and counting

25

Oral Histories Recorded

5000

Years of History to study

 

SYMPOSIUM

 

2023 PROJECT THREADWAYS SYMPOSIUM 

THE COLLECTIVE: TEXTILES AS COMMUNITY

 

Join us April 20-22, 2023, as we explore the power of small groups to create big changes through the everyday act of making. Project Threadways will share stories of those who have gathered to weave, craft, sew, and tuft—and, in doing so, created economic opportunity, organized resistance, and achieved self-determination from their work. 

DETAILS + TICKETS

MATERIAL CULTURE

Material culture is defined as the aggregate of physical artifacts or objects used by a society. 

 

We envision a healthier future in which textiles are an integral part of growing communities

and where material culture can be a source of reconciliation and communal growth.

CONTRIBUTE

We seek your support in growing Project Threadways and offer a variety of sponsorship levels and benefits for individuals and businesses. To learn more about these opportunities, contact think@projectthreadways.org or click the button below to give.

ORAL HISTORIES

  • "The pay was, yes, the pay was really good considering the type of jobs it was around in the area, you know. Which I did get an interview at Ford Motor Company before I went to Tee Jays, but I, well actually it was before I left H.D. Lee, and I found out that I was pregnant so that was the end of that. But yes it was very productive. The more you worked, the harder you worked and the more work you put out there then the more money you made. And it was very good paying at that time, it really was. Best paying job that I had ever had."

    - Patricia Goodman, Tee Jays seamstress from 1980 - 1995

  • "I helped pay my way through college. I did make some friends there. The guys that were back in the shipping and receiving department became good friends of mine. I got introduced to the world of labor unions. I think I had to join the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, and I didn’t have any idea what unions were all about. I just knew that people joined unions whenever they went to work."

    - Larry Allen, floor sweeper for Reltoc pants' manufacturing company from 1971 - 1974

  • "Well my husband used to work at Sweetwater Mills. They made men’s underwear too. My sister-in-law worked there. And they would tell about…there was one building that they would have to run water on in the summertime to keep it cool enough for them to work the machines. And the women would pass out because it would be so hot. You know, and you had to work so hard."

    - Sue Hanback, Tee Jays seamstress from 1978 - 2006

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