Join TSA for a special edition of its Contemporary Voices series, featuring a hybrid artist talk and panel discussion event in collaboration with SUDESTADA. TSA and multidisciplinary studio SUDESTADA invite you to support Contemporary Voices, a dynamic public program relaunching during New York Textile Month (September 2025) in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
This hybrid event featuring an exhibition, artist talk, and panel discussion will amplify immigrant and diasporic voices in textile art while addressing sustainability and cultural preservation. Through this expanded Contemporary Voices format (which will include live virtual conversation, recordings, and transcripts) TSA and SUDESTADA deepens their commitment to amplifying diasporic voices, increasing access, and reimagining how textile art and culture are shared across platforms.
This free, public event features an exhibition, artist talk, panel discussion and interactive workshop that explore the theme of migration, sustainability and community through textiles.
Event Highlights
- Featured Artist Interview: Venezuelan textile artist Cassandra Mayela Allen discusses her participatory project “Braided Prayers / Rezados Trenzados”, which transforms textile waste into collective art.
- Panel Discussion: how textiles shape identity, resistance, and sustainability from an artist, designer, curator and institution leader perspective.
- Hands-On Activities: Cassandra Mayela community braiding workshop & The Granny Square Workshop crochet class
- Take the Conversation Home: The featured interview and panel discussion will be recorded with transcripts for global access.
Free & open to all!
SUDESTADA is a New York-based multidisciplinary studio working at the intersection of fashion and art, woven together by the strength of storytelling. Their projects are rooted in community and designed to spark dialogue across cultures and disciplines; exploring identity, craft, and sustainability through a collaborative lens.
New York Textile Month (NYTM) is an annual, citywide festival celebrating textile art, design, and innovation through exhibitions, workshops, talks, and collaborations. Founded in 2016, it brings together artists, designers, scholars, and textile enthusiasts to explore the cultural, social, and environmental significance of textiles.
Cassandra Mayela Allen (b. Caracas) is a self-taught artist based in NYC since 2014 after migrating from Venezuela. Her work delves into ideas of identity, migration and belonging, reflecting her personal experiences and engaging with the community through interviews and workshops. She explores textiles’ unique storytelling potential, preserving and reimagining memories through material transformation and creative blends of fabric and found materials. While collaboration is vital to her practice, she also produces individual works exploring abstract expressionism through various materials.
Image Featured Artist Cassandra Mayela Allen, courtesy of SUDESTADA.
