Please join Storytelling with Saris for the launch of World Pride DC 2025 with a special workshop hosted by Moms Clean Air Force. We will be discussing human rights and equality for all genders and sexualities and the negative impact of climate change and plastics on the LGBTQ+ community and women. The workshop will be appropriate for all ages and we will create art and poetry together and transfer our creativity to a 19-foot-long cotton sari from Bangladesh. Light refreshments will be served. Workshop hosted by Moms Clean Air Force ℅ EDF, 555 12th Street NW, May 16 from 5:30 to 7 pm You will need to sign in at the lobby and show ID. Ask the receptionist to go upstairs to EDF for a workshop.

Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs.

“Weaving Resistance: Storytelling with Saris”

In this moment of human rights crisis created by the current US administration, it is imperative to build community and fight back for LGBTQ+ rights without apology or retreat. This year’s World Pride theme is The Fabric of Freedom.  Textiles have served as modes of resistance for centuries, especially by women and other marginalized groups. Since 2012, the Storytelling with Saris collaborative art project has been using the cotton sari — a 19-foot-long unstitched garment— as a site of community expression of bodily autonomy and gender and climate justice. Cotton saris are covered in woodblock printing, stencils, painting, drawing, embroidery, appliqué, and poetry and then used for large scale installations and performances.

Over the last decade, Storytelling with Saris workshops, performances, and installations have engaged thousands of people in 12 U.S. states and 8 countries, including Bangladesh, Canada, France, Greece, and Italy. Recent Storytelling with Saris projects, performances, workshops, and roundtables in the U.S. and Bangladesh have specifically focused on LGBTQ+ issues, gender roles and identity, bodily autonomy, and increasing understanding and acceptance of gender-nonconforming persons through discussion, education, and collaborative art and performance. For World Pride 2025, Storytelling with Saris will present five healing and empowering art and poetry workshops on gender/sexuality/identity to foster greater inclusion, empathy, and pride in this difficult political climate. The workshops will culminate in a community performance and march.

All the Weaving Resistance events:

1. Workshop hosted by Moms Clean Air Force, 555 12th Street NW, May 16 from 5:30 to 7 pm

Link to register and details.

2. Display of artwork Prokash/Reveal Sari Scroll on gender/sexuality/identity at World Pride Headquarters, 901 7th Street NW, 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20001, from May 17-June 8, open noon to 8 pm most days

Link to World Pride Center

3. Workshop hosted by Asian Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Group, May 29 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm

4. Drop in workshops at World Pride DC HQ hosted by Human Rights Campaign, 737 7th St NW, May 31, 12:00pm to 3:00pm and June 1 from 12:00pm to 2:00pm. Drop in and contribute to the World Pride saris with art and poetry.

5. Drop in workshop at the Human Rights Conference at JW Marriott, 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, June 5 from 10 am to 2 pm

6. Outdoor “Weaving Resistance” community sewing performance, June 6 during the 17th Street Dupont Circle Block Party, 5 to 8 pm

7. Culminating event: international march with massive “Weaving Resistance” sari to the Capitol on June 8

This  project is supported and sponsored by Capital Pride Alliance.

Community. partners:  Human Rights Campaign, Moms Clean Air Force, and Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project.