Tense Threads: Exploring the Effectiveness of ‘Craftivism’ From Suffragists to Social Media

What is ‘Craftivism’ as a contemporary force, and what are its historic threads? This talk will start in the present day and will share examples of craft-based political actions on issues ranging from fighting against gender violence, immigration hostilities and climate degradation. We will then travel back in time to explain its antecedents, as well as tensions in the Suffragist movement relating to the utility of domestic craftwork. Participants are welcome to bring craft works-in-progress to share and work on during the talk.

Hinda Mandell is a professor in the School of Communication at RIT in New York. Mandell is editor of Global Craftivism since the Pussyhats: Handcraft Responses to Violence, War, Illness and Isolation (Bloomsbury 2026); author of Crafting Choice: Abortion Politics and Handwork in the U.S. (Bloomsbury 2026); editor Crafting Dissent: Handicraft as Protest from the American Revolution to the Pussyhats (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019); co-curator and co-editor of Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism (RIT Press, 2019); and a co-editor of Nasty Women and Bad Hombres: Gender and Race in the 2016 US Presidential Election (University of Rochester Press, 2018). Since 2017, she has organized maker interventions on issues of social reform tied to geographic place reaching 2,000 craft participants. She’s been interviewed by The New York Times and The Associated Press, among other global outlets, on the importance of making objects by hand. She is on Instagram: @crochetactivism.