Fields of the Future

In this episode, Jessie Mordine Young speaks with Alejandro de Avila Blomberg, the founding director of the Ethnobotanical Garden and curator at the Oaxaca Textile Museum in Oaxaca, Mexico. They discuss his career in anthropology, the history of cochineal, and the evolution of biodiversity in the region.

In this episode, Juliana Fagua-Arias speaks with Molly and Lara Manzanares from Tierra Wools about life as sheep ranchers, the musicality of weaving, and the intersection between business, artistry, and education.

In this episode, Jessie Mordine Young speaks with Larissa Nez about her contributions to the exhibition Color Riot at the Montclair Art Museum, where she currently is an Art Table Fellow. They also discuss how, in her curatorial career, she is advocating for decolonial disciplines and talk about the individual and collective experience of life on the reservation during a global pandemic.

In this episode, Jessie Mordine Young speaks with Porfirio Gutiérrez about his textile art and its connection to place, specifically to his homeland of Teotitlán del Valle. They also talk about his relationship with natural dye and color and how his practice is deeply rooted in ancestral knowledge.

In this episode, Jessie Mordine Young speaks with authors, educators, and fifth-generation Navajo weavers Lynda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornelas about their ancestral knowledge of weaving, their process of making rugs, their recently published book on the topic, and their relationship with their tools.

In this episode, Juliana Fagua-Arias speaks with Nikyle Begay about shepherding, the science of breeding for natural colors, and the sacred relationship between the Navajo people and churro sheep.

In this episode, Juliana Fagua-Arias speaks with Elena Phipps about cochineal, luminescence, and the relationship between textiles, color, and culture.

In this episode Juliana Fagua-Arias speaks with Kevin Aspaas about the Navajo lifeway, the weaving process from sheep to loom, and the slow and conscientious craft of weaving in a fast-paced society.

In the final episode of the season, join our host and an artist-educator as we talk about the broader Yorùbá textile canon — which has existed dynamically for centuries, and made it possible for lace to come on the scene. We move through enduring adages about dress & appearance, marvel at the labor-intensive openwork of handwoven aṣọ òkè, dive into the intricate patterns of àdìrẹ, and consider how textile artists are responding to lace till today.

An interactive micro-exhibition and podcast where we talk about laces—originally Austrian-made, but now produced globally—in Nigerian culture. In our season opener, two and a half generations of a Nigerian diasporic family sit around the table to talk about some of our favorite laces. We bounce from “classics,” like Swiss voile and French lace, to the latest trends, like sequins and beading on netting, or tulle. Come sit with us as we reflect on how tastes have changed, gist about our likes (and dislikes), and wonder where things might be headed.