The Avenir Thursday Evening Lecture Series highlights the wide-range of the Avenir’s current exhibitions, as well as guest presenters on unique subjects. Join us for this intriguing array of textile topics featured in the Spring 2018 lectures.
Embroidering Within Boundaries
Join us Thursday, April 12, at 7 p.m., for a lecture by Mary Littrell, Ph.D., former head of the CSU Department of Design and Merchandising, who will present about her travel to Afghanistan and co-authorship with Rangina Hamidi of the new book Embroidering Within Boundaries: Afghan Women Creating a Future published by Thrums Books.
Littrell will describe her experiences traveling to Kandahar in 2015 to meet with women working in the embroidery collective called Kandahar Treasure, producing exquisite traditional khamak embroidery to realize an income and provide for their futures — within the safety of societal rules.
Fifteen years ago, Littrell’s co-author Hamidi decided to dedicate her life to helping rebuild her native Kandahar, Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of women, widowed by years of conflict, struggled to support themselves and their families. Hamidi started the entrepreneurial enterprise Kandahar Treasure, using the region’s exquisite traditional embroidery, to help women work within the cultural boundaries of Pashtunwali to earn their living and to find a degree of self-determination.
Hamidi and Littrell’s book traces the converging paths of traditional khamak embroidery and the 300 brave women who have found in it a way to build their lives. The book Embroidering Within Boundaries: Afghan Women Creating a Future will be available for purchase and signing by Littrell following the presentation.
Lectures take place in the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising, Classroom 157, 216 East Lake Street. All lectures are FREE and open to the public. The Avenir Museum galleries stay open from 5–7 p.m. on lecture evenings
More information on the Avenir Museum website.
The Avenir Museum is part of the Department of Design and Merchandising in CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
