Savneet Talwar: Feminist Pedagogy, Restorative Spaces and the Healing Power of Craft

Graphic by Grace Lougheed

When we think about the empowering nature of fashion, it’s often from a consumer standpoint. However, the power of craft can be just as transformational — especially for individuals often overlooked by more traditional forms of therapy.

Savneet Talwar is the chair of the art therapy and counseling departments at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is also a co-founder of the Creatively Empowered Women (CEW) Design Studio, which operates in partnership with the Hamdard Center for Health & Human Services in Rogers Park. The studio was founded in 2012 and works with South Asian and Bosnian women who identify as refugees or immigrants. Members knit, sew and crochet wearables that they then sell at events. Through this process, members of CEW empower one another and gain a sense of fiscal autonomy.

STITCH sat down with Talwar to discuss the power of craft therapy, especially within minority communities, and the care that goes into creating meaningfully restorative spaces.

Photo courtesy of Savneet Talwar.

STITCH: How does craft fit within feminist pedagogy?

Talwar: When I think of feminist pedagogy, I really think about creating restorative spaces. I’ve been thinking a lot about how we as art therapists go into a community and what kinds of care we provide. Traditionally art therapy has always been thought of as something that happens in an individual space, as a psychotherapy modality. I’ve done that for many years, and that’s not my focus anymore.

In my more recent years, I’ve been interested in looking at community spaces because I don't believe that art therapy translates [in all contexts], especially among minority communities.

The CEW Design Studio’s logo.

When I started the CEW Design Studio, I started it for South Asian women. It was interesting how South Asian women were just not interested in handwork, and the Bosnian women who were coming to the center weren’t really interested in sewing — they preferred knitting and crocheting. That’s how we all came together and started to knit. And the knitting became a metaphor for socialization.

STITCH: Why do you think craft therapy often works better within minority communities?

Talwar: Art therapy deals with abstractions. Within a historical context that may be fine, but we have to look at intersectionality and at who abstraction was originally [made] for. I find craft practices, especially among older women, to work because it’s something that a lot of people have grown up with. I think art therapy and craft therapy are very culturally specific.

STITCH: How does your background tie into your understanding of hospitality?

Talwar: I grew up in India. I came here when I was in my 20s. Whenever I go back, I find that chai is a very important part [of my visit]. I call it the chai ethnography. People visit and can’t leave without drinking tea. But within that making and drinking of the tea, there’s a lot of humor exchanged and productive banter.

STITCH: What is the psychology behind craft therapy?

Talwar: There are a couple of things that trauma therapy speaks specifically about. One is the very act of repetitive movement. Our ability to self-soothe and feel grounded.

There used to be the belief that if people come to you and are able to verbalize their trauma, that they will be healed. But new trauma theory says that trauma resides in the body and not in the mind. That by revisiting that verbally, you’re only repeating what has happened.

With the women that I collaborate with, the Bosnian women who have a history of trauma, of witnessing genocide and losing family members, the focus in the group was never about revisiting trauma. It was really about creating a space in which if something emerged, it could be verbalized. I think about spaces that are more trauma-informed rather than about healing from trauma.

STITCH: How does design play a role in empowering members at CEW?

Talwar: In my group I realized that making cheesy stuff, even with good intentions, was not going to get us anywhere. We had to find a way to begin to think about color, pattern and design. Within a period of about five years, that collaborative engagement of skill-sharing resulted in a really beautiful line of products that sells really well.

Photo via @cewdesignstudio on Facebook.

Photo courtesy of Savneet Talwar.

STITCH: What is your own personal relationship to craft?

Talwar: I’ve always loved fibers and cloth. Even in my early years, there was something to be said about fabrics from India that connected me [back home]. The one thing that I’ve always done, even till today, but I don’t do it as much now, is looking for old Indian fabrics whenever I go back. I saved all my Indian clothes for a really long time. I would keep them, thinking, “Okay, I’ll refashion these.” Then I moved from my old house in St. Louis to Washington, D.C., and that box didn’t come. It was such a sense of remorse. I still remember those clothes today.

Besides that, I have a granddaughter, and I love making clothes for my granddaughter. I’m making a suffragette dress for her for Halloween to celebrate the hundredth year of the suffragist’s movement...* She’s two and a half, so we still get to tell her what she’s going to be [for Halloween].

I’m also thinking about making her a silent book, which is a quilted book with little pop-ups and different kinds of textures that she can touch.

STITCH: Do you have any final thoughts on any of the topics we’ve discussed today?

Talwar: I think in a lot of ways we’re a society devoid of connection. So much of trauma is about needing to connect with others. I was reading one of bell hooks’ pieces where she was talking about love and freedom. She’s talking about the pedagogy of love, and how love has become so sensationalized within a capitalist system. But what does it mean to really tap into love as a form of liberation and a form of care? She says in order for us to do that, we have to come to a place of critical consciousness where we are able to critique the systems that have sold us these ideas.

*This interview was conducted prior to Halloween.

Note: responses have been edited for length and clarity.