Stitching Legacy:Free Community Embroidery Workshops Across Philly
This spring and summer, I’m leading a series of free embroidery workshops across Philadelphia that are part of two fellowship projects: one with The Velocity Fund and the other with the Da Vinci Art Alliance. These workshops aren’t just about learning to embroider—they’re about reflecting, connecting, and contributing to something larger than ourselves. Head over to my Community Workshops Page to register.
Image of workshop materials: Embroidery thread, hoops and scissors displayed aesthetically.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about legacy. What we leave behind—for our families, for our communities, for the world. What we pass down, and what we preserve. For me, these projects are rooted in that idea. They’re intimate and public at the same time—asking how individual stories can build collective meaning.
Legacy is layered, and I’ve been exploring it through multiple lenses. There’s personal legacy—memories, values, and traditions we carry forward. There’s collective legacy—the shared stories and impact we build together as a community. And there’s creative legacy—the imprint artists leave through their work. These embroidery workshops offer a space to reflect on all of that: through thread, shared time, and intentional making.
Image of embroidery workshop attendees and myself, Richie Lopez at Da Vinci Art Alliance
Social Fabric: Stitching Legacy
(The Velocity Fund Project)
As Philadelphia approaches the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Social Fabric offers a different kind of reflection. Rather than centering the usual narratives, this project invites participants to stitch a single word that expresses a personal hope or value for the future. It’s a quiet but powerful way of imagining what we want the next 250 years to look like—not just for the country, but for each other.
These words—stitched by many different hands—will become a communal tapestry, a stitched vision for what’s possible. The work will be exhibited publicly, not as a finished piece, but as an ongoing conversation in thread. All materials are provided, and while participants won’t keep their pieces, their voices will be woven into a shared story of resistance, dreaming, and hope.
Image of myself helping workshop students thread an embroidery needle at Da Vinci Art Alliance
El Sofá: Diasporic Comfort / Diasporic Discomfort
(Da Vinci Art Alliance Fellowship)
Running alongside Social Fabric is El Sofá, an installation project grounded in my own memories and family history. I’m building a life-sized embroidered sofa—wrapped in plastic, like the ones in my grandmother’s apartment in Brooklyn. It’s about comfort and discomfort, memory and inheritance, especially within the Puerto Rican diaspora.
In these workshops, participants will embroider “sofa arm covers”—small stitched reflections, motifs, or words that will be added directly onto the final piece. These covers symbolize small zones of comfort in complicated spaces. Everyone’s contribution becomes part of a collective act of remembering—and reimagining—what home means.
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Why This Matters Now
I’ve been thinking about how much life I’ve already built in a short time—and what I want my impact to be. These projects let me hold space for those questions in a tangible way. They’re about preserving what matters, examining how we’re shaped by place and memory, and honoring the stories that don’t always get told.
We all know the myth of the Founding Fathers. But what does the real story of this country look like? Who gets remembered, and who gets left out? These workshops are one small way of challenging that narrative—by inviting more voices in.
They’re free, they’re open to all, and they’re grounded in care. Whether you’re an experienced stitcher or totally new, you’re welcome.
Upcoming Workshops:
Saturday, June 14th, 11:00 AM–1:00 PM
Wyck Historic House, Garden, and Farm
6026 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19144Tuesday, June 24th, 4:00–6:00 PM
Taller Puertorriqueño
2600 N 5th St, Philadelphia, PA 19133
More workshop dates coming soon.
Students concentrating on their embroidery projects
