Learn about Ilocano traditional weaving led by San Francisco-based weaver Rachel Lozada. The workshop is designed to give basic knowledge of its socio-cultural and historical significance to the Filipino American community. It relates to this community’s migration to the US beginning in the early 1900s after the US colonized the Philippines at the turn of the century. Ilocanos comprise the second largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group in the US. Participants will get to know some of its most iconic design patterns, symbolisms and relevance behind them and try their hands on several types of small looms. First 25 participants get to weave on cardboard looms with yarn which they get to take home. Open to all ages, no weaving experience required.  

Rachel Lozada is a community-based artivist and weaver who is committed to creating a renaissance of traditional and indigenous Filipino weaving in the Diaspora. Since 2013, she has been conducting weaving demonstrations, workshops and collaborative projects with various community and arts organizations. Her deep community-engaged model of weaving practice is unearthing the depth of buried histories of weaving traditions within Filipino American immigrant families mirroring the history of female weavers in her own family. She believes weaving is not a spectator art, and by making various looms available for people to try out and experience, she breaks the misconception that weaving is too difficult and challenging to take on.