Repair Café El Barrio at the Studio Museum in Harlem for NYC Climate Week
We’re thrilled to collaborate with the Studio Museum in Harlem and Black Girl Environmentalist as part of Obsidian: Soil, Soul, Song, a day-long program for NYC Climate Week 2026 bringing together artists, environmentalists, and community organizations working at the intersection of environmental justice, creativity, and community.
On Saturday, September 26, Repair Café El Barrio will present Knowledge of the Hands (El Saber de las Manos), a participatory mending and repair experience celebrating repair as embodied knowledge—something learned through practice and passed from hand to hand.
Through a series of intimate, 30-minute sessions, participants will learn practical skills for extending the life of their clothing: an introduction to the sewing machine with Rocío Salceda, hemming and essential hand stitches with Alec Stein, and visible mending and sashiko-inspired techniques with Ari Tabei. Participants are also invited to bring one personal item for guidance and simple repairs.
For Repair Café El Barrio, this collaboration is an opportunity to bring our approach to repair into one of Harlem’s most important cultural institutions and to connect the everyday act of caring for the things we own with larger conversations around sustainability, environmental justice, knowledge-sharing, and community.
Saturday, September 26, 2026
Obsidian: Soil, Soul, Song: 12:00–5:00 PM
Knowledge of the Hands: 1:30–3:30 PM
Studio Museum in Harlem, 144 West 125th Street
The event is free and open to the public; RSVP is required, click here, and workshops and activations have limited capacity.
