Artist celebrates literacy at Word On The Street festival

By Lethbridge Herald on September 24, 2024.

Arounna Khounnoraj signs copies of Visible Mending during The Word On The Street Festival on Saturday at the Lethbridge Public Library. Herald photo by Justin Seward

Justin Seward – Lethbridge Herald

Canadian artist Arounna Khounnoraj, was celebrating literacy at The Word On The Street Lethbridge Book and Magazine Festival over the weekend by talking about her craft book, Visible Mending: Repair, Renew, Reuse the Clothes You Love.

The craft book helps people getting the most in their wardrobes in the most less wasteful ways as possible and perhaps a personal touch included.

“A lot of the things that I’m interested in, because I work in the textile industry, is to kind of lessen our impact on the environment,” said Khounnoraj.

“So this book was a way of introducing different, creative ways for people to explore when they’re fixing and mending their clothes.”

Inspiration for the book came with how Khounnoraj grew up.

“We came to Canada in (the) late 70s and we didn’t have a lot of money,” said Khounnoraj

“So my mother repaired a lot of our clothes and when she was doing it, I thought was quite interesting because she would make it invisible because there was a lot of stigma with being poor and the kids make fun of you. And so, when I grew up and I started fixing my kid’s clothes, I liked the idea of the book being visible, the mending being visible, because I felt like it was a celebration of the whole and not something to be shameful of.”

Khounnoraj did similar practice as an artist while in studio.

“So like trying to reuse the things that I have, save scraps of fabric because things cost money and so all that kind of practice was all sort of part of what I was already doing,” she said.

She has seven craft books.

“It’s a great event,” said Khounnoraj of the festival.

“I think anything that is promoting literacy and reading, I mean I’m all about it. So I think it’s really fantastic to see that, especially in this day and age where it’s nice to see a lot of actually young people here because in this day and age of kids being on devices all the time, it’s just nice to be able to see them wanting to read a book.”