Since the moment we are born, and are swaddled upon entering the world, we are in contact with textiles. Many rites of passage are celebrated by a special outfit marking our graduation into another level of life. Our clothing protects us and communicates who we are. Our lifelong use of textiles and clothing are something all of us around the world have in common yet each of us have our own heritage and relationship with textiles.

The swaddling blanket, in place of our mother’s womb, offers protection and comfort. The act of making textiles can be as equally comforting and nourishing. Soft, tactile fibers flow through our hands, and ground us. Friendships and community are formed over the act of making together. That said, textiles, and those who grow the materials, make them, and sell them, are responsible for great harm to the Earth, through pollution, and harm to people, through the same said pollution as well as social injustices such as unpaid, and low-paid labor in factories and on farms where our clothing and textiles are grown and made.

Due to this binary embodiment, textiles are uniquely positioned as a source of healing and a place for impactful change. We can alter the ways we consume clothing and textiles and positively impact people’s lives around the world and help the Earth. As we sit at these crossroads of intense social injustice and increasing climate instability, it is imperative to address these themes now to create a better environment for all. Furthermore, the practice of making textiles decreases stress, creates a support system, and builds resilience, all necessary attributes when confronting and re-establishing new ways of being.

Our mission is:

+ To cultivate and support an inclusive community of makers, including BIPoC and LGBTQI, who recognize the importance of a just world and are taking steps towards making it so and who are vested in creating textiles and materials to make textiles with the health of the planet and people in mind.

+ To support businesses owned by people from a wide array of backgrounds, including BIPoC and LGBTQI, who are taking into account the health and equity of people and the earth when creating textiles as well as creating materials used to make textiles by offering their products in our shop.

+ To create jobs which support the textile-based economy. And to have a diverse group of people who work and teach at A Verb for Keeping Warm.

+ To support people making textiles around the world, so they can continue to create textiles inherent to their cultural background and to thrive doing so as well as to consider, honor, and protect each community's unique heritage, when creating, designing, and wearing textiles.

+ To imagine a world in which people are recognized, financially compensated, honored, and celebrated for their contributions to the making of textiles and the materials from which they are made. This includes the maker, the farmer, and Mother Earth.

+ To contribute to making society more equal and just - and the Earth more hospitable for all of its inhabitants - through the act of offering materials in support of such and through the act of making textiles and clothing.

+ To celebrate the joy and beauty of making textiles!