Tomo Mori On Building an 18-Foot Fiber Sculpture and Resisting Anti-Asian Hate in Harlem With Joy

In 2009, Tomo Mori's father died. She was living in a small, expensive rent-stabilized apartment on 14th Street, working in media, watching her dream of becoming an artist recede into the category of things she'd maybe do when she was old — like Grandma Moses. Then she gave herself eighteen months. If nothing happened, she'd go back to graphic design. If something happened, she'd follow it.Something happened.Now, Tomo Mori is a painter and fiber artist based in Harlem whose eighteen-foot-high rope installation is currently on view at Columbia University's Wallach Art Gallery as part of the Children's Art Carnival exhibition — the piece so tall she had anxiety about whether it would even fit. It fit. She's celebrating.Born in Japan, trained in contemporary art before switching to video and multimedia to support her family, Tomo came to New York via CNN's graphics department — where she ran the team and met Octavio Blanco, who was then an editor at CNN Money. In 2010 she moved to Harlem, started making friends in the uptown arts community, showed her work, and never looked back.In this episode of Uptown Voices, Tomo takes Led Black and Octavio Blanco through her full story: the rope work that began the night Trump was elected in 2016 and she felt suddenly, painfully disconnected; the Japanese ritual of Shimenawa that may have planted the seed; the discovery that her grandmother's family had a rope manufacturing business ("Mom thinks I'm haunted by the ghost of grandma's family"); the carpal tunnel she developed from obsessive rope-making while her one-year-old daughter napped; the donated clothes from neighbors, friends, and strangers she weaves into her fiber art — each one remembered, each one carrying an energy.She also speaks with rare candor about the anti-Asian racism she experienced during COVID in her own Harlem neighborhood. Her response to all of it: show up to every space with a big smile, be present, be human, let time do its work. After twelve years, that neighbor finally said hello.The episode also covers the uptown arts ecosystem that welcomed her, the pickup co-op she built with performing artist moms to give herself four extra hours a week to work, the oldest tree in Manhattan in Saint Nicholas Park, and her advice — three words she returns to again and again — to every dormant artist: keep moving your hands.00:00  Cold Open 01:05  Welcome 02:10  Subscribe, Donate, Tell Your People02:32  Introducing Tomo Mori04:17  Tomo's History with Betty Blayton-Taylor06:24  From Art School to CNN07:59  Why She Came to Harlem in 201011:52  I am a Painter — Even When I'm Making Fiber Art12:43  One Teacher Shouldn't Rule Your Life14:29  Fabric Patterns Are Evidence of Joy15:41  Interconnectivity16:56  Fiber Art Using Donated Clothes18:36  Making Rope Obsessively20:24  Remembering Every Donor While Working21:05  The Beauty of Jumbled Multiculturalism26:18  Favorite Park Uptown27:25  How Harlem Changed Her Life30:12  The Mixed-Background Mom Friend Group31:39  The Uptown Arts Ecosystem32:09  How Collaboration Works in Practice 37:27  Tomo's Advice to Every Dormant Artist  38:38  Anti-Asian Hate in Harlem During COVID  40:50  Her Response: Show Up with a Big Smile  50:02  Where to Find Tomo Mori  51:33  Closing