As she puts the finishing touches to her habit, Sister Clarita, a Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles, tells me that there are more than 3,000 LGBT+ nuns around the world. They’re part of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an international network of activists who identify as secular nuns.
After winning the TED Prize on March 2, 2011, the French-artist JR launched the Inside Out Project, in his first TED Talk. Using his own artistic practice as inspiration, this participatory platform helps individuals and communities to make a statement by displaying large-scale black and white portraits in public spaces. Through their “Actions,” communities around the world have sparked collaborations and conversations.
The "I'm Not A Joke" campaign from Daniel Arzola is a series of images inscribed with compelling truths about human diversity that encourages individuals to live as their authentic selves. He wants the images to eventually appear on buses and subways, exposing audiences to the realities of queer experiences in an attempt to break down prejudice in a form of activism that he calls "Artivism."
Megumi Igarashi—who goes by the name Rokudenashiko, or "good-for-nothing" in Japanese—is known as a "vagina artist" in her native Japan. Among the pieces she's created are a vagina chandelier, a remote-controlled vagina car, and a 3-D-printed kayak modeled after her vulva, which she actually rowed in 2014 "as a metaphorical image of life springing from it," she told Glamour through a translator.
From intimate portraits to urban performance art, the through line of photographer Carlota Guerrero’s work has always been her stripped back sense of feminine reverie: rumpled sheets and broken shells, translucent tights and long braids, dusty floors and bare chests.
Last week, a dozen of female artists turned the walls of a downtown parking lot in Cairo into a street art gallery. Colourful group murals carrying personal stories and spreading messages to increase women’s visibility, and positively affect public consciousness.
On February 19, 2012, the Chinese young feminism leaders, included Maizi Li and Churan Zheng, initiated an activity, "Occupy the Men Bathroom." The protesters occupied the male public restroom and invited the women waiting for the women restroom to use the male one.
Born as a side project Las hijas de Violencia approaches the subject of street harassment and gender based violence through performance art, punk and video that is addressing socially legitimized male violence. "As actresses and as women we feel directly affected and consider it urgent to address the real cause of the problem: its ideological nature.
They are disparaged as “free-willed” women, “stubborn,” “picky,” “incomplete.”
But a video by an East Asian beauty brand that went viral over the past week has upended the conversation on China’s sheng nu, which translates literally into “leftover women” — those who happen to be over 27 and unmarried.
“People think that in Chinese society an unmarried woman is incomplete. You feel like an outsider,” says one young woman.
Mona Haydar’s first single, “Hijabi (Wrap My Hijab)” is an empowering anthem for women everywhere who wear headscarves.
It’s also a sharp rebuke to those who dare to ask headscarf-clad women what their hair looks like underneath, whether they’re hot in there, and whether it feels too tight.
It’s the radiant baby, the barking dog and the dancing man; the badges and the t-shirts; the unmissable mural spelling out CRACK IS WACK. Keith Haring’s career was short but spectacular, and he leaves behind a lasting legacy. From his chalk drawings in city-wide subway stations, to his collaborations with the superstars of his day, Haring’s life was founded on a belief in the power of people to change the world.
"A Night of Philosophy and Ideas is a thinker’s lollapalooza. The free, 12-hour weekend lyceum at the Brooklyn Public Library includes spirited debate, live music, theater, performance art pieces, and film screenings. At any given hour, five or six different events will be taking place simultaneously. Visitors are encouraged to come and go as the spirit moves them.
On November 26, 2012, about ten college students “flash mobbed” the front of the human resources and social welfare department of Hubei Province in central China. "Refuse to take off pants for inspection," "Ask about menstrual history, what does it have to do with being a civil servant." According to the current admission regulations, female candidates for civil service positions must go through a detailed gynecological examination.
On April 15 in northern Nigeria, 200 school girls aged 15-18 were kidnapped by an extremist Muslim group called Boko Haram, whose name in the Hausa language means “Western education is a sin.” In hopes of viral pressure on Nigerian authorities to try to recover the girls, campaigns have started on the White House website, on Change.org and on Facebook to demand: “Bring Back Our Girls.” The campaigns quickly gained global attention, with Michelle Obama,
Is there a way to make sex ed, big, scary, nasty, icky, sex ed, fun again? In the Spring Quarter of of 2013, UCLA students in the Sex Squad, a performance troupe dedicated to injecting a dose of humor into high school sex education, set out to answer that question through a series of short videos.
Stickers imitating the Land O Lakes Butter packaging are being placed in grocery stores over the original packaging. The packaging has been altered to say "Land O Rape - Culture" by street artist Recycled Propaganda.
Today’s Bad Bitch Award goes to Karmenife Paulino, a 22-year-old graduate of Wesleyan University. Raped at a fraternity during her freshman year, she reasserted her sexual agency in a photoshoot entitled “Reclamation,” where she poses as a dominatrix on fraternity grounds.
ISLAMABAD —
A prominent female rights activist in Afghanistan lambasted the global community Saturday for failing to come up with a plan or agreement on how to help her crisis-ridden country since the Taliban took control of it 18 months ago.
Mahbouba Seraj, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, spoke virtually from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to a town hall at the Munich Security Conference on prospects for her country under Taliban rule.
Beyoncé delivered an intensely, unapologetic celebration of Black and HBCU culture at the Coachella Festival 2 weekends in a row. Not only were her performances some of the best live performances to date but they sent a pretty significant message to the world.
Here are some assessments of this beautiful demonstration of Blackness and Black Girl Magic:
From BBC News:
Women's collectives and feminist groups occupied the National Commission of Human Rights demanding results to several neglected, open investigations of feminicide in the country. During the occupation, they interviewed the portraits of historical "national heroes" with spray-paint, glitter, markers, and liquid paint.
The Girl Effect 2010 video "The Clock is Ticking" receives premiere at Clinton Global Initiative
• "The Girl Effect: The Clock is Ticking" video shown to world leaders at the Girls and Women opening plenary of CGI, Tuesday 21 September
• Video highlights need for urgency: reach a girl before she reaches the age of 12 and stop poverty before it starts
Background:
Grammys 2015: Abuse survivor Brooke Axtell talks Katy Perry, advocacy
by Nardine Saad
Domestic abuse survivor and advocate Brooke Axtell captivated audiences watching the Grammy Awards on Sunday with a stirring spoken-word piece before Katy Perry's performance of her ballad "By the Grace of God" at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.