WOW started as an international women's theatre festival in October of 1980 in NYC. Within 18 months Wow found a permanent location and produced works by women and trans people all year around. In 1984 it moved into its current home at 59-61 East 4th Street.
The Vulvatron was created specifically for Burning Man 2014. A multi-sensory experience, the Vulvatron attempts to communicate to those whom interact with it a distinctly feminine mystery. What is woman? In a world that has politicized, exoticized, sexualized, objectified, made their stake in women, what remains? Creating a gigantic object inspired by female anatomy in a world surrounded by phallic objects is a medicine story in itself.
A new comic book with a female rape survivor as its "super hero" has been launched to focus attention on the problem of sexual violence in India.
Priya's Shakti, inspired by Hindu mythological tales, tells the story of Priya, a young woman and gang-rape survivor, and Goddess Parvati as they fight against gender crimes in India.
For those of you unfamiliar with the wonderful Worth1000, it’s a website that hosts creative contests of all kinds, most notably for photoshoppers who are outstanding at what they do. Hell, just look at the first question on the site’s FAQ list and you’ll have a basic idea of how good some of these people are at making terrific photoshops.
This project served as an educational tool to demystify the female body and bring awareness to the issues of reproductive rights and the ignorance that sometimes plagues common misconceptions about the reproductive system. I think this campaign is very successful in its approach. It exhibits paintings and displays of uterus and the female form in a non-sexual way.
On March 10, 1914, Mary Richardson slashed Velasquez's "Rokeby Venus" with a small axe during public hours at the National Gallery in London. A militant suffragette protesting the force-feeding of imprisoned suffragettes in prison (and the Cat and Mouse Act which released the starving women only until they were slightly healthier only to imprison them again), Richardson released this statement after her arrest:
From Time Magazine:
It's not a dress—it's a cape
We’ve all seen the woman in the triangle dress that marks women’s bathrooms. But what if that triangle silhouette isn’t really a dress?
Ah, the unsolicited dick pic. Technology has made it all too tempting for men's penises to pop up on a woman's phone while she's reading on the train or walking home from work. This is a fairly recent invention, because who would've taken their rolls of film to the local drug store to get their dick pics developed?
The Enchanted Doll is the famous brand of the Russian jeweler artist and designer Marina Bychkova who makes absolutely incredible porcelain and polyurethane dolls for adults. Marina was born in the city of Novokuznetsk in the USSR and since 1997 she lives in Vancouver, Canada.
“Art is so often only experienced through looking,” artist Caitlin Rose Sweet explained to The Huffington Post. “It’s a short pathway from the eyes to the brain. I want the whole body involved.”
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.
Maria was psyched to travel to the Philippines where her hand-made basketball nets were well received. Invited with the Institute for Infinitely Small Things (Boston/Mass based) by Clara Balaguer and the Office of Culture and Design (Manila) she worked in Zamboanga City with students of Western Mindanao State University to carry out a 6 day arts and activism workshop.
Cheril Linett is a female artist from Chile, with a background in performance art and stage performance, who primarily focuses her artwork on feminist issues in Chile, especially ones involving violence, murder, hate crime and different kinds of oppression and assault, but also creates artwork reflecting issues in other parts of Latin America.
The latest in street art activism is confronting sexism in an unconventional, but wonderful, way.
Street artist, Elonë, from Karlsruhe, Germany, is paving her city with messages against sexism, street harassment and sexual abuse — all printed on menstrual pads.
On 8 March 2014, International Women’s Day, several female activists (Amina Sboui, Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, Solmaz Vakilpour, Safia Lebdi, Meriam Russel and Maryam Namazie) protested nude in support of women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa in front of the Louvre pyramid in Paris.
Riot grrrl is a feminist punk rock movement started in the early 90's, particularly in Washington DC, Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. Bands that follow the movement include Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Jack Off Jill, Bratmobile, Adickdid, The Butchies, Heavens to Betsy, Huggy Bear, Bangs, and Calamity Jane, amongst others.
The problem with feminism is that it’s just too familiar. The attention of a jaded public and neophiliac media may have been aroused by #MeToo, with its connotations of youth, sex and celebrity, but for the most part it has drifted recently towards other forms of prejudice, such as transphobia. Unfortunately for women, though, the hoary old problems of discrimination, violence and unpaid labour are still very much with us.
NOT READY TO MAKE NICE: GUERRILLA GIRLS BIRTHDAY
30 YEARS AND STILL COUNTING!
BLOWOUT PARTY WITH DJ AND CAKE!
Friday, May 15 8-10 PM • ABRONS ARTS CENTER 466 GRAND ST, NY
ALSO AT ABRONS ARTS CENTER 466 GRAND ST, NY
• May 1-17, 2015: Pop Up Exhibition of GG work 1985-2015
• May 17: Exhibition walkthroughs 3pm
As the summer warms up, bringing with it sleeveless tops, Xiao Meili, a women’s rights advocate, is collecting photos of women’s armpits. Her goal: to challenge a growing belief in China that a woman must have hair-free armpits to be attractive.
Sunaura Taylor is an artist, writer and activist. Through painting, printmaking, writing and other forms of political and artistic engagement her work intervenes with dominant historical narratives of disability and animal oppression. Taylor's artworks have been exhibited at venues across the country, including the CUE Art Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution and the Berkeley Art Museum.