Dear Friends,
The WomenArts Blog moved as of March 15, 2013, and we are no longer posting articles in this account.
We hope you will join us at our new address: www.WomenArts.org/blog/
We have published several articles about SWAN events during the past three weeks, which you can read on the new blog.
Thanks so much for your interest in WomenArts.
Martha Richards
Executive Director, WomenArts
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
SWAN Events Showcase Diverse Women in Theatre
There are some terrific SWAN events over the next few days that will showcase the diverse voices of women in theatre.
In New York, the Culture Project's Women Center Stage is presenting Anna Khaja's Shaheed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto, a powerful drama about the former Pakistani Prime Minister which opened to rave reviews this week.
In Denver, the Athena Project Festival is presenting 4 plays in progress and the world premiere of Clinnesha D. Sibley's Tell Martha Not to Moan, about an elderly African-American couple in Detroit. Our Voices VII will be a day-long celebration of Boston Area playwrights, and on Tuesday, March 19, Actors Equity, the professional actors union in the U.S., is doing a presentation in New York about cross-gender casting of Shakespearean plays.
In addition to the theatre events highlighted below, The Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company in Brooklyn, NY is presenting staged readings of one-act plays by women; Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend, WA is presenting an evening of monologues by women playwrights from around the world; and Liberated Muse Arts Group in Washington, DC is doing a presentation showcasing the voices and views of Lucille Clifton, Zora Neale Hurston, Lena Horne, Nina Simone and Billie Holiday.
These are just a few of the events that have been posted on the Support Women Artists Now/SWAN Calendar, and more are added every day. You are welcome to post any kind of arts or educational event that features women artists, including online events and online fundraising campaigns for women-led arts projects. We have posted instructions about How to Post Your SWAN Event, and we hope you will join us. The idea is to show the world the full power and diversity of women's creativity.
Shaheed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto
Written & Performed by Anna Khaja
Directed by Heather de Michele
Writer/performer Anna Khaja illuminates the lives and historical forces surrounding slain Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007 while attempting to reunite a nation bitterly divided over the ideals of Islam and democracy. Through the monologues of eight characters that take place in the minutes before Bhutto's death--including Condoleezza Rice and Bhutto herself--we see how Bhutto's life and death resonate far beyond the boundaries of Pakistan, reshaping the world's struggle to reconcile the precepts of Islam with those of democracy.
Culture Project, 45 Bleecker St, New York, NY - Through April 1. Tickets & More Info: http://cultureproject.org/current/shaheed/
Our Voices VII A Day-Long Celebration of Boston Area Women Playwrights
Produced by playwrights Kelly DuMar and Hortense Gerardo with support from Nora Hussey, Director, Wellesley College Theatre Studies
Our Voices VII is a day-long event providing artistic support for Boston-area women playwrights. The day will include afternoon play readings with feedback sessions for the playwrights; an afternoon writing workshop; and an evening of staged readings of new plays performed by Boston-area actors and followed by a talk-back.
Sunday, March 17, 2013 Noon-10 p.m.
Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Alumnae Hall, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
More info: http://www.diarydoor.typepad.com/our_voices
Opening Up Possibilities for Women through Non-Traditional & Cross-Gender Casting Sponsored by the Actors' Equity Association Equal Employment Opportunity Committee
This will be an evening of scenes and lecture-demos that will highlight ways to create more opportunities for women in Shakespearean productions and classical theatre.
Actors from New York’s Judith Shakespeare Company, The Queen's Company and the Messenger Theatre Company will present several scenes from King Lear; As You Like It; Henry VI, Part Two; Macbeth; and The Tempest; followed by a brief talk-back and Q&A.
Joanne Zipay, Artistic Director of Judith Shakespeare Company is lead director of the event. Additional directors presenting work are Rebecca Patterson, Artistic Director of The Queen's Company and Emily Davis, Artistic Director of Messenger Theatre Company.
All three directors and their companies have done cross-gender productions of Shakespeare's plays and other classical works.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Actors' Equity Association, 165 West 46 St., NYC, 14th Floor-Council Room
This event is free and open to the public, but space is limited.
RSVP to: eeo@actorsequity.org
The Athena Project Festival Features World Premiere
Angela Astle, Founder & Executive Producer
Athena Project is a professional group of artists dedicated to supporting and expanding women's artistic contributions to the Denver stage and the wider community. Each year, they produce an Arts Festival that includes the world premiere production of a new play by a female playwright, as well as female musicians, dancers and artists; a Plays In Progress series that presents workshop productions of women's plays; and Girls' Write, a year-long playwriting and play development program for at-risk girls.
This year they are presenting the world premiere of Clinnesha D. Sibley's Tell Martha Not to Moan. Set in 2007, the play focuses on a devoted but desolate elderly African-American couple in Detroit as the presidential election campaign plays out on the national stage and the 40th Commemoration of the Detroit Riot is marked.
Aurora Fox Arts Theater, 9900 East Colfax Ave, Denver, CO - Through March 31. More info at: www.athenaprojectfestival.org
In New York, the Culture Project's Women Center Stage is presenting Anna Khaja's Shaheed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto, a powerful drama about the former Pakistani Prime Minister which opened to rave reviews this week.
In Denver, the Athena Project Festival is presenting 4 plays in progress and the world premiere of Clinnesha D. Sibley's Tell Martha Not to Moan, about an elderly African-American couple in Detroit. Our Voices VII will be a day-long celebration of Boston Area playwrights, and on Tuesday, March 19, Actors Equity, the professional actors union in the U.S., is doing a presentation in New York about cross-gender casting of Shakespearean plays.
In addition to the theatre events highlighted below, The Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company in Brooklyn, NY is presenting staged readings of one-act plays by women; Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend, WA is presenting an evening of monologues by women playwrights from around the world; and Liberated Muse Arts Group in Washington, DC is doing a presentation showcasing the voices and views of Lucille Clifton, Zora Neale Hurston, Lena Horne, Nina Simone and Billie Holiday.
These are just a few of the events that have been posted on the Support Women Artists Now/SWAN Calendar, and more are added every day. You are welcome to post any kind of arts or educational event that features women artists, including online events and online fundraising campaigns for women-led arts projects. We have posted instructions about How to Post Your SWAN Event, and we hope you will join us. The idea is to show the world the full power and diversity of women's creativity.
Shaheed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto
Written & Performed by Anna Khaja
Directed by Heather de Michele
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| Watch the Video Trailer for Shaheed |
Culture Project, 45 Bleecker St, New York, NY - Through April 1. Tickets & More Info: http://cultureproject.org/current/shaheed/
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| Our Voices VII |
Produced by playwrights Kelly DuMar and Hortense Gerardo with support from Nora Hussey, Director, Wellesley College Theatre Studies
Our Voices VII is a day-long event providing artistic support for Boston-area women playwrights. The day will include afternoon play readings with feedback sessions for the playwrights; an afternoon writing workshop; and an evening of staged readings of new plays performed by Boston-area actors and followed by a talk-back.
Sunday, March 17, 2013 Noon-10 p.m.
Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Alumnae Hall, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
More info: http://www.diarydoor.typepad.com/our_voices
Opening Up Possibilities for Women through Non-Traditional & Cross-Gender Casting Sponsored by the Actors' Equity Association Equal Employment Opportunity Committee
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| Joanne Zipay Judith Shakespeare Company |
Actors from New York’s Judith Shakespeare Company, The Queen's Company and the Messenger Theatre Company will present several scenes from King Lear; As You Like It; Henry VI, Part Two; Macbeth; and The Tempest; followed by a brief talk-back and Q&A.
Joanne Zipay, Artistic Director of Judith Shakespeare Company is lead director of the event. Additional directors presenting work are Rebecca Patterson, Artistic Director of The Queen's Company and Emily Davis, Artistic Director of Messenger Theatre Company.
All three directors and their companies have done cross-gender productions of Shakespeare's plays and other classical works.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Actors' Equity Association, 165 West 46 St., NYC, 14th Floor-Council Room
This event is free and open to the public, but space is limited.
RSVP to: eeo@actorsequity.org
The Athena Project Festival Features World Premiere
Angela Astle, Founder & Executive Producer
Athena Project is a professional group of artists dedicated to supporting and expanding women's artistic contributions to the Denver stage and the wider community. Each year, they produce an Arts Festival that includes the world premiere production of a new play by a female playwright, as well as female musicians, dancers and artists; a Plays In Progress series that presents workshop productions of women's plays; and Girls' Write, a year-long playwriting and play development program for at-risk girls. This year they are presenting the world premiere of Clinnesha D. Sibley's Tell Martha Not to Moan. Set in 2007, the play focuses on a devoted but desolate elderly African-American couple in Detroit as the presidential election campaign plays out on the national stage and the 40th Commemoration of the Detroit Riot is marked.
Aurora Fox Arts Theater, 9900 East Colfax Ave, Denver, CO - Through March 31. More info at: www.athenaprojectfestival.org
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
SWAN Events Take Audiences Travelling Through Space & Time
As of this morning, there are 95 events on the Support Women Artists Now/SWAN Calendar, with more are added every day. Please be sure to post your event if you have not done so. We will be doing two newsletters per week on SWAN events for the rest of this month.
We are thrilled that there are SWAN events all over the world, and that they represent such a wide range of women's voices. In today's issue, we are focusing on events in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Minneapolis that will take their audiences through space and time.
Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe and Pearl Gluck have both created works about travelling across continents to learn more about their history - one exploring the effects of African migration and slavery, the other examining her Jewish heritage. Meanwhile, The Women of Theater for the New City in New York, and Women's History Month: The Historical Comedybration in Minneapolis will travel through time to offer women's perspectives on historical figures and events.
Adventures of A Black Girl:Traveling While Black
A Solo Performance from Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe
Based on Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe's experiences as a Black American traveler/tourist in Africa, Europe, and North and Central America, Traveling While Black is part travelogue and part history lesson. It explores the tensions between tourism and colonialism as it reveals cultural connects and disconnects.
Inspired by Langston Hughes’ I Wonder As I Wander, Traveling While Black examines the post-slavery condition of Black travel, both fanciful and forced. March 15-17, 2013
Brava Theater Center 2781-24th St, San Francisco, CA
Tickets: $15 More Info>>
Divan - A Documentary Film by Pearl Gluck
SWAN Day co-founder Jan Lisa Huttner will introduce these screenings of Pearl Gluck's "Divan" followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker. This is the 4th annual SWAN Day program sponsored by the Chicago YIVO Society.
As a teenager, filmmaker Pearl Gluck left her Orthodox Jewish clan in Brooklyn for secular life in Manhattan. Many years later, Pearl’s father has one wish: that she marry and return to the community. Pearl, however, takes a more creative approach. She travels to Hungary to retrieve a turn-of-the-century family heirloom: a divan upon which esteemed rabbis once slept.
March 13, 2013 6:00 p.m. - Harold Washington Library Center, 400 South State Street Chicago, IL & March 14, 1 p.m. - Northbrook Public Library, 1201 Cedar Lane, Northbrook, IL. No Reservations Required
SWAN DAY: The Women of Theater for the New City
Six women playwrights from Theater for the New City will be featured in honor of SWAN DAY and the company's 40 year history of presenting women artists.
Performers will include: Barbara Kahn as Calamity in “Calamity Jane Sends a Message to Her Daughter” by long-time WomenArts member Carolyn Gage; Victoria Linchong previewing her new play “Dispossessed,” about eviction, the history of apartments and a meditation on possession; Mary Tierney performing Barbara Kahn’s play “CO-OP,” about the gentrification of the Lower East Side; “Diary of a Thought” written and performed by Bina Sharif; Lissa Moira performing her piece “Multiple Movie Personality Disorder;” and Francesse Maingrette singing “Ne Me Quittez Pas.” Time permitting, there will be a 20-minute open mic (without a mic) for 5-minute presentations.
March 13, 2013 at 7pm. Theater for the New City. 155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th Sts) NYC 10003. Admission is by donation. Reservations: 212-254-1109.
Women's History Month: The Historical Comedybration
Created by Heather Meyer
If you were looking for a SWAN event in a combination theater-restaurant-bowling alley in America's snowy heartland, be sure to check out The Historical Comedybration at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theatre in uptown Minneapolis.
The show will take you on a comedic journey through the 'softer side' of history with comedy sketches and historical reenactments from the lives of famous women such as author Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rosie the Riveter, anthropologist Jane Goodall, Hilary Clinton, and more. This show contains real facts and also has Truth or Dare and the chance to win fabulous prizes. Featuring Kelsey Cramer, Brigid Anderson Kelley, Heather Meyer, & Shannon Troy Jones, with additional writing by Emily Schmidt.
March 14 & 15 at 7 p.m.
Bryant Lake Bowl Theatre, 810 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN Tickets: $10 Advance;
$12 At the Door Buy Tickets>>
We are thrilled that there are SWAN events all over the world, and that they represent such a wide range of women's voices. In today's issue, we are focusing on events in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Minneapolis that will take their audiences through space and time.
Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe and Pearl Gluck have both created works about travelling across continents to learn more about their history - one exploring the effects of African migration and slavery, the other examining her Jewish heritage. Meanwhile, The Women of Theater for the New City in New York, and Women's History Month: The Historical Comedybration in Minneapolis will travel through time to offer women's perspectives on historical figures and events.
A Solo Performance from Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe
Based on Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe's experiences as a Black American traveler/tourist in Africa, Europe, and North and Central America, Traveling While Black is part travelogue and part history lesson. It explores the tensions between tourism and colonialism as it reveals cultural connects and disconnects.
Inspired by Langston Hughes’ I Wonder As I Wander, Traveling While Black examines the post-slavery condition of Black travel, both fanciful and forced. March 15-17, 2013
Brava Theater Center 2781-24th St, San Francisco, CA
Tickets: $15 More Info>>
SWAN Day co-founder Jan Lisa Huttner will introduce these screenings of Pearl Gluck's "Divan" followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker. This is the 4th annual SWAN Day program sponsored by the Chicago YIVO Society.
As a teenager, filmmaker Pearl Gluck left her Orthodox Jewish clan in Brooklyn for secular life in Manhattan. Many years later, Pearl’s father has one wish: that she marry and return to the community. Pearl, however, takes a more creative approach. She travels to Hungary to retrieve a turn-of-the-century family heirloom: a divan upon which esteemed rabbis once slept.
March 13, 2013 6:00 p.m. - Harold Washington Library Center, 400 South State Street Chicago, IL & March 14, 1 p.m. - Northbrook Public Library, 1201 Cedar Lane, Northbrook, IL. No Reservations Required
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| Barbara Kahn as Calamity Jane |
Six women playwrights from Theater for the New City will be featured in honor of SWAN DAY and the company's 40 year history of presenting women artists.
Performers will include: Barbara Kahn as Calamity in “Calamity Jane Sends a Message to Her Daughter” by long-time WomenArts member Carolyn Gage; Victoria Linchong previewing her new play “Dispossessed,” about eviction, the history of apartments and a meditation on possession; Mary Tierney performing Barbara Kahn’s play “CO-OP,” about the gentrification of the Lower East Side; “Diary of a Thought” written and performed by Bina Sharif; Lissa Moira performing her piece “Multiple Movie Personality Disorder;” and Francesse Maingrette singing “Ne Me Quittez Pas.” Time permitting, there will be a 20-minute open mic (without a mic) for 5-minute presentations.
March 13, 2013 at 7pm. Theater for the New City. 155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th Sts) NYC 10003. Admission is by donation. Reservations: 212-254-1109.
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| Kelsey Cramer as Rosie the Riveter |
Created by Heather Meyer
If you were looking for a SWAN event in a combination theater-restaurant-bowling alley in America's snowy heartland, be sure to check out The Historical Comedybration at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theatre in uptown Minneapolis.
The show will take you on a comedic journey through the 'softer side' of history with comedy sketches and historical reenactments from the lives of famous women such as author Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rosie the Riveter, anthropologist Jane Goodall, Hilary Clinton, and more. This show contains real facts and also has Truth or Dare and the chance to win fabulous prizes. Featuring Kelsey Cramer, Brigid Anderson Kelley, Heather Meyer, & Shannon Troy Jones, with additional writing by Emily Schmidt.
March 14 & 15 at 7 p.m.
Bryant Lake Bowl Theatre, 810 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN Tickets: $10 Advance;
$12 At the Door Buy Tickets>>
Friday, March 8, 2013
It's Female Artist Takeover Day!
The Female Artist Collective of Greensboro North Carolina has really captured the Support Women Artists Now/SWAN spirit by declaring today as the first annual Female Artist Takeover Day in their town. Brava!!
Musician/actress Stephanie Lindley started the Female Artist Collective of Greensboro as a Facebook group in 2010. Her goal was to encourage and support local female artists, and the group has grown to 160 members.
As their way of celebrating International Women's Day and SWAN Month, they have organized the first annual Female Artist Takeover Day. They have persuaded venues all over Greensboro and Jamestown to present women artists, and tonight there will be events featuring musicians, singers, spoken-word artists, dancers, theatrical performers and visual artists. Artists and audience members will be wearing magenta to show their support for women artists. There is an article in Go Triad with more information.
Through their Facebook page, they are also encouraging every women artist in Greensboro to make herself visible today whether or not she is part of one of the main events. As they say, "Five Minutes. 30 Minutes. An hour. In your favorite shopping place. Show your art. Sing a song. Recite Shakespeare! Get permission and let it fly!"
This is a great idea. So many women artists feel isolated and invisible, and we need to do much more to help each other and let our communities know we exist.
At WomenArts we hear from women artists all over the world who have discovered the power of forming support groups with other women artists. Whether you get together to do a SWAN event or for some other purpose, we encourage you to find and build support networks for yourself.
Many of the most successful SWAN organizers started with a small group of friends, a simple flyer, or an online announcement. Now they are organizing large annual SWAN events. You can do it too! Finding supportive colleagues is the key to discovering your power to create, connect, and change the world.
SWAN Month in Jamestown, NY Starts Saturday
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| Jennifer Schlick's "Dandelion" |
Debra Eck, who specializes in paper and installation art, and photographer Jennifer Schlick are the artists behind last year’s “Women Create”, which celebrated SWAN through a juried exhibition of works by 40 women artists, lectures, workshops, an arts market, and the creation of a new installation piece. “Women Create” was the most attended exhibition of 3rd On 3rd Gallery’s history. You can watch a video recap on YouTube.
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| Debra Eck, Room for Utopia |
On Saturday April 20, Infinity Visual and Performing Arts will host an art market featuring the work of female artists and artisans. A lunchtime lecture about the history of women artists will be held across the street at the Reg Studio Theater. Throughout the day, 3rd On 3rd Gallery will remain open for Audrey Dowling’s art show, Comfort Zones. More details will be released at www.infinityperformingarts.org.
For details on all of these events, visit www.artscouncil.com.
SWAN Tonight: Amuse Bouche & Golden Thread
Selected SWAN Events:
Amuse Bouche - Women Aerialists in NY Do Benefit for Women in Cameroon BlacK*acrobat (led by long-time WomenArts member Kiebpoli Calnek) and Upsidown Productions (led by Madeline Hoak) are teaming up to host a variety show at The Muse in Brooklyn, NY tonight to benefit Breaking Ground, a non-profit that supports community-based programs in Cameroon, including programs for women entrepreneurs. Kiebpoli Calnek is an actress and corde lisse aerialist. Madeline Hoak is a NYC based aerialist, dancer, and teaching artist. The evening will feature artists from New York’s vibrant circus, aerial and performance communities.
Read more . . .
Golden Thread Features Middle Eastern Women
Golden Thread Productions is producing "What Do the Women Say?" an evening celebrating the poetry and performance of Middle Eastern Women featuring work by New York's Layla Modirzadeh, Minneapolis- based playwright Kathryn Haddad, and Bay Area hip hop artist Tru Bloo. Friday, March 8 at La Peña in Berkeley, CA
Read More . . .
Be Sure to Post Your Events on the SWAN Calendar!
WomenArts will be writing blogs, Facebook posts and newsletters about women's arts events throughout SWAN month.
If you have a project you would like us to feature, be sure to post it on our SWAN Calendar and write to us about it.
Amuse Bouche - Women Aerialists in NY Do Benefit for Women in Cameroon BlacK*acrobat (led by long-time WomenArts member Kiebpoli Calnek) and Upsidown Productions (led by Madeline Hoak) are teaming up to host a variety show at The Muse in Brooklyn, NY tonight to benefit Breaking Ground, a non-profit that supports community-based programs in Cameroon, including programs for women entrepreneurs. Kiebpoli Calnek is an actress and corde lisse aerialist. Madeline Hoak is a NYC based aerialist, dancer, and teaching artist. The evening will feature artists from New York’s vibrant circus, aerial and performance communities.
Read more . . .
Golden Thread Features Middle Eastern Women
Read More . . .
Be Sure to Post Your Events on the SWAN Calendar!
WomenArts will be writing blogs, Facebook posts and newsletters about women's arts events throughout SWAN month.
If you have a project you would like us to feature, be sure to post it on our SWAN Calendar and write to us about it.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Join the Words of Choice Live Streaming Events on March 1 & 2
Words of Choice will be performed at The Secret Theatre in Long Island City, New York on Friday, March 1 at 7 pm EST and Saturday, March 2 at 3 pm EST. As part of the first-ever WiredArts Fest, the performances will be available to anyone with Internet access and will be shared with hundreds of reproductive rights and social justice activists.
Created by long-time WomenArts member Cindy Cooper, "Words of Choice” weaves together dozens of stories of reproductive rights through poetry, spoken word, oral history, theater and journalism. It is performed by three actors, and includes serious, comedic and contemplative pieces. Each performance will be followed by a panel discussion. Friday night will feature Amanda Marcotte, who is the author of It’s A Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide and a regular contributor at Pandagon and RHReality Check, and Lori Adelman, contributing editor at Feministing. Saturday afternoon's discussion will be led by Lynn Roberts, a founding board member of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and an assistant professor at School of Public Health at Hunter College.
This production has often toured to states where reproductive rights were at risk, and it is an excellent example of the ways women are using the power of the arts to work for women's rights and social justice. As Cindy Cooper explains, she created Words of Choice because "theater is a way to transmit the pro-choice message, opening hearts and minds, and empowering the movement for women’s full equality and rights . . . everyone involved with Words of Choice is committed to moving public sentiment and influencing policy makers. ”
Host a Viewing Party! Start a dialogue with your friends about reproductive rights by hosting a viewing party to watch the play. Words of Choice has prepared an excellent Viewing Party Kit that you can download here and a Free Original Poster that you can download as a pdf. There are also Free Itunes and Android Apps to let you participate in the event. Read more here.
Watch Online: You can watch online anywhere for free through Virtual Arts TV. Free viewing comes with pop-up ads at any time. For a mini-payment of $2.50, you can watch online without the annoyance of commercials, and you are guaranteed a high quality stream. Buy Online Premium Live Streaming Tickets Here (Note: Saturday tickets include an additional play at 2 pm at no extra charge.) Here is a YouTube tutorial about the signing up for the premium WiredArtsFest LiveStream and using it. Suggestion: Set up your premium stream now, or at least a half hour in advance of the show.
Watch at the Theatre: If you want to attend the performance at The Secret Theatre in New York, please visit their website. Tickets are $18 with discounts available for groups and pro-choice activists.
The Words of Choice ensemble will include Crista Marie Jackson, Carl H. Jaynes and Claudia Schneider under the direction of Francesca Mantani Arkus; Kelly Vieau is stage manager; Stacey Linnartz is Artistic Consultant.
Please Note: March is Support Women Artists Now/SWAN Month, and WomenArts will be celebrating by writing blogs, Facebook posts, and newsletters about our favorite women artists all month. If you have a project you would like us to feature, please be sure to post it on the SWAN Calendar and write to us about it.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Women Missing from the Oscars Again
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| Oscar Seldom Goes Home with Women |
The Women's Media Center has reported that there are no female nominees this year for Directing, Cinematography, Film Editing, Writing (Original Screenplay), Music (Original Score), Visual Effects or Sound Mixing. There were five female nominees in those categories last year.
The single woman nominated for a writing award, for best adapted screenplay, is Lucy Alibar for Beasts of the Southern Wild, who shares credit with Benhn Zeitlin (who’s also been nominated for Best Director). Across 19 categories 140 men were nominated for awards versus 35 women. You can see the Women's Media Center's breakdown of the nominees in all categories with comparisons to last year on their blog.
In 2009 Kathryn Bigelow's film The Hurt Locker won as Best Picture, and Bigelow made history as the first women in 82 years to win an Oscar as Best Director. This year, her film Zero Dark Thirty has been nominated for Best Picture, and so it is especially surprising that she has not been nominated as Best Director.
On Sunday, we will be rooting for the women who did get nominated, and we are especially excited about the nomination of Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick in the Best Documentary Feature category for The Invisible War, their powerful film about the sexual assaults of women in the military by men in their own units. The film focuses attention on members of the U.S. military who have been sexually assaulted (19,300 in 2010 alone), and especially on the plight of female soldiers who often find themselves ostracized or pressured into remaining silent about their rapes.
It will be wonderful if the film wins an Oscar, but it is even more impressive that the film is having an impact on military policy. There have already been changes in the protocol for reporting the crimes, and hopefully the film will stimulate more legislative action to prevent further assaults on women in the military.
In 85 years only four women have been nominated for Best Director, and only one (Kathryn Bigelow) has won. Our colleague at Women and Hollywood, Melissa Silverstein, has compiled excerpts from films directed by women. You can watch the clips below to see if you agree with her that these women should have been nominated for Oscars in the Best Director category.
Friday, February 8, 2013
International Center for Women Playwrights Announces New 50/50 Applause Awards
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| Applause Awards Logo |
For the past 25 years, the International Center for Women Playwrights has worked to support women playwrights and draw attention to their work. They are strong supporters of the 50/50 in 2020 movement, a grassroots effort which recognizes the current discrimination against women in theatre and seeks gender parity (50% women playwrights and directors in every theatre) by the year 2020.
The 50/50 Applause Awards are designed to recognize and reward the theatre companies who are achieving gender parity now instead of just talking about it. In announcing these new awards, Dr Jennifer Munday, President of ICWP, said that “these companies need special thanks for the integrity of their decision-making.” The creation of these awards is part of the ICWP's 25th birthday celebration.
In recent years, there has been much discussion and research about the fact that women playwrights are underrepresented in staged theatrical productions. In 2009, Emily Glassberg Sands released astudy called “Opening the Curtain on Playwright Gender” which showed that only 18% of the productions done in the United States in 2008 were by female playwrights. She also found that “only 11% of shows on Broadway over the past decade [1999-2009] were written exclusively by women.” WomenArts has a web-page with links to this and several other U.S. studies at: www.WomenArts.org/news/employment.htm.
Research from other countries has demonstrated similar imbalances. Last year, Lyn Gardner of the UK stated “. . . of the 57 productions in the West End and the fringe that might be considered plays (rather than musicals or physical work), only six are written by women”. In Canada, Rebecca Burton and Reina Green reported that 30-35% of the nation’s artistic directors were female in 2006.
The cumulative financial impact of this discrimination on women is huge. If women can't get their plays produced, they also miss out on publication of their scripts, book sales, further productions and royalties, as well as commissions, residences and travel opportunities.
To qualify for the ICWP’s 50/50 Applause Awards, the companies had to produce women playwrights in both 50% of their productions and 50% of their total performances in their 2011-2012 season. Since the goal was to encourage more theatres to strive for gender parity, theaters that already included producing women playwrights in their mission were not eligible.
Nominations for the next round of awards will begin in March 2013. For full information about the nomination and selection process, please visit: www.womenplaywrights.org/award.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
WomenArts Rises! Join the One Billion Rising Campaign, Feb 14!
WomenArts invites our members — and everyone who wants to end violence against women — to join the One Billion Rising campaign and rise up on V-Day's 15th Anniversary, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013.
Founded by playwright Eve Ensler, V-Day is a foundation dedicated to ending violence against women world-wide. Whenever anyone produces Ensler's play, "The Vagina Monologues", they are asked to donate part of the proceeds to an organization addressing violence against women. This strategy has been enormously successful - raising millions of dollars annually for women's groups around the world and creating countless new alliances between local artists and activists.
One Billion Rising is V-Day's most ambitious event yet. As Ensler points out, "A billion women – one of every three women on the planet – will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION mothers, daughters, sisters, partners, and friends violated. V-Day REFUSES to stand by as more than a billion women experience violence."
On February 14th, 2013, V-Day is inviting one billion women and those who love them to DANCE, RISE UP, AND DEMAND an end to this violence. One Billion Rising offers a way to stand with women and men around the world and say, "Enough! The violence ends now."
Women and men from 197 countries will participate in One Billion Rising. They are organizing flash mob dances, reading poetry, performing plays, singing songs, marching, putting up posters, and doing a wide range of other activities. There have been video endorsements from many well-known actors, musicians, and dancers, as well as political and community leaders. V-Day believes that this will be the largest demonstration of solidarity on this issue in the history of the world.
This campaign is especially timely for women in the United States since the re-authorization of our Violence Against Women Act, which provides federal funding for investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, did not pass in the House last year and is currently being debated again.
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN JOIN THE RISING:
Founded by playwright Eve Ensler, V-Day is a foundation dedicated to ending violence against women world-wide. Whenever anyone produces Ensler's play, "The Vagina Monologues", they are asked to donate part of the proceeds to an organization addressing violence against women. This strategy has been enormously successful - raising millions of dollars annually for women's groups around the world and creating countless new alliances between local artists and activists.
One Billion Rising is V-Day's most ambitious event yet. As Ensler points out, "A billion women – one of every three women on the planet – will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION mothers, daughters, sisters, partners, and friends violated. V-Day REFUSES to stand by as more than a billion women experience violence."
On February 14th, 2013, V-Day is inviting one billion women and those who love them to DANCE, RISE UP, AND DEMAND an end to this violence. One Billion Rising offers a way to stand with women and men around the world and say, "Enough! The violence ends now."
Women and men from 197 countries will participate in One Billion Rising. They are organizing flash mob dances, reading poetry, performing plays, singing songs, marching, putting up posters, and doing a wide range of other activities. There have been video endorsements from many well-known actors, musicians, and dancers, as well as political and community leaders. V-Day believes that this will be the largest demonstration of solidarity on this issue in the history of the world.
This campaign is especially timely for women in the United States since the re-authorization of our Violence Against Women Act, which provides federal funding for investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, did not pass in the House last year and is currently being debated again.
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN JOIN THE RISING:
- Organize a flash mob dance - V-Day provides step-by-step instructions about organizing a flash mob dance including videos that will teach you an easy-to-learn routine that Debbie Allen has choreographed to go with the One Billion Rising anthem “Break the Chain” written by acclaimed songwriter Tena Clark. There are also One Billion Rising songs and dances from other countries.
- Find Events in Your Community - You can search for events in your area at Event Central.
- Organize Other Gatherings - V-Day provides an excellent list of suggestions about ways to involve people in your community and a toolkit with suggestions about documenting or live-streaming your event, sample press releases, media tips, and more.
- Participate Online - V-Day recognizes that not everyone can leave their homes, work, or classes; but you can still participate by talking with people online or in person about One Billion Rising and the 1 in 3 statistic.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Women Artists Organize for Gun Control
In the video below, Smith and Blue Star Boy explain why they felt compelled to organize this event. They make the point that since they are from Alaska, they can understand people who use guns to hunt, but they do not believe that people need the kinds of weapons that are available now.
The march is aligned with President Obama’s initiative on gun-control including reinstating the assault weapons ban, banning high-capacity ammunition magazines, requiring background checks, focusing on gun-safety training and outlawing bullets that shatter in the body.
The march will start at 10 a.m. at the Reflecting Pool on Third Street NW. Thousands are expected to join this march to the Washington Monument.
Other theatre artists in Washington, DC have also stepped forward. At 3 p.m. there will be a performance of “Boged (Traitor): An Enemy of the People” (based on the Ibsen play) at Theater J followed by a “theater action” to support gun control staged by NoPassport theater alliance at 5 p.m. at Georgetown University’s Gonda Theatre.
In closing, we also want to mention a thought-provoking blog by playwright Tammy Ryan asking what it means that her plays with guns in them are the ones that get produced the most:. She writes:
Reports on Women At the Sundance Film Festival
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| Gamechangers at Sundance (Jacki Zehner is in the center) |
Sundance Board Member Jacki Zehner has been tweeting at @JackiZehner and posting first hand reports on her blog. Her initial piece is at:
http://www.jackizehner.com/2013/01/17/women-at-sundance/
There is some especially exciting news in her report on the Women At Sundance party (http://www.jackizehner.com/2013/01/24/women-at-sundance-party-2013/ ) Over 150 people, both men and women, packed into her house to celebrate the success of women filmmakers at this year’s festival, to discuss ways to further empower women in filmmaking, and to hear the results of a research study called “Exploring the Barriers and Opportunities for Independent Women Filmmakers.”
Also, to assist female directors in breaking through to that elusive mainstream Hollywood success, it was announced at Women at Sundance that a new fund has been set up in partnership with Impact Partners and Chicken & Egg to directly fund films by women filmmakers. Called Gamechanger, this fund will be run by Producer Mary Jane Skalski, and will fund women directors in a variety of genres with the goal of making commercially successfully films.
Melissa Silverstein of Women and Hollywood has also been posting lots of great articles and reviews. doing great coverage. We especially enjoyed Fariha Roisin's review of Salma about a Tamil woman poet's struggle against the patriarchy, and
After Tiller by Martha Shane & Lana Wilson; Citizen Koch by Tia Lessin & Carl Deal; Gideon's Army by Dawn Porter; The Square by Jehane Noujaim; Valentine Road by Marta Cunningham. Also, two films by their grantees have just been nominated for Academy Awards - Kings Point (directed by Sari Gilman) for Best Documentary Short and The Invisible War (directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering) for Best Documentary Feature.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Believe in the Currency of Kindness
A Birthday Message from Our Executive Director Martha Richards
We have been enduring three decades of a long, cold winter of shrinking funding and dismissive public attitudes towards artists. I believe we will eventually pass through a cultural solstice and the light will start to return, but meanwhile, we need to figure out ways to sustain each other.
If you are like me, you are being deluged with funding requests at this time of year. If you are able to make cash gifts to women artists and women's organizations, I hope you will do so. Most of us (including WomenArts) are working on a shoestring, and your cash gifts will really make a difference.
But I also believe there is a currency of kindness that we can use to lift each other's spirits whether or not we have any spare cash on hand.
I have seen it over and over again at WomenArts and in other parts of my life - you can often give someone the courage to keep working or try something new just by listening to them carefully, acknowledging their hard work, and finding kind, supportive things to say.
Believe in the Currency of Kindness
I am making a special birthday request. I want each of you to do the following three things:
- Take time during the holiday season to think about a women artist whose work touches you.
- Do your best to contact that artist and tell her what you love about her work. If she needs money and you have some extra, make a donation to her work.
If not, just say kind words.
- Write to me or post a note on our Facebook page to let me know what happens.
Thanks again to all of you for filling my life with so many moments of sheer joy. You make me happy on my birthday and every day.
Best Wishes for the Holidays!
Martha Richards
Executive Director, WomenArts
Martha Richards
Executive Director, WomenArts
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Liberated Muse
SWAN Day Celebrated By Liberated Muses in Washington, D.C.
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| Collage from the "I'm Every Woman" SWAN Day Event |
It's hard to believe it's been almost three months since the fifth international SWAN Day! We're continuing to profile the amazing women who make SWAN Day events happen all over the globe. This year, one of our most delightful discoveries during SWAN season was the Liberated Muse Arts Group, who put on a SWAN Day concert on March 30, 2012 in Washington, D.C. featuring long-time Liberated Muse artists. The event, called "I'm Every Woman," was held at The Potter's House, and included musical performances by Teisha Marie, Quineice, Colie Williams, Mama Moon, Lea, and the show's organizer and Liberated Muse founder Khadijah "Moon" Ali-Coleman. Singer and musician Derrick Marquis also paid tribute to women in music with a medley of songs by female soul musicians. The event was a great success, with the musicians selling over 40 CD's during the two-hour concert.
Here at WomenArts, we were captivated by the promotional video for "I'm Every Woman," which features music by jazz singer Dianne Reeves and photos of all the performers. The song's positive message of hope and commitment to the arts against a history of oppression resonated with us, and we wanted to find out more about this powerful group of women.
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| The Latest Publication from Liberated Muse |
Highlights from the group's relatively short but action-packed history include the publication of two books, edited by Ali-Coleman: Liberated Muse I: How I Freed My Soul and Liberated Muse II: Betrayal Wears a Pretty Face, as well as two theatrical productions, both written by Ali-Coleman: Running: AMOK, a musical about becoming a mother, and In Her Words, a celebration of the lives and work of Lucille Clifton, Zora Neale Hurston, Lena Horne, Nina Simone, and Billie Holiday. Both shows were produced to rave reviews.
Liberated Muse continues to produce arts events - most recently, another showcase of musical talent on June 16, 2012, for The Artomatic, during which Washington, D.C. artists take over an 11-story building in Crystal City, VA, that is slated for demolition, and transform it into a month-long celebration of creativity, featuring workshops, exhibitions, concerts, seminars, and other events that are free and open to the public.
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| Khadijah Ali-Coleman |
If you're in the Washington, D.C. area, be sure to check out Liberated Muse's upcoming events and like them on Facebook. And wherever you live, click on the links in this article to be introduced to some very talented musicians and artists who will be sure to inspire you to liberate the muse inside yourself.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Lady Got Chops
Honoring the Past While Creating the Future:
An Interview With Kim A. Clarke, Founder and Organizer of the Lady Got Chops Women's History Month Jazz Festival
Ten years ago, jazz bassist Kim A. Clarke started a festival
called Lady Got Chops in New York City to showcase and celebrate women jazz
musicians. Lady Got Chops has grown into an annual event during Women’s History
Month, and has also become a SWAN Day event.
Inspiration for the Lady Got Chops festival came in 2003, when Clarke was called to sub for another bassist at a new club in Brooklyn called The Jazz Spot, which was owned by a mother-daughter team, Lillithe Meyers and Tiecha Merritt. Clarke was impressed with the two women's entrepreneurship, and Meyers and Merritt were happy to see a female musician come through the doors.
They asked Clarke where all the other female jazz musicians were. Clarke had toured with saxophonist band leader Kit McClure and her all-women Big Band, so she knew plenty of other women musicians, and before long, she and her new friends were planning a celebration in honor of women’s history month. They decided to focus primarily on women jazz instrumentalists, since they tend to be more overlooked than vocalists. The club provided the space and food, and Clarke created a website, made flyers, booked the musicians, and promoted the event.
“In particular, we wanted to address the anonymity issue, as refers to women (primarily instrumentalists) in music as well as provide a platform for those who had never met to enjoy an evening of performing together outside of their comfort zone,” reminisced Clarke about that first festival.
Lady Got Chops was so successful that it continued as an annual festival at The Jazz Spot, which only seated 45 people, until the venue closed permanently in 2009. Since then, the festival has been held in various spots around New York City – 43 different venues have been featured.
WomenArts interviewed Clarke, who has played in numerous bands - notably, she is the leader of MAGNETS! West Coast-East Coast music project - about the history of the festival, the challenges faced by women jazz musicians, and the musicians who inspire her.
WomenArts: How has the festival grown and changed in the past 10 years?
Clarke: The Jazz Spot closed its doors permanently in 2009 after the 7th festival – ill health took its toll on Lil after exposure at the WTC [collapse of the World Trade Center following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks]. The 8th, 9th, and 10th festivals were held in a total of 43 venues thereafter through the interest of friends who would share their bookings and clubs and who were interested in honoring Women’s History Month. We raised money for Doctors Without Borders in 2010 for earthquake relief in Haiti. The venues extended from churches to art galleries, from wine tasting venues to museums, from performance spaces to libraries. It’s become a free advertising event for me, as I still need to seek employment as a performer and may have a few more possibilities as a bassist during this time. It’s a two-edged sword – I spend a great deal of time trying to meet print materials deadlines, booking the events I have control of, and including those who have booked their own while being a professional musician.
WomenArts: Can you tell us about a few highlights from this year’s festival?
Clarke: The main highlight for this festival was honoring Cobi Narita, the founder of the Universal Jazz Coalition and International Women In Jazz, who is now in a wheelchair with Parkinson’s, as well
as Wendy Oxenhorn, the CEO of the Jazz Foundation of America, and my original co-producers Lillithe Meyers (also infirm due to WTC
exposure) and Tiecha Merritt, the Jazz Spot owners. To have these ladies in the
same room, to feed them and to present them with plaques as well as perform for
them, was such an honor for me personally. The idea originally came from our
friend, saxophonist Carol Sudhalter. The venue was the Dwyer Cultural Center, a
new artistic space in Harlem. Another honor was for two of my old friends who
have done so well in music to permit me to list their events with the rest of
the festival: Cindy Blackman-Santana and the brilliant Carmen Lundy. I was also
honored by Rome Heal and given the Golden Shakere Award. Here is a link to the
full festival schedule.
WomenArts: How did
you first discover jazz? Which artists were your early influences?
Clarke: My father grew up with New York jazz notables – my grandfather was a touring vaudevillian trombonist turned acoustic bassist (he passed on in 1967). Dad worked for transit but played big band and bebop music every morning while dressing for work. He also played records at home as well as cutting a mean jitterbug with Mom. Those were my earliest jazz influences. I took ballet from age 3 til about 12 and liked what the pianist was doing more so than the workout I was getting – lol. My babysitter brought in all the Hendrix, Otis Redding, R&B, etc. Mom loved the “gutbucket” blues of the south. I started playing at 17-18, but my jazz training came 4 years after I was already playing along with my favorite records in the R&B genre. I met a friend at Bennett College who told me about the Jazzmobile program of study on Saturdays. I enrolled and had classes with the likes of Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Owens, Victor Gaskin, JohnStubblefield, Lisle Atkinson and Charlie Persip. I transferred to CCNY [City College of New York] and studied with John Lewis of the MJQ [Modern Jazz Quartet] and was awarded three grants to study jazz with Ron Carter, Buster Williams, and Lisle Atkinson consecutively. I was a pre-med major prior to all of this – didn’t read a note of music. I was later introduced to the Barry Harris improvisation workshop and later became the house bassist for the Jazz Cultural Theatre Jam Session: Art Blakey Breakfast Jam. My most influential artists were the ones I knew and played with: KennyGates, Jeff King, Art Blakey Jr., Evelyn Blakey, Don Echos, George Braith, Gilly Coggins, Leon Thomas, Clifford Jordan, Eddie Jefferson, Philly Joe Jones, Jo Jones Jr, Jimmy Lovelace, Eddie Henderson, Tommy Turrentine, Clarence C. Sharpe, Richard Williams, Gerald Hayes, Louis Hayes, Wallace Roney, CindyBlackman… so many…
WomenArts: Can you talk about one or two women jazz musicians who really inspire you?
Clarke: The first woman to inspire me to play music was Cynthia Robinson, best known for being the trumpeter and vocalist in the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone. Robinson is notable for being one of the first (both) black and female trumpet players in a major American band.
Seeing her play with Sly at the Singer bowl did it for me. I was a teen and some of my
male friends played – that planted the seed. The first male inspiration was
Jimmy Hendrix. I continue to be inspired by Barry Harris, Ella Fitzgerald,
Sarah Vaughan, Carmen Lundy, Chaka Khan, Esperanza Spalding, Sheryl Bailey, GeriAllen, Scott LaFaro, BB King, Chano Pozo, Patato,
Celia Cruz, Jaco Pastorius, Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, Linda Oh, Carol Chaikin,
Rachel Z, Miki Hayama, Sheila E, Andrea Brachfeld, Tia Fuller, Ledisi, and
Jocelyn Pleasant.
WomenArts: As a woman jazz musician, what is the field like?
Clarke: I guess the older one gets the more the perspective changes. Women are always viewed as more than just musicians – I do believe in music, as well as politics or any other public occupation, having the aptitude is mandatory but the looks are the deal closer… Yeah I said it – lol.
WomenArts: Do women in jazz experience discrimination? Is it more difficult for female jazz musicians to find work?
Clarke: Of course. Absolutely. Everything is about quick sales and marketability. Number 1 – jazz is an outsourced art form – more respected abroad than in the U.S. Number 2 – sex sells and the submissive side of women is the accepted norm; therefore playing jazz with a vengeance short circuits the common male-dominated imagery… and it’s being done. However, the less heady art forms and female images get infinitely more publicity.
WomenArts: What do you love most about jazz? Why is it such an important art form?
Clarke: Jazz – or BAM (Black American Music) as it is being called by some – is music of soul suffering spirit trying to extricate from pain with a smile on its face despite the insults and omissions… it’s a language which was born of the socio-cultural reality that is uniquely African-American – Euro-Asiatic – Caribbean – it reflects humanity from the depths of the brothel to the parlors of the rich and the church. It’s the global export that precedes the internet – I personally have found folk who don’t speak English but because of world wars know the music of my fathers and play the heck out of it as well. Mathematically speaking, good jazz, like good classical, makes one think on a deeper level… I love jazz because of the many I’ve met and the insights they’ve shared – their love of the music as well as the pain of choices. It’s a mountain… when you get to the top you can see a bit further.
Thanks to Clarke and the other women who participate in Lady Got Chops, we can all see a bit further into a future in which women musicians have the same opportunities and receive the same respect as their male counterparts. Be sure to follow the many links within this interview to listen to the musicians who inspire Clarke - and be sure to check out her website to get a taste of the music she plays, undoubtedly inspiring others.
 |
| Kim A. Clarke, Founder of the Lady Got Chops Festival |
Inspiration for the Lady Got Chops festival came in 2003, when Clarke was called to sub for another bassist at a new club in Brooklyn called The Jazz Spot, which was owned by a mother-daughter team, Lillithe Meyers and Tiecha Merritt. Clarke was impressed with the two women's entrepreneurship, and Meyers and Merritt were happy to see a female musician come through the doors.
They asked Clarke where all the other female jazz musicians were. Clarke had toured with saxophonist band leader Kit McClure and her all-women Big Band, so she knew plenty of other women musicians, and before long, she and her new friends were planning a celebration in honor of women’s history month. They decided to focus primarily on women jazz instrumentalists, since they tend to be more overlooked than vocalists. The club provided the space and food, and Clarke created a website, made flyers, booked the musicians, and promoted the event.
“In particular, we wanted to address the anonymity issue, as refers to women (primarily instrumentalists) in music as well as provide a platform for those who had never met to enjoy an evening of performing together outside of their comfort zone,” reminisced Clarke about that first festival.
Lady Got Chops was so successful that it continued as an annual festival at The Jazz Spot, which only seated 45 people, until the venue closed permanently in 2009. Since then, the festival has been held in various spots around New York City – 43 different venues have been featured.
WomenArts interviewed Clarke, who has played in numerous bands - notably, she is the leader of MAGNETS! West Coast-East Coast music project - about the history of the festival, the challenges faced by women jazz musicians, and the musicians who inspire her.
WomenArts: How has the festival grown and changed in the past 10 years?
Clarke: The Jazz Spot closed its doors permanently in 2009 after the 7th festival – ill health took its toll on Lil after exposure at the WTC [collapse of the World Trade Center following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks]. The 8th, 9th, and 10th festivals were held in a total of 43 venues thereafter through the interest of friends who would share their bookings and clubs and who were interested in honoring Women’s History Month. We raised money for Doctors Without Borders in 2010 for earthquake relief in Haiti. The venues extended from churches to art galleries, from wine tasting venues to museums, from performance spaces to libraries. It’s become a free advertising event for me, as I still need to seek employment as a performer and may have a few more possibilities as a bassist during this time. It’s a two-edged sword – I spend a great deal of time trying to meet print materials deadlines, booking the events I have control of, and including those who have booked their own while being a professional musician.
WomenArts: Can you tell us about a few highlights from this year’s festival?
Clarke: The main highlight for this festival was honoring Cobi Narita, the founder of the Universal Jazz Coalition and International Women In Jazz, who is now in a wheelchair with Parkinson’s, as well
 |
| Cobi Narita |
 |
| Lady Got Chops 2012 Poster |
Clarke: My father grew up with New York jazz notables – my grandfather was a touring vaudevillian trombonist turned acoustic bassist (he passed on in 1967). Dad worked for transit but played big band and bebop music every morning while dressing for work. He also played records at home as well as cutting a mean jitterbug with Mom. Those were my earliest jazz influences. I took ballet from age 3 til about 12 and liked what the pianist was doing more so than the workout I was getting – lol. My babysitter brought in all the Hendrix, Otis Redding, R&B, etc. Mom loved the “gutbucket” blues of the south. I started playing at 17-18, but my jazz training came 4 years after I was already playing along with my favorite records in the R&B genre. I met a friend at Bennett College who told me about the Jazzmobile program of study on Saturdays. I enrolled and had classes with the likes of Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Owens, Victor Gaskin, JohnStubblefield, Lisle Atkinson and Charlie Persip. I transferred to CCNY [City College of New York] and studied with John Lewis of the MJQ [Modern Jazz Quartet] and was awarded three grants to study jazz with Ron Carter, Buster Williams, and Lisle Atkinson consecutively. I was a pre-med major prior to all of this – didn’t read a note of music. I was later introduced to the Barry Harris improvisation workshop and later became the house bassist for the Jazz Cultural Theatre Jam Session: Art Blakey Breakfast Jam. My most influential artists were the ones I knew and played with: KennyGates, Jeff King, Art Blakey Jr., Evelyn Blakey, Don Echos, George Braith, Gilly Coggins, Leon Thomas, Clifford Jordan, Eddie Jefferson, Philly Joe Jones, Jo Jones Jr, Jimmy Lovelace, Eddie Henderson, Tommy Turrentine, Clarence C. Sharpe, Richard Williams, Gerald Hayes, Louis Hayes, Wallace Roney, CindyBlackman… so many…
WomenArts: Can you talk about one or two women jazz musicians who really inspire you?
Clarke: The first woman to inspire me to play music was Cynthia Robinson, best known for being the trumpeter and vocalist in the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone. Robinson is notable for being one of the first (both) black and female trumpet players in a major American band.
 |
| Cynthia Robinson Playing Trumpet With Sly and the Family Stone |
WomenArts: As a woman jazz musician, what is the field like?
Clarke: I guess the older one gets the more the perspective changes. Women are always viewed as more than just musicians – I do believe in music, as well as politics or any other public occupation, having the aptitude is mandatory but the looks are the deal closer… Yeah I said it – lol.
WomenArts: Do women in jazz experience discrimination? Is it more difficult for female jazz musicians to find work?
Clarke: Of course. Absolutely. Everything is about quick sales and marketability. Number 1 – jazz is an outsourced art form – more respected abroad than in the U.S. Number 2 – sex sells and the submissive side of women is the accepted norm; therefore playing jazz with a vengeance short circuits the common male-dominated imagery… and it’s being done. However, the less heady art forms and female images get infinitely more publicity.
WomenArts: What do you love most about jazz? Why is it such an important art form?
Clarke: Jazz – or BAM (Black American Music) as it is being called by some – is music of soul suffering spirit trying to extricate from pain with a smile on its face despite the insults and omissions… it’s a language which was born of the socio-cultural reality that is uniquely African-American – Euro-Asiatic – Caribbean – it reflects humanity from the depths of the brothel to the parlors of the rich and the church. It’s the global export that precedes the internet – I personally have found folk who don’t speak English but because of world wars know the music of my fathers and play the heck out of it as well. Mathematically speaking, good jazz, like good classical, makes one think on a deeper level… I love jazz because of the many I’ve met and the insights they’ve shared – their love of the music as well as the pain of choices. It’s a mountain… when you get to the top you can see a bit further.
Thanks to Clarke and the other women who participate in Lady Got Chops, we can all see a bit further into a future in which women musicians have the same opportunities and receive the same respect as their male counterparts. Be sure to follow the many links within this interview to listen to the musicians who inspire Clarke - and be sure to check out her website to get a taste of the music she plays, undoubtedly inspiring others.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Black Women Playwrights' Group Looks to the Future
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| Karen L.B. Evans, Founder Black Women Playwrights' Group |
The group was founded in 1989 by Karen L.B. Evans, a playwright who has received fellowships from the NEA and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and had numerous publications and presentations of her work. Its core activities are monthly meetings for its members to workshop new material and share information about playwriting opportunities, and both emerging and established playwrights are welcome. In addition to the monthly meetings, there are networking events with producers, directors, designers, and actors. The members also co-produce and produce their own work in the DC area, and they have collaborated with The DC Black Theatre Festival, The New York Theater Workshop, Primary Stages, The Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Dramatic Publishing Company, and many other organizations.
While Black Women Playwrights' Group (BWPG) continues its traditional activities in Washington DC, it is also participating in some exciting new programs that place the group at the forefront of new trends in theatre.
Theatre and Digital Media: In 2008, BWPG held the first national meeting of women of color writers in Chicago, where members identified three areas of interest: digital media, university residencies and productions, and the world of presenters. Following talk with action, the group decided to explore digital media, and held another conference in Chicago in April 2010, Linking Platforms: Theater and Digital Media in the 21st Century.
The outcome was a partnership with Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center to design a content and delivery program focused on theatre and its expansion into digital formats. Through this project theatre companies will work in pairs to choose and produce three plays by living playwrights. Each chosen playwright will write additional scenes, monologues, and character studies that extend the world of the play, and these will be made available online in an interactive environment designed by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon.
The outcome was a partnership with Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center to design a content and delivery program focused on theatre and its expansion into digital formats. Through this project theatre companies will work in pairs to choose and produce three plays by living playwrights. Each chosen playwright will write additional scenes, monologues, and character studies that extend the world of the play, and these will be made available online in an interactive environment designed by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon.
This extension of the world of a play across multiple media platforms is called transmedia storytelling. The goal is to engage the audience in an interactive, contemporary way.
The first partner theatre in the project is Wooly Mammoth Theatre, a D.C. company founded in 1978 with the mission of producing bold and innovative new works. In February 2012, Wooly Mammoth, BWPG, and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) held a presentation of projects that included CMU grad students and playwrights discussing transmedia. Playwright Lynn Nottage spoke about her play By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, which she initially conceived as a transmedia story. The play, which premiered in 2011 at New York's Second Stage Theatre, is about an African-American film actress from the 1930's who played the roles open to her at the time - maids, slaves, and mammies - roles that she might have played in real life in another time.
By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, whose very subject crosses media genres - a play about a film star - is an appropriate piece to expand into new digital platforms (additional material will include clips from Vera Stark's films). It is also appropriate because it looks back at the history of a marginalized population - African American women - and simultaneously brings this history alive in the future, using new technologies to share the story with contemporary audiences.
The first partner theatre in the project is Wooly Mammoth Theatre, a D.C. company founded in 1978 with the mission of producing bold and innovative new works. In February 2012, Wooly Mammoth, BWPG, and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) held a presentation of projects that included CMU grad students and playwrights discussing transmedia. Playwright Lynn Nottage spoke about her play By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, which she initially conceived as a transmedia story. The play, which premiered in 2011 at New York's Second Stage Theatre, is about an African-American film actress from the 1930's who played the roles open to her at the time - maids, slaves, and mammies - roles that she might have played in real life in another time.
By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, whose very subject crosses media genres - a play about a film star - is an appropriate piece to expand into new digital platforms (additional material will include clips from Vera Stark's films). It is also appropriate because it looks back at the history of a marginalized population - African American women - and simultaneously brings this history alive in the future, using new technologies to share the story with contemporary audiences.
Though the BWPG-CMU transmedia theatre initiative is not specifically focused on women or women of color playwrights, BWPG's leadership in this project is significant because it places women of color at the cutting edge of new developments in theatre. They will work with the CMU team to design cross-media platforms to enhance the work of playwrights and the experiences of audiences. Women's involvement in the early stages of new developments in technology and the arts is crucial to creating new platforms that not only include women participants, but fully embody women's perspectives and concerns.
Oral History Project with StoryCorps - In keeping with its interest and involvement in cross-platform media, BWPG recently collaborated with StoryCorps, National Public Radio's oral history project, to interview senior citizens in Brookland, a diverse neighborhood in the northeast quadrant of Washington, DC. BWPG conducted the interviews, then used the material to write a short screenplay (a skill they learned for the project) about the neighborhood, called Brookland, Not Brooklyn, which follows a boy whose family flees Montgomery, AL during the Bus Boycott of 1955.
The film will be produced by BWPG and StoryCorps, and will feature footage from the resident interviews at the end. BWPG held a fundraiser in November 2011 that included a preview of the film, dramatic readings by BWPG members, and opportunities for attendees to record their own stories with StoryCorps representatives. This collaboration with StoryCorps to create a cross-platform examination of the history of a neighborhood is right in line with BWPG's dedication to being involved in new and exciting technologies, while bringing the stories of African Americans to a wider audience.
The film will be produced by BWPG and StoryCorps, and will feature footage from the resident interviews at the end. BWPG held a fundraiser in November 2011 that included a preview of the film, dramatic readings by BWPG members, and opportunities for attendees to record their own stories with StoryCorps representatives. This collaboration with StoryCorps to create a cross-platform examination of the history of a neighborhood is right in line with BWPG's dedication to being involved in new and exciting technologies, while bringing the stories of African Americans to a wider audience.
Black Women Playwrights' Group has a long history of activism for women of color playwrights and effective support and advocacy for its members. It is especially inspiring that they are now initiating cutting-edge projects to make sure that the voices of women of color will continue to be heard in the future. Find out more at http://www.blackwomenplaywrights.org/home.asp.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Congratulations to SWAN Festival Bulgaria
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| Rumyana Tancheva, Nevena Gadjeva & Dessi Dimova |
Dimova worked closely this year with Rumyana Tancheva of Wonderland Events and Nevena Gadjeva of City Center Sofia Mall where many of the events were held. She also formed partnerships with the American Embassy in Bulgaria, Les Fleurs Hotel, the Sofia Municipality, Social Me (check out the cool graphics on their site), and Fresh Swing Dance.
This year's celebration focused on the active participation of
the audience by offering workshops in several styles of dancing, puppet theatre, candle-making,creating batiks, knitting, painting with watercolors (for children), food carving, and food photography.
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| Lemon from Food Carving Workshop |
They also offered their first "SWAN Academy," a one-week free "boot camp" in documentary film-making led by Minnesota-based U.S. filmmaker Melody Gilbert of Frozen Feet Films.
To see the complete schedule of SWAN Festival Bulgaria, please visit: swanfestivalbg.com. Note: This site is in Bulgarian, but if you go to Google Translate you can enter the link for the site and Google will translate the Bulgarian to English and many other languages.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Bringing Theatre Women Together for Change: The 50/50 in 2020 Movement
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| Join 50/50 in 2020 |
50/50 in 2020 was created by three women who have extensive firsthand knowledge of the theatre community and what it means to be a woman working within it: Susan Jonas (NYU), whose 2002 NYSCA Study, Report On The Status Of Women: A Limited Engagement? brought the abysmal statistics on women's representation in theatre to the attention of the theatre community (her 20% statistic had not changed as of the 2009 Sands Study); Melody Brooks, Artistic Director of New Perspectives Theatre Company; and Julie Crosby, Producing Artistic Director of Women's Project. Allied with The League of Professional Theatre Women, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, the movement's founders set the goal of achieving full representation for women in theatre by 2020.
The movement supports works written, directed, and/or designed by women in the professional theatre, and advocates for more opportunities for women to be involved in professional productions, as well as equal pay for women in theatre. Although the official initiative began in 2009, it builds upon years of work by the women - and their organizations - who decided it was finally time for a national movement.
Women's Project, founded by Julia Miles in 1978, is the oldest theatre company in the U.S. dedicated to producing and promoting theatre created by women. An impressive lineup of playwrights and directors have gotten their start at Women's Project, including Eve Ensler, Lynn Nottage, and Paula Vogel. The company has staged over 600 mainstage and development projects and published 11 anthologies of women playwrights. Now under the Artistic Direction of Julie Crosby, Women's Project continues to produce plays by women and offers a free, two-year development lab program for mid-career playwrights, directors, and producers. The lab offers artists the opportunity both to develop their craft under the mentorship of accomplished women theatre artists, and also to network with each other and create community, which is vital to the advancement of women in theatre.
New Perspectives Theatre Company (New York, NY) was founded in 1991 by Melody Brooks with the goal of developing and presenting new works not only by women but also by playwrights of color, particularly works that have a strong social justice component or deal with social issues. Like Women's Project, New Perspective also has a lab development program for women playwrights, Women's Work, to help advance its mission to showcase "a range of voices that reflect the true diversity of contemporary America." 50/50 in 2020 seems a logical outgrowth of this mission.
The League of Professional Theatre Women was another logical partner for the 50/50 in 2020 movement. For 30 years, the organization has advocated and promoted opportunities for women in the professional theatre, as well as provided a community for networking and mutual support.
The cornerstone of 50/50 in 2020 is Works By Women, a group that goes to see productions written, directed, and/or designed by women in New York. Any woman can submit a show for consideration for listing on their blog and for a possible group outing, though shows must be on Broadway, Off-Broadway, or Off-Off-Broadway. Works By Women also profiles women theatre artists and their shows in articles and interviews on the blog. They organize theatre-going events through a Meetup group organized by director Ludovica Villar-Hauser, and the group often receives discounts on tickets from producers and theatres. These group trips to see shows by women are wonderful opportunities for women working professionally in theatre (as well as interested supporters) to meet each other, network, and create community while demonstrating that there is an audience for works by women.
One can't help but envision similar groups springing up around the country, as one already has in Los Angeles, as the 50/50 in 2020 initiative grows. Why not start one in your community?
And if you are in New York and interested in getting involved, visit the 50/50 in 2020 Facebook page to meet up with the movement.
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