Maryland to Montana!

Aphra Behn blasts through two book festivals the last week of September.

Rahne Alexander and Aphra Behn

On the 24^th I took the train to beautiful Baltimore for the Baltimore Book Festival at the Inner Harbor. It was a very hot September so I was grateful to be at one of the air conditioned venues. Instead of giving a reading I was interviewed by the amazing artist and activist, Rahne Alexander. Rahne arrived armed with some great questions for me and I loved our talk. During the Q and A, a young man stood up to ask if there aren’t just better writers who happened to be white men in the universe to which Rahne and I both responded, “No.”  Touché for us. Rahne and I are big fans of Venus Theatre in DC and hopefully the future will bring some sort of collaboration to support Deb Randall and Venus in the future.

Baltimore Cousins! 

A boat load of cousins from Baltimore attended and it was great to have family time after. Here we are!

Parisa in mask. 

Parisa Amiri of KOBRA TV

Back in New York, a Swedish TV show called KOBRA stopped by our rehearsals for "If You Can Stand the Heat: The History of Women and Food" and we got to hang out with the host, Parisa Amini - who quickly donned a gorilla mask for our interview.  Stay tuned for more on our KOBRA appearance.   

Just four days later I was on a plane bound for Missoula, Montana – a state the Guerrilla Girls On Tour has never been in! Missoula is another blue dot in a red state. I was welcomed by Montana Book Festival volunteers Betsy and Peter at the airport. They drove me to my hotel and in the 20 minutes it took to get there we became fast friends. 

The Pie for "Pie and Whiskey" 

Montana book festival launches with an event called “Pie and Whiskey.” Yep, it is what it sound like. Everyone gathers at an old drinking club downtown, eats pie, drinks whiskey and listens to readings of short works about pie and/or whiskey. The stories were great and the pie delicious. (William Kittridge read - taught at U of Montana for 29 years. I skipped on the whiskey this time around, much to the bartenders chagrin.  7-up is not what you order in Missoula.

Rita's Amazing Traveling Book Store

I did “Act Like a FeministArtist” on the same bill with Lyndey G. who is the author of “Watching Porn.” We were a great team at the Missoula Art Museum (which I am pleased to report was showing way over 50% women artists and artists of color).  Bananas were thrown, posters were given away and "UN/MASKED, Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl On Tour" was signed and distributed. Mission accomplished.

Met some incredible people in Montana like Rita Collins of St Rita's Traveling Book Store!  

Too bad I had to rush home to rehearsals for “If You Can Stand the Heat, The History of Women and Food,” as I would have loved to stay in Big Sky country a bit longer.  It was beautiful. 

Big Sky Country - Montana