REPORTS FROM THE FRONT

UN/MASKED, Memoirs 

of A Guerrilla Girl On Tour

reading/book signing 

at NYU Bookstore

“Act Like a Feminist Artist" 

at Nassau Community College

It was raining hard on November 30^th – the night of my book signing at the spacious NYU Bookstore in Greenwich Village, NYC.  November 30^th was also the night of the Rockefeller Tree lighting, so the city streets looked like a parking lot – at least midtown did. Downtown was the place to be.

So many friendly faces showed up to the reading, I was inspired. I switched my readings up a bit – just had to read about my first theatre job in Soho for The Performance Group. My task was to run a wheel barrow with a police light and siren attached to it down Wooster Street for their production of COPS.  The simple wheelbarrow rig gave the audience the impression that a cop car had just pulled up outside.

My original Guerrilla Girl Mask 

At NYU Bookstore 

Yael, NYU events manager, set up a table of coffee and cookies next to a pile of books and added her own thoughtful questions after the reading. It had been just three weeks since the election and the Q and A again focused on what we, as concerned, angry and frightened citizens, can do in the coming months and years. I have to say the mourning period is over for me. It is time to take up the pen, the performance and the protest. As I shared that with the audience I saw many connect to my ideas and begin to formulate their own ways to start anew. As artists, we are truth tellers and are always the ones to stand up to falsehood and fakery.

In December I found myself on the LIRR bound for Garden City, about ten miles from where I grew up. I was presenting my talk/reading “Act Like a Feminist Artist” at Nassau Community College. Phyllis, head of cultural events at the college, had everything set up for me when I arrived and over 60 students attended, some in Guerrilla Girl T-shirts; others new to the concept of feminist masked avengers.

With GG fan Caroline, at Nassau Community College

It was an energetic hour with many great questions afterwards. On the train home I thought of how I was not accepted to Nassau Community College’s theatre department (I write about it in my book) and here I am some 40 years later, connecting with the NCC community in a very meaningful way. Some places take time to get to – I am glad and grateful my path has taken me so many places – and now it has led me back to where I belong.

Aphra Behn

December 2016