Happy Women's History Month 2019

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!!!

March 3, 2019

I am heading north from New York to Boston on an Amtrak Acela for a gig at UMASS Dartmouth's Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality.  This center was founded in 1970 and is the second oldest collegiate Women’s Center in the country. Cool.

As I sip iced coffee and look out the window at the Long Island Sound I feel excited for this trip because it is one of my favorite tour stops - the return visit. Guerrilla Girls On Tour performed at UMASS Dartmouth back at the beginning of the century (feels so weird to write that). Feminist/theatreartist/Centerdirector Juli Parker invited us then and now. This time I head back to the campus sans mask for two reasons. One is to lead a poster making workshop and the other is to give my new talk, PUSH/PUSHBACK 9 Steps to Make a Differencewith Activism and Art. 

After arriving in Boston's Back Bay Station I hope in a rental car and make the shortish drive to New Bedford, MA - a harbor town with a whaling museum and ferry boats to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. I find fresh scallops on the menus of most restaurants  nearby and am told this is the heart of scallop fishing on the east coast. 

Workshop at UMASS Dartmouth

That night a snow storm hit the east coast and I wake up to discover that campus is closed on Monday – the date of my workshop.  This is why I always put an extra day into travel on tours that take place in winter.  Yep, better to be safe than sorry and I am able to reschedule my workshop for the next day.

Tuesday will be a marathon – workshop for 2 plus hours followed by my talk. I really hope my rental car has a snow broom and scraper in the trunk (it does!) because the snow is wet and heavy. It takes me a few starts and stops to get my windshield wipers working but I head off to campus midmorning for the workshop.

Mitch Berube of the Center greets me and we find a perfect parking spot! “That’s odd,” says Mitch, “because Mercury is in retrograde and since the snow storm everything is a bit off.” It seems my publisher has sent a case of the wrong books to UMass Dartmouth and instead of 24 copies of UN/MASKED they received a bunch of books on food styling!  Somehow I’ll make this work. (UPDATE: my publisher, Skyhorse, is sending UMASS a bunch of free copies of UN/MASKED. Yeah!)

Workshop was awesome. I am always amazed at the posters created collaboratively in just two hours time.  After a quick break to grab coffee and refuel, I present PUSH/PUSHBACK 9 Steps to Make a Differencewith Activism and Art in the campus library to 100 students, faculty and locals.  They laughed, they cried, they got the 9 steps. It was swell.

At the end of the day I grab dinner with Juli Parker and JessicaHarris of the Center. We are old feminist friends now. This repeat visit reminds me that feminism is all about community.  

Much love,

Aphra

VERMONT MAPLE FEMINISM

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Poster Making Workshop

Burlington Vermont is located on the shore of Lake Champlain. It is quaint and feels wintery, even in the fall. At the end of October, 2018, the tour of PUSH/PUSHBACK, 9 Steps to Make aDifference with Activism and Art, ended with a bang at the University of Vermont, Burlington and the Fleming Museum. Special thanks to Jen Berger for reaching out to Guerrilla Girls On Tour and making this tour happen. Aphra Behn led a workshop at her studio the night before PUSH/PUSHBACK was presented at the Fleming Museum. 30 artists worked away for about three hours, making some bad ass activist art.

Poster Making Workshop

The Fleming Museum was packed for Aphra’s Talk – including artists Leslie Fry and Barbara Zucker. Thanks for the warm welcome, museum director, Janie Cohen. Guerrilla Girls On Tour may have said this before but the Vermont Maple Feminist audience was the best ever – and our personal favorite. 

Vermont Maple Feminists 

Amanda Martino made a great video of the talk. View it here. 

In other news, Aphra Behn made PAGE SIX.  Read her quote below:

At the beginning, people would always ask, ‘Are you saying the work of white men should go away?’People think if everyone has a place at the table, that means white men must disappear . . . This fear mongering that if we promote women, it means we’re not promoting white men — it’s just a fallacy. - Aphra Behn

We are closing out this year by being featured by Surface Magazine’s art issue – on the cover no less!

Surface Magazine Photo Shoot 

2019 is already heating up.  Stay tuned, European feminists, we will kick off our Spring 2019 tour somewhere in your neck of the world.

And PUSH/PUSHBACK, 9 Steps to Make a Difference with Activism and Art is launching as an ebook – hopefully on the eve of the State of the Union address.

NOW BOOKING WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH 2019! 

BEHIND EVERY GORILLA MASK...

Aphra Behn here. I am finally off the road, regrouping for my spring tour and taking some time to enjoy New York City.

Aphra Behn with Gerda Taro

I recently had the chance to don my gorilla mask for a photo shoot for the cover of a major magazine (which I cannot tell you about because it's all hush hush until it hits the news stands).

Being behind the mask, with my sister Guerrilla Girls, was cool.  It made me think about being anonymous and faceless and how that works for activists on many levels.

It's empowering - you can say whatever you want and not be afraid of being accused of saying what you said for purely personal gains.

It's fun to wear a costume - and be someone else for a while.

You are different - in a mask, your facial expressions are gone and you have only your body to communicate your humanity.

The downsides....

A mask is a barrier between you and another human being - they cannot tell if you are smiling or crying. There is a disconnect. (Which is why Guerrilla Girls On Tour redesigned our masks to show parts of our faces - as theatre artists we wanted to break down the barrier the mask creates.) 

It's hot and sweaty under all that rubber.  I am good for about an hour, then I can't wait to rip it off.

Was in my old mask for about two hours and even though my hair was a royal mess afterwards, it was super fun to hang with my fellow activists for a day. 

Here are Alejandra Pizarnik, Gene Stratton-Porter, Hilma af Klint, Josephine Baker, Alla Horska, Gerda Taro and Julia de Burgos - GG's at the photo shoot!

GG's all wear different masks

Relaxing pre photo shoot

Julia de Burgos

Aphra Behn

BONUS PHOTO!

We LOVE it when fans send photos.  Here is are artists - Lisa Porretti Smith, art history graduate, and her daughter Lucy Wijnands, jazz vocalalist on the march as Guerrilla Girls! #Gobananas 

The Maplewood South Orange Book Festival

June 9, 2018

Maplewood Book Festival 

June in New Jersey!  On June 9^th I boarded an Amtrak Train at Penn Station and headed to the Maplewood South Orange Book Festival to participate in a #MeToo panel, reading and book signing of UN/MASKED, Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl On Tour.

With author Helen Wan 

Local festival organizer, Becky Kraemer, had added the panel to the new book festival because she felt it was important to talk about harassment and abuse in the work place and books that shed light on this issue.  She invited me, along with author Helen Wan, (The Partner Track) to share our journeys from victims to activists.  The panel was moderated by Fordham professor, Anne Fernald. 

UN/MASKED 

My train was an hour late but I made it just in time to sneak downstairs to the reading room at WORDS bookstore in Maplewood.  A nice crowd has assembled, including an old friend of the Guerrilla Girls, Michelle Hartung!

With Michelle Hartung 

Anne led us all through an open and thoughtful conversation about our journeys and how we came to use the truth of our stories for change. The audience asked stimulating questions and many provided stories of their own.

It always feels like this is a conversation that should not end. There needs to be a continual dialogue about how to end violence against women. #Timesup and #MeToo are not movements that have faded. They are important and necessary vehicles for women to speak out and support each other. There is momentum in harnessing the power of truth. 

Thank you Becky, , Anne, Helen and Maplewood for the memorable afternoon. 

Go Bananas!

Aphra Behn 

The Power of the Push!

PUSH/PUSHBACK, 9 steps to make a difference with activism and art (because the world’s gone bananas) made it’s last spring tour stop as the keynote speech at Wilkes University’s Women and Gender Studies Conference.

Faculty of Wilkes and Kings, PA 

Poster making workshop 

 But first, a classroom full of students and faculty assembled to try their hands at making protest posters during a 3 hour workshop.

You are always perfect - final poster 

Feminist Artists in Workshop 

The Wilkes workshop (which was comprised of feminists from both Wilkes and Kings College in Wilkes-Barre) was one of the most focused I led. Perhaps it is the times we live in, but all participants were eager to hunker down and collaborate on some kick ass posters and sticker campaigns. Their final presentations were inspiring!

A packed house was the perfect ending to the “Art of Activism 2018” spring section of the tour.  Old friends, Karen Anselm of Bloom u and Bob Tevis of NYC Saloon days stopped by. New friends’ smiling faces bloomed from the audience and kept my spirits high all throughout the talk. At the end I sold books to some seasoned and brand new fans. It is always an honor to meet the readers of the memoir that took 4 years to write. I do not regret unmasking for a New York minute.

With Karen Anslem and Bob Tevis 

PUSH/PUSHBACK, 9 steps to make a difference with activism and art (because the world’s gone bananas) now settles down for a summer simmer while I travel to the Marble House Project for a 3 week residency in June to turn the talk into a book.

Fall tour dates are filling up, however.  If you are interested in bringing PUSH/PUSHBACK to your town sign up for the Guerrilla Girls On Tour newsletter here or check out our latest emailblast.

See you in September!

Much love and gratitude,

Aphra Behn

That’s A Wrap, 2017!

December 2017

There is always something sad about the last tour stop of the season. This year it was at Marist College where I would present “Act Like aFeminist Artist” for the last time in 2017. Marist did not disappoint! Students and faculty flooded the aisles of Fusco Recital Hall ready with questions – eager to catch a banana. (It was lunch time after all…)

The last banana toss of 2017!

As I clicked through my presentation I thought about all the places I have been lucky enough to visit this year – from Decatur to Carbondale; Missoula to Poughkeepsie. Every tour stop guaranteed me a few interactions with ass kicking feminists - boots on the ground activists, pushing back against patriarchy and #45. Every one inspired and filled me with new strategies to push back against the status quo.

 

Marist College Crowd

Thank you, Marist College, for a great wrap up to the year, especially Dr. Angela Laflen, director of both the writing program and the women’s center. My visit to Marist was the perfect end to a year that began with tears and fears for our country and a women’s march for the history books. Now as the year comes to an end, I know “we got this,” – feminist faith is something that will jettison me into 2018.

Act Like A Feminist Artist 

Stay tuned for “PUSH/PUSHBACK, 9 steps to create change with Activism and Art” – my new talk for 2018 making tour stops in Pennsylvania and beyond.

See you on the road.

Love,

Aphra

"IF YOU CAN STAND THE HEAT: THE HISTORY OF WOMEN AND FOOD"

Audre Lorde, Ada Lovelace and Anne Sexton 

Dear Diary,

OOOOOOH my oh my oh my.  Don't know about anyone else but I've sort of always wanted to get pied in the face just like the cartoon characters used to get on tv when I was younger. FINALLY MY DREAMS CAMES TRUE!! I got to work with Ada Lovelace and Anne Sexton to try and educate people on the toxicity and sexist way food is marketed to us and the effects that such pointed conversations of food have on all our bodies. At first, I was nervous. Really nervous. Nervous to the point where I think I was coming off as almost mean? You know how it goes Diary; you're not sure how you’re going to be able to be the most effective so you sort of shut down instead. Well, thank God I had probably the most intellectual and chipper ladies standing in the room with me. We chatted about our own relationships with food, politics, our families, our INSANE daily lives and feminism. It felt like being back at camp or something! I will always be grateful for the opportunity to have a room to walk in to where you know there is nothing but kind women waiting to work with you.

ALSO DIARY, we went to Jersey for the first time! I know we’ve been all over the world but sometimes that means you forget what your own backyard looks like ya know? The trip up there was so charming and when we finally got there, the lovely people of William Paterson University had SO MUCH FOOD WAITING FOR US!! It was honestly a dream come true. We munched on some great snacks, had a full dinner, then performed our latest show for a group of surprisingly responsive women and a handful of men!

I think the biggest thing I’ll take away from this show is you should never under estimate yourself. There is no telling what you can accomplish if you allow yourself to be open to the people in the room with you and let their energy and light fill you with your own.

Missing my ladies dearly already and can’t wait to see them again!

Sincerely,

Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde as Edna Lewis (Anne Sexton looks on)

Dear Diary,

Today I went to Wayne New Jersey! We had this massive theatre all to ourselves! I got to do a show about women and food! We talked about important things like body image, and eating healthy and the relationship between food and media and gender. It made me feel empowered. I feel like I can do anything no matter what I look like. We also honored MFK Fisher, Julia Child, and Edna Louis. What amazing women! It really made me want to learn more about women and food. It also made me want to cook more! Actually, if I’m being honest, it really made me hungry.

Love,

Ada Lovelace

Dear Diary,

PIE CALL!  Pie in the face rehearsals

Well, I ditched my vodka tonic for some bread dough at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ over the weekend. I'd lost my voice for the 4 days leading up to the show - I thought of it as a forced silent retreat, minus the retreat with an emphasis on forced. But, the show must go on, and our fearless director, Aphra Behn, said my lines as I mouthed the words and moved about the stage like a wooden marionette all last week.  We toyed with the idea of keeping it that way as an avant garde performance art piece, but in the end, realism reigned and my shaky voice finally came back.  Just in the nick of time!  

The show was grand and exhilarating  - going from the history of women in food, to food activism in America, to learning a bit about 3 colorful femme foodies of America--unsung heroes reclaiming power in a highly male-dominated arena.  We had a better than expected turn-out, but for a school with over 11,500 students, we were surprised that the theatre was not more packed.  If only they'd known they would have a chance to make a baguette with Julia Child or immerse themselves in a positive body-image Lady Gaga singalong... **sigh, sip of aforementioned vodka tonic**

High points in the show were the quality group of proud New Jerseyans screaming "Pumpkin Pie...Fat...Feminist" at the top of their lungs.  I love the words "Pumpkin pie" so much, I took the liberty of yelling them in lieu of my scripted lines at the top of my lungs.  One may interpret that as a mistake, but I interpret it as a delicious, delectable moment of my inner foodie ID stealing a few seconds of the show.  Perhaps that will be the subject matter of my next confessional poem.  "I Will DIE... For Pumpkin PIE"...  

Until next time, lovelies, stay true and stay FULL! 

xoxo, Anne Sexton

Julia Child leads a kneading fest!