LOPATE, BROAD DESIGNS, BROCKPORT, BARNES and NOBLE

Updates from Aphra Behn and the book tour of “UN/MASKED, Memoirs of aGuerrilla Girl On Tour”

Late February was cold and snowy in Manhattan but the news that I would be interviewed on the Leonard Lopate Show brought warmth. My fabulous indie publicist, Michelle Blankenship, accompanied me to the WNYC offices in lower Manhattan. 

With Michelle Blankenship

Armed with my rubber gorilla mask and a banana for Leonard I entered the studio. Lopate immediately took the banana from my hand and tried to talk into it. That put me right at ease. My 20 minute interview flew by. A great conversationalist, Lopate has the knack to flip topics as quickly as the GOP offers up changes to Obamacare. We talked not only on air but before and after the interview.

My favorite subjects were rubber masks, sticker campaigns and getting the opportunity to decry the current lack of plays by women on Broadway.  But do not despair as works by Paula Vogel and Lynn Nottage are coming soon.  Leonard doesn’t say goodbye – his producer has to come in and let him know time is up. Listen to my interview HERE

On the Leonard Lopate Show

68% of theater tickets are purchased by women, yet plays by women are not produced. "What's the problem?" http://dld.bz/f3MJz

February also brought me new friends from down under – the wonderful feminists of the Australian radio show on feminism and design - BROAD DESIGNS - broadcast on  JOY 94.9.  

Jane Connory and Sonja Hammer of BROAD DESIGNS

The funny and sharp (and mask wearing!) Jane Connory and Sonja Hammer talked with me via phone for a broadcast which aired on International Women’s Day.  LISTEN HERE: 

As some of you know, in my book I describe my journey to identifying as a feminist. It was a BOOK that brought me to feminism – “OurBodies, Ourselves” which I picked up at the Main Street Bookstore in Brockport New York, my sophomore year in college.  This week I was featured in the Brockport Alum spotlight. Read it here: 

If you have not been to a new Barnes and Noble lately check them out. Some of the new stores now have a very comfortable and welcoming area as you walk into the store where wine, beer, hot drinks and food are served. Settle down with a donut and a cup of joe as you flip through your favorite newspaper. I was the first author booked to read at the B & N inEastchester - or I should say their first writer who wrote for adults.  Thank you Barnes and Nobel for making your bookstore a place you can spend hours in.

UN/MASKED display at Barnes and Noble Eastchester 

NEXT! The IDES OF MARCH - Aphra Behn mails postcards to Trump and talks on the LIVING WELL SHOW, March 15, 2017.

I will be at Northern Arizona University with ACT LIKE AFEMINIST ARTIST on March 25 at 2PM.  – if you are in the area please attend.

The Venus Theatre Lifetime Achievement Award

Deb Randall of Venus Theatre with Aphra Behn 

On February 7, 2017 Aphra Behn presented "Act Like a Feminist Artist" at Venus Theatre in Laurel, MD.  Venus awarded Aphra with their Lifetime Achievement Award. 

DC NOW was a co-sponsor of the evening.

Aphra made a short speech. 

Here is what she really wanted to say....

Dear Deb Randall and Venus Theatre,
I applaud you for keeping the voices of women alive for so many years. I salute your bravery in producing season after season of work by women. I admire your perseverance, your style, your grace. I acknowledge your struggle and the struggle of all the women who have gone before you and remain behind via the love that refuses to die. I promise to keep fighting, to keep enduring and to keep advocating on behalf of women in theatre.  We are theatre. We are.

THANK YOU VENUS! 

BITCH and BUST and Memoirs of A Guerrilla Girl On Tour

BITCH and BUST review "UN/MASKED" 

Happy V DAY Feminists!

We heart BITCH and BUST magazines for heartfelt reviews of "UN/MASKED, Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl On Tour"

Here is part of Allison McCarthy's review in the Chaos Issue (Jan 2017) of BITCH

UN/MASKED: MEMOIRS OF A GUERRILLA GIRLON TOUR by Donna Kaz

{Skyhorse Publishing}

"As a freshman in college, I saw a performance of the Guerrilla Girls on campus.

I remember the charge in the air among women’s studies undergrads sitting toe-to-toe

in the amphitheater as we listened to the impassioned language of these women—in

an effort to preserve anonymity, they all wore furry gorilla masks and used pseudonyms

drawn from female artists such as Eva Hesse, Frida Kahlo, and Hannah Höch—

speaking on discrimination in the art world and their efforts to combat the lack of representation through direct action.

UN/MASKED: Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl On Tour brought me back to the excitement and sense of possibility created that night, all through writer Donna Kaz’s vivid, unsparing recollections of her years (1995–2012) with the feminist activist and artist collective. Kaz applies in 1995 and learns the Guerrilla Girls are seeking “new and energetic members… who can bounce the Girls into a future where when people talk about art they also talk about gender parity for playwrights.” As a playwright in New York City, Kaz had learned about the group when a friend shared a copy of the book Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls. After several enthusiastic re-readings, Kaz imagines a new direction for the group that has taken the art world by storm with their statistics on the absurdly low representation of women and people of color in the Museum of Modern Art: “I envision an attack on sexism in the theatre world….What a coup it would be to name the theatres that do not produce women playwrights or plays by writers of color. How cool to prove bus companies are more inclusive in their hiring practices than

theatres are.”

For more visit BITCH Media

And BUST gave "UN/MASKED" a 5 Breast Review!  Here's a sneak look: 

For more of BUST click here 

GO BANANAS!  

Create a poster instead of typing a hashtag - What I learned this Women's History Month.

Dear Diary,

Happy Women’s History Month! March 9, 2016 kicked off the official tour of my new talk: Act Like a Feminist Artist: what no one told you about starting a grassroots organization.  The talk highlights passages from UN/MASKED my forthcoming memoir due out this October from Skyhorse. Monmouth University was the host of this inaugural event and the theatre was packed with students from various gender studies, art and humanities classes.

Introduced by Dean Mezey, I entered Pollack Theatre in the traditional Guerrilla Girls On Tour fashion – by throwing bananas.  Since it was 1PM and lunch time, everyone was hungry. Going through my herstory as a Guerrilla Girl and Guerrilla Girl On Tour, I displayed slides of the Guerrilla Girls’ foray into the theatre world and shared inside stories of our sticker campaigns, for example that time at the TKTS booth in Times Square where everyone thought we were members of The Lion King.

The students of MU did  not disappoint in the Q and A. we talked about the Oscar snub, objectification of women in art, theatre in New Jersey and the important role of gender studies programs. The most interesting part of my time at Monmouth U was a discussion about just how hands off activism is these days – everyone wants to create the next hash tag that will blow up the internet but no one puts pen to paper anymore to make a sticker or a poster.  Well, Guerrilla Girls On Tour has not given up on using markers and newsprint to think up our ideas. Try it and see how the physical act of creating something three dimensional will stimulate your activism. 

My favorite part of the day was signing posters after the talk where I met the awesome feminist, Lennon.  (Yes, if she had been born male her parents would have called her McCartney.) Thanks for being there, Lennon, and for introducing yourself. 

I’ll be back in New Jersey on Monday, at Seton Hall University in West Orange.  And from there onto Seattle and Portland. 

See you Monday, New Jersey Feminists!  http://dld.bz/etT5R

Love, Aphra Behn