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We need to talk about class, we need to talk about race. I feel like if we just focus on women, we might end up with a lot of naturalistic dramas about rich white women on the Upper West Side… and I actually feel like if theatres country-wide made an effort to program plays that are formally experimental for people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, I think that the female playwrights thing would follow. I think the people writing those plays are women. I think some of the most interesting formal experimentation in this country is happening by female playwrights... I'm so appreciative of all the conversations of gender parity in the theatre, but I'm often wierded out by class and race not being talked about at the same time.

- Annie Baker

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A display at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education in Arizona showcases books removed from Tuscon Public Schools in accordance with "a state law banning racially divisive courses from being taught in public schools."  One of the books on the list was our core text, Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks.

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If you're a member of a disenfranchised group, then your self-respect is given a label

Deb Margolin

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The Top 46 un- and under-produced contemporary plays by American female playwrights

In response to what has become known as "the pipeline conversation" - that is American Artistic Directors saying there is a lack of good plays by women. The Kilroys surveyed a ton of top-notch new play professionals for recommendations of un- and under-produced plays by women. Result? A vetted list of 46 excellent plays. A new list will be produced each year.

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Dwell in possibilities... THE EMILY DICKINSON PROJECT

THE EMILY DICKINSON PROJECT is an original immersive theatre experience, created by your classmate Emma Ayres and Hampshire-alum Briana Sloane (PETER PAN), bringing the audience on a journey through the poet's life and home. As a poet, Dickinson often included lists of carefully selected word variations in her poems. Rather than settling on a single meaning, she wrote multiple possibilities. In this production, we offer multiple possibilities of Emily, each a unique voice that makes up the single persona of the poet. She may surprise you! The words spoken by the Variations are entirely Dickinson’s, drawn from her personal correspondence over a lifetime. All of these Emilys existed in her house, walked the floorboards, loved and danced and worked, through the years of her life. In this play, they can all be present in the space that shared them, and co-exist. And you can join them.THE EMILY DICKINSON PROJECT will take place in the poet's home, tracing moments of her life through a journey from room to room.

June 19 & 20.

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No new play was written by a woman or a person of color this year. It feels as if we’re helping prepare a guest list for a party to which we’re not invited. By Lynn Nottage.

some great plays received recognition in this week's Tony Awards, including Lorraine Hansberry, but still...  read this spot on article by playwright and Tony voter Lynn Nottage.  Then read this response by Jason Aaron Goldberg: http://www.tcgcircle.org/2014/06/in-response-to-lynn-nottages-nyt-opinion-post-women-are-missing-from-tonys-and-broadways/

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Watch: High school boys talk about why they are feminists

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Hampshire College • 2014 Commencement • Laverne Cox

"I'm an actor and so basically I'm a storyteller.  Renee Brown reminds us that either we walk in our stories and own them or we stand outside our stories and hustle for worthiness..."

"slow down and breathe and ask yourself: what do you really want to do? and how do you want to be? ...manifest that truth in the world."

A very feminist commencement and a fitting end to our year!

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A character in Dykes to Watch Out For explains the rules that later came to be known as the Bechdel test (Allison Bechdel, 1985). The requirement that the two women must be named is sometimes added. Many contemporary works fail this test of gender bias.

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Probably (a review).

Earlier in the semester I went and saw Amherst College’s production of Probably, an original play written by Amherst student Owen Davis and directed by Hampshire College professor Will MacAdams.  Davis describes Probably as a play about “the difficulty we as college students have about communicating about sex and intimacy.”  Probably was influenced directly by Angie Epifano’s essay in The Student during October 2012 that focused on an instance of sexual assault that she personally experienced and blew open the culture surrounding sexual assault at Amherst and the students’ and administration’s response. 

What struck me the most about Probably on a critical level, were the casting choices in the production.  Going into it I was aware that of the five-person cast, two actors were from Hampshire College and three were from Amherst.  Two of the three Amherst actors were members of the football team, which had been under serious scrutiny in regards to the fallout from the sexual assault account, and this culture in general.  After watching the show, I realized how important the casting, and my knowledge of the casting, was to my experience of the story.  The two football players knew intimately the culture that they were commenting on, and that showed in their performances.  It also really affected my reception of the performance because I recognized this intimate knowledge and how necessary this understanding was, and also the amount of courage it likely took for them to stand in front of their community to present this commentary.  This was also clear in the actress from Amherst, and it definitely strengthened the quality of her performance for me.  The male actor from Hampshire played the character of an extreme outsider, and the fact that he was also coming from a perspective that was outside the community as a person as well as in his character was evident and contributed to his honesty.  The female actress from Hampshire played the character that had experienced the assault, and this led to her becoming estranged from her community; this distance that the actress had from the project also contributed to this and complemented the character. 

Probably made me realize the importance in casting members of a community in works of critique and commentary of that same community.  The performance would not have held the same power for me without the realization of the intimate understanding that was held by these actors.  They were able to critique the downfalls of this community while still celebrating the place they call their home, and it landed with honesty.  In the telling of a story such as the one that Probably tells, honesty and understanding is the most important ingredient. 

VG

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Stop Saying "I Have A Boyfriend"

"Male privilege is “I have a boyfriend” being the only thing that can actually stop someone from hitting on you because they respect another male-bodied person more than they respect your rejection/lack of interest."

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Live illustration of Feminism Performance by Skye Murie

photograph by Carla Costa

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These posters were designed by Guerrilla Girls on Tour!

Guerrilla Girls On Tour! is an internationally acclaimed touring, anonymous theatre troupe that creates performances that take a hilarious look at the current state of women in the arts and beyond. Formed when the original Guerrilla Girls split into three groups in 2001, each member of Guerrilla Girls On Tour! performs using the name of a dead woman artist and wears a gorilla mask to conceal her true identity.  No one knows who we really are.  We have toured through 38 states and 13 countries with over 200 performances and workshops in theatres, classrooms, art galleries, community centers, cafes and the great outdoors. We have been featured in many festivals in the US, UK, Poland, Argentina, South Korea, Spain, Slovenia, Greece, Canada, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, China and France.

In 1985, a bunch of female artists, incensed by an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art that included 165 artists but only 17 women, founded the Guerrilla Girls. At the turn of the millennium, three separate and independent incorporated groups formed to bring fake fur and feminism to new frontiers.  Guerrilla Girls On Tour! is one of those groups.

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For every woman who is tired of acting weak when she knows she is strong, there is a man who is tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable. For every woman who is tired of acting dumb, there is a man who is burdened with the constant expectation of “knowing everything.” For every woman who is tired of being called “an emotional female,” there is a man who is denied the right to weep and to be gentle. For every woman who is called unfeminine when she competes, there is a man for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity. For every woman who is tired of being a sex object, there is a man who must worry about his potency. For every woman who feels “tied down” by her children, there is a man who is denied the full pleasures of shared parenthood. For every woman who is denied meaningful employment or equal pay, there is a man who must bear full financial responsibility for another human being. For every woman who was not taught the intricacies of an automobile, there is a man who was not taught the satisfactions of cooking. For every woman who takes a step toward her own liberation, there is a man who finds the way to freedom has been made a little easier.

For  Every Woman by Nancy R. Smith re-posted from Jill Lewis, who states: "and the map is even trickier for people positioned positioning between and beyond these two prevailing categories of gender and for diverse sexualities….."

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conceived by / executor producer - Jill Lewis

6pm Wednesday, April 9th ASH auditorium presented by the Hampshire College HIV/AIDS awareness group

a creative documentary made to stimulate and strengthen discussions about boys, men, sexual well-being and safety – for inclusion in ongoing HIV awareness and prevention efforts in sub Saharan African countries or with immigrant men elsewhere.

The film brings alive tensions, contradiction and realities surrounding condom use for men and boys in these times of HIV. It offers poignant glimpses into attitudes and emotions of men of different backgrounds and ages in South Africa, Kenya and Sierra Leone, in rural and urban contexts, and the challenges and realities of sexual protection that men face in so many places.

It provides moving insights into perceptions and debates about condoms that resonate across African countries, inhibiting condom usage and thus placing men and boys at risk of contracting HIV or of being ill‐prepared to manage well their HIV positive status. As it explores different ways of thinking and arguing about condom use, PROTECTION invites its viewers to think again about the importance of sexual protection for boys and men in African countries where millions of men, women and children continue to be affected by HIV and AIDS. It fertilizes the ground for discussion of controversies and contradictions many men experience – enabling HIV educators to take prevention education further, providing a context for the sexual safety details to make more sense.

Filmed in South Africa, Kenya and Sierra Leone, he DVD has versions in 7 languages (original subtitled in English; dubbed in French, Portuguese, Chichewa, Zulu, Swahili, Hausa and English) and has been made as a resource for use in HIV awareness / prevention work in a range of contexts with African man and boys - but raises questions about gender challenges and issues men face that echo across many cultures in many parts of the world.