On March 14, the University Art Gallery hosted a feminism discussion in celebration of “Women’s Herstory Month.”
“Feminisms in Motion: Voice for Justice, Liberation and Transformations” was co-sponsored by the Ethnic & Women’s Studies Department and the Office of Student Life and Cultural Centers to discuss a new publication of the same name.
“It’s super inspiring to do an event like this in this space with this exhibition, which is so interesting and multi-voiced and covering so many issues, which is exactly the kind of art project I like to see,” Coeditor Jessica Hoffmann said. “Also, to interact with students and the fact after a couple students met and talked about starting a feminist magazine together and that is the best thing to me — people continuing the conversation.”
Inspired by a Los Angeles-based magazine called make/shift., the publication offered some of the most inspiring feminist voices of the decade, tackling issues of immigration, climate change, prison abolition and more.
Angela Y. Davis called the anthology “a historical record of significant antiracist feminist interventions and a road map for moving us in the direction of freedom and justice.”
Hoffmann, and contributors Stephanie Abraham, marketing and communication specialist in the department of Strategic Communications, Mia Mingus and Amitis Motevalli all read excerpts from the book, many of which detailed the hardships women in other countries had to face. The presentation was facilitated by the Curator of the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery Michele Cairella-Fillmore.
After the readings, attendees of the event were able to personally ask the speakers questions they had about feminist activism or the book itself, which was on sale at the event for $20.
“I feel like the classroom doesn’t always have four walls and some of the most important learning experiences for me when I was a student weren’t in the classroom,” Abraham said. “They came from experiences with staff mentoring me in different situations or coming to events like this where you can get inspired by seeing people who are doing grassroots activism and feminism. I think learning from other people’s personal experience can be so transformational.”
The event was in affiliation with the previous show at the Kellogg Art Gallery, “Somewhere in Between,” which ended March 17 and was curated by Bia Gayotto and Cairella-Fillmore.
“Somewhere in Between” was a group exhibition bringing together 24 Los Angeles-based artists of different international origins, ethnicities and cultures to tackle the discourse of Los Angeles and its cultural diversity.
The theme of the exhibition went hand-in-hand with the anthology-inspired discussion to cover issues brought on by cultural differences.
3/19/2019 11:46 p.m.: This article was updated