Both a product (albums! cassettes! posters!) and a destination (rallies! concerts! festivals!), women’s music fused feminist politics, woman-staffed sound production and grassroots folk traditions to create a bold new recording and performance network. When we had no rights at all, women’s music was also the sound and site of the lesbian revolution. This year we celebrate the musicians and producers who, across five decades, gave us the soundtracks and spaces affirming our lives.
Tag: Feminist Art
Black Women Having All the Fun: ‘Bongos’ and ‘You Wish’ Celebrate the Joy of Black Sisterhood
In Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion’s “Bongos” and Flyana Boss’ “You Wish,” Black women hip-hop artists create spaces for pleasure, joy and sisterhood. If this is what hip-hop’s feminist future looks like, we’re here for it.
At the National Mall, Artist Tiffany Shlain Is Rewriting Women into U.S. History
Tiffany Shlain’s Dendrofemonology, presented by the National Women’s History Museum and Women Connect4Good, remakes the historical tree ring into a timeline of the story of women and power in society.
The feminist history tree ring will be on display from Nov. 1-4, 2023, at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
He Was Dancing to Beyoncé. He Never Knew It Would Be His Last Dance: A Dancer’s Perspective
On July 29, 2023, O’Shea Sibley, a 28-year-old Black, gay, professional dancer, was fatally stabbed in his heart while he and his friends were voguing to Beyoncé outside of a gas station. His murderer shouted, “Stop dancing, stop dancing, stop dancing”—as if dancing is a crime, an assault on life, a blasphemy to the living.
‘Barbie’ Makes Girlhood Great Again
In Barbie, Greta Gerwig creates a world where femininity is celebrated in the mainstream.
Art as Protest—and Therapy—in War-Ravaged Ukraine
Art inspired by the Russian invasion of Ukraine fills Rivne, a city in northwestern Ukraine within a three-hour drive from the Polish border—where an exhibition of 44 paintings by Ukrainian artists opened last year at The Euro Gallery.
“Every moment is precious,” one artist said. “If I have a last opportunity to say something, I have to make it through art by telling the truth.”
Black Mamas Reclaim Their Space in Reproductive Justice
Forward Together’s 13th annual Mamas Day campaign “Black Mamas Reclaiming their Space in the Reproductive Justice Movement,” celebrates Black mamahood and the Black mamas who continue to push the work forward—since Black mamas are the founders of the reproductive justice framework and are the foundation of our movement.
Visit MamasDay.org to send a card to the mamas in your life.
Feminism and Freedom in Ghana: The Ms. Q&A With Nana Akosua Hanson
Nana Akosua Hanson, feminist activist, journalist and founder of Let’s Talk Consent, discusses her vision for a feminist future, the importance of art and media, and activism.
“I’m an African feminist who believes deeply in the power of art and artistic expression in changing the world.”
Ms. Global: Iran Installs Cameras for Veil Surveillance; The Vatican Allows Women to Vote; India Debates Same-Sex Marriage; Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Criticizes Hungary’s Anti-LGBTQ+ Stance
The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.
This time with news from Iran, Colombia, the Vatican, India, Zimbabwe, Luxembourg, and more.
The Secret History of the Vulva
The vulva is the oldest and most common object in prehistoric art. Carved in stone or painted on cave walls, images of the vulva were created around the world. Once revered, the vulva’s inherent power in bringing forth new life made it dangerous, and men tried—and are still trying—to denude it of power, tame, control and erase it.