More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Renaissance—Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s fifth self-directed film—is about how to shine your light, how to give others shine, and how to sit in darkness until the light comes again.
In this season of light, we have a tremendous opportunity to observe a Black woman in her prime at 42 years old making art, working at her craft, raising her children, and surrounded by a strong network.
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.
On Sept. 1, 2023, a ban on drag performances will take effect in Texas. Anti-drag laws—including legislation with sanitized language that takes aim instead at “adult performances” or “cabaret” shows, an anti-drag dog whistle—are already on the books in three states: Arkansas, Florida and Montana.
The GOP-led movement to limit who can see drag performances and where, is part of a larger nationwide push to stigmatize any content with LGBTQ themes, presenting it as a danger to kids. Rather than protect children, the frenzy around drag shows and at-large attacks on the LGBTQ community have detrimental effects on trans, gay and queer youth.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music relaunched Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. Hansberry is best known for A Raisin in the Sun (1957), the first production written by a Black woman staged on Broadway, which won her a New York Drama Circle Critics Award in 1959.
As a chorus member in my last opera production, I watched our stage director (a man) lean toward the lead soprano (a woman) and say, “If you put some dark makeup between your breasts, it will make them show up more.”
Sexism in opera extends far beyond small-town productions like mine: There are 3.5 times more jobs for men than women in mainstage opera. A 29 percent pay gap exists between women classical performers and their men counterparts. Women opera singers also hold more debt and receive fewer scholarships. For opera to be an industry where women are respected, its leaders need to adopt more progressive practices that make women feel safe and comfortable.
The Vote for Abortion Rights billboard exhibition features 10 artists and 18 billboards, located in 12 states and 14 cities. Most of the billboards are located where abortion is now illegal or heavily restricted, including Wisconsin, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina and Kentucky.
Our focus is on building the leadership capacity and political power of Black people and women. But we are struck by the complementary activism taking place in the arts to underscore this moment in history and to inspire progress.
Broadway’s Tony-nominated POTUS, Natalie Moore’s The Billboard and Molly Smith’s upcoming Arena Stage production, My Body No Choice, remind us to trust women as we collectively work to get our republic back on track.
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 week: Scotland paves way for period poverty movement; volunteers provide menstrual products in Pakistan, amid floods; Pride marches in Poland; Spain passes “yes means yes” consent law; and more.
Camille Brown, director and choreographer of the powerful new Broadway revival of “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf,” is the first Black woman to direct and choreograph a play on Broadway in more than 60 years. Drawing inspiration from her own lived experience as a Black woman, Brown uses movement and dance to tell unique stories of humanity and sisterhood. In this interview, she shares lessons she’s learned in her career.
Black women have historically played a crucial role in the origins of hip hop, but are often unacknowledged. Learning the rich herstory of hip hop feminism shows what an important role women have played in the past and the future of the genre.
