More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Written by Naomi Alderman and adapted into a TV series for Prime Video, The Power asks a deceptively simple question: What would happen if, overnight, girls and some women worldwide gained the ability to administer electric shocks at will?
Ms. spoke with Naomi Alderman about her novel and how she sees its television adaptation resonating in the years since the book’s initial release.
Ms. spoke to Tania James about her remarkable new book Loot, her research process, her craft choices, and what it feels like to write a book about empire in the shadow of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing.
In her new book Consent Culture and Teen Films: Adolescent Sexuality in U.S. Movies, independent filmmaker and scholar Michele Meek challenges the idea of consent as a straightforward concept and questions the messages about consent and teenage sexuality reflected in films of the last 20 years.
Poetry has always been a powerful tool for women to verbalize their lived experiences and inspire others with their resilience against patriarchal constrictions. As National Poetry Month comes to an end, we’re honoring women poets who defied literary norms, navigated cross-cultural boundaries and revolutionized what we consider poetry.
On Sept. 27, 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring and founded the modern environmental movement.
Following World War II, the United Stated embarked on a love affair with chemicals. When Carson published Silent Spring at 55, she was dying from breast cancer. Her book alerted the world to the dangers of the toxic chemicals that may have caused her disease. Carson died on April 14, 1964, at 56, never knowing to what extent her work would be vindicated or glimpsing its long-term impact.
Happy April, and Happy National Poetry Month.
I find it so refreshing and inspiring to read beautiful collections each year and share them with you. Here are 78 of the most exciting and extraordinary I’ve read in the last year.
From the August 1986 issue of Ms.:
“Men’s novels are about men. Women’s novels are about men too, but from a different point of view. You can have a men’s novel with no women in it, except possibly the landlady or the horse, but you can’t have a women’s novel with no men in it.”
“Men’s novels are about how to get power. Killing and so on, or winning and so on. So are women’s novels, though the method is different. In men’s novels, getting the woman or women goes along with getting the power. It’s a perk, not a means. In women’s novels, you get the power by getting the man.”
A new groundbreaking exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Architectural Archives recovers the story of a 19th-century architect named Minerva Parker Nichols (1862-1949). She was one of the country’s first woman architects, practicing in Philadelphia in the 1880s and 1890s. Over her lifetime, she designed over 80 buildings across the country, but Nichols has been largely forgotten.
The exhibit hopes to change that. It runs from March 21 to June 17 at University of Pennsylvania’s Architectural Archives and will then travel to University of Massachusetts, Amherst next year.
Catherine Gammon’s fifth book The Martyrs, the Lovers tells the fascinating story of Petra Kelly, a modern-day Joan of Arc who stood up to the powers that be, and who dedicated her life to causes we are still fighting for. Kelly’s life and mysterious death are carefully reconstructed in a way that is deeply resonant for our current day and age.
An excerpt of Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included) by Pooja Lakshmin, out March 14, 2023.
“The work of real self‑care is about changing our relationships with ourselves, and, in turn, what naturally follows such internal change is a reorganizing of larger systems. … The energy and collective power that was harnessed by individuals in 2021 has led to real and tangible changes at the state level and in the corporate sector.”
