NOT JUST BOYS' FUN

crossposted from a more relevant place

I don't like to use Tumblr as a source for anything, really, but perhaps it is good at getting on-the-ground information, like incidents where women have been assaulted in crowds at punk shows, more visibility and traction.

Unfortunately I read about two such incidences, literally one post after the other, in my Tumblr feed today.

This news comes after reading a post all about why, by virtue of moral philosophy, punks have no more responsibility than any others to fight sexism just yesterday.

Perhaps it is that kind of attitude which lands us at punk shows where men feel entitled to grope women time and time again. Perhaps that is the reason why when you abstractly argue that women's experiences are null, we feel the need to shut it down. Because there are real, physical implications and consequences to that kind of silence.

PAST PRESENT & FUTURE

rare book exhibit at The Berks Conference of Women's Historians

TODAY IS YOUR DAY

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

NORTHSIDE OPEN STUDIOS: "PRESENTS" + BRAIN WAVES

Crossposted with For the Birds.

After an eventful Bushwick Open Studios the other week, today commences Northside Open Studios, a festival of art shows, artists' open studios, and events in North Brooklyn.

I've been working with Hrag Vartanian to co-curate Presents: Three Months of Mail Art for Hyperallergic HQ, a show of over 100 artists and widely varying mediums, that will debut tomorrow, Friday June 17, at Hyperallergic HQ. I am thrilled about the opening as I've been writing for Hyperallergic on the subject and living/working among these entries for a month now. L Magazine named the show a "must-see event" during Northside Open Studios. For more information, check out Hyperallergic.

Aimee Lusty, newly-named curator at Booklyn will be hosting a zine and print fair on the street below Booklyn's own space in Greenpoint. Aimee is one of my favorite local art-makers and creative idea-havers so I am excited to see what she comes up with for Booklyn. She recently debuted MASTER OF REALITY, a group show featuring Milano Chow, Cynthia Daignault, Gary Kachadourian and STO, which will also have open hours during the zine and print fair. BRAIN WAVES, Storefront's zine and print collection (as well as my curatorial baby) will be tabling during the fair, along with For the Birds' own Lauren Denitzio. More information is available at Booklyn.

We hope to see you out this weekend!

"SADIE" TATTOO

The lovely Katie Crutchfield got a tattoo based on my artwork for the Sadie LP! This marks the second tattoo of my artwork, aside from a stick-n-poke heart I may or may not have assisted on as a teenager.

Presents: 3 Months of Mail Art for Hyperallergic HQ

Reposted from Hyperallergic.

We are excited to announce the details for Hyperallergic’s very first mail art show! 

The exhibition, titled Presents: Three Months of Mail Art for Hyperallergic HQ, will include mail art in the form of sculpture, installation, video and works on paper. The show’s catalogue will be in the form of a ‘zine.

Co-curated by Kate Wadkins and Hrag Vartanian, Presents will draw on the 100+ mail art works that have been sent to Hyperallergic since our initial request for submissions to our Mail Art Bulletin in March 2011. The show will include everything from practical jokes to prayer/envelope flags. They represent a range of materials and subject matter all emphasizing the tangible communication from one individual to another. 

Please join us for our opening party Friday, June 17 from 6pm to 9pm at Hyperallergic HQ. We will also have gallery hours during Northside Open Studios on Saturday and Sunday June 18 and 19 from 12 noon to 6pm. 

Hyperallergic HQ is located at 181 N 11th Street, Suite 302, Brooklyn, NY 11211.
You can RSVP to the show on Facebook. 

Image: A work by Bernard Klevickas for the Mail Art Bulletin.

P.S. Here's our listing on the Northside Open Studios site, as well as the opening.

BUSHWICK OPEN STUDIOS

So, as you probably know,  BUSHWICK OPEN STUDIOS kicks off tonight. I hope to see you all out there (unhindered by the lack of L train service & all). Check out our staff & intern picks from Hyperallergic.

Please join us at STOREFRONT, FRIDAY JUNE 3, 6pm-9pm
for the opening of:

DUNKLE WOLKE
curated by William Powhida
featuring the work of:
Bill Abdale, Ellie Ga, David McBride,
Bjoern Meyer-Ebrecht and Jenny Vogel

& DEBUTING AT BRAIN WAVES:
Mike Taylor's "Late Era Clash" (formerly Scenery) #22:
28 pages of comics including an illustrated version of Sam McPheeters' hilarious "Big Baby Man" story, with tricolor silkscreened covers. $4

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Then be sure to check out MASTER OF REALITY, curated by Aimee Lusty at Booklyn before/after you stop by Storefront!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JODI

I almost posted this on Facebook yesterday, in remembrance, as a Happy Birthday gesture. Usually I post things there that I think everyone should see, since although my account is private, my friends respond most on Facebook. I want my friends to respond to Jodi; I want everyone to see her words.

"hey ladies...
i'm sorry it took so long to reply to this but it's been something i've been meaning to do for awhile. tonight i was also feeling nostalgic...stalking all you girls on myspace seeing what's been going on in your lives..and the lives of friends of the liwc... hopalong, the good good, jenny owen youngs, cara beth, chugga chugga... among others. i totally miss working with all you... and i think it's about time we all get together...possibly throw up an liwc pyramid sometime in the near future... but let's talk, i miss you girlies.
xo, jodi"

These are the last words I can find from her in my e-mail accounts. Sadly, they are from about eight months before she passed. It is safe to say that we spoke on the phone after that at some point, maybe we exchanged e-mails that I can't find about whether or not we'd make it to a potluck at Beth's. I've written about Jodi before, I conjured her energy and was enveloped in my own sadness while planning and carrying out the Big She-Bang 3 in her honor.

Jodi lives in many of our living rooms, in posters on the wall, photographs in albums, in memorial zines on our bookshelves. In a more real way, she has inspired us, she lives in our hearts and molds our decisions. Jodi's death tore me up so much. It helped me realize mortality tangibly, for the first time in my life, and it showed me that this invincibility that many of my friends had come to believe was our own was entirely false. That we could lose someone who was so bright, cheerful, insightful, and real, was an arrow through my heart. The kind of instance where all you can think is that everything is unfair in the world; why Jodi? Of course, the great and expected truth is that I learn(ed) as much from Jodi in her death as in her life.

Reading this e-mail from her made me nostalgic. So many of the women we worked with in the Long Island Womyn's Collective have dispersed to different states, different projects, different lives. Yet I remain in touch with many of them. It saddens me that I was a year behind Jodi--our lives' paths would not cross again. My first "big girl job" came a year after hers and Beth's, and as I transitioned from graduating college to living my own life, Jodi's passing would be a bridge. I never wanted this bridge, and I have done my best to honor her in her passing as I don't think I did enough in her life. If she were alive now we would work side by side, infusing our work with equal bits love and biting humor, so I carry her in all that I do just like I would have otherwise.

Us girlies miss you too, Jodi. Always.