Arab Women Seize the Time

While the world watches the awakening in the Arab world as millions demand democratic freedoms, Egyptian women also took the opportunity to seize the moment and rise up by calling for a civil state and a constitution that eliminates all forms of discrimination against women.

“It's time for a new way of thinking, democracy is just a gate to more gains for women,” says Abeer, a 25-year-old Egyptian woman.

United in popular revolt, calling for an end to injustice, lack of freedoms, corruption and unending poverty. Egyptians took to the streets demanding the ousting of their long time dictator. Although women played a vital role in the country’s eighteen-day uprising, full progress towards social, economic and political rights remains a challenge.

“I think yesterday was a good alarm for everyone that we need social mobilization and explain that women’s rights is not a Western agenda and that women’s rights are human rights and we need to engage the people in this discussion,” says Doaa Abdelaal, a council member with Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML). “You can’t talk about democratic rights without talking about women’s rights.”

Tuesday, the centennial of International Women's Day, marked an historical moment in the history of Egypt’s women’s movement. Under Mubarak’s thirty-year regime obtaining permits from the state security to gather groups of people in the streets voicing their public discontent was unheard of.

“This was the first time women took to the streets with banners calling for women’s rights,” adds Doaa. “In the past we always celebrated women’s day in a closed space. “

Decades of previously-silent female voices broke the sound barrier on Tuesday, but International Women's Day groups were met with dozens of anti-women’s protestors who continue to resist progress toward gender equity. “'Egypt is for all, no matter gender or religion' is what we started chanting...the anti-women’s group started chanting at us that we are products of Mubarak’s regime, [saying that] it’s not time for calling for women’s rights but instead unity and that the voice of women is shameful,” continues Doaa.

Gender blackout

In order to move forward, Egypt must not only do away with its political shackles but must free itself from the social ones as well. Like most women in Egyptian villages, Hiba was circumcised as a child. She has five children of her own, including two older girls.

“One day while I was at work my mother came and took the two older girls and had them circumcised,” Hiba says. “I wasn't entirely comfortable with the fact that it happened but I raised with the tradition and important to honour tradition.”

Lack of wars or catastrophic events surrounding gender and a women’s place in society has caused this vital issue of gender politics to never reach the spotlight.

Inequalities in the workforce, increased sexual violence of women by police officers and the country’s state council’s refusal to appoint female judges last February, allotted Egypt a ranking 125th amongst 134 countries and 13th in the Middle East North Africa (MENA). Ninety-five percent of the estimated 27 incidents of rape daily go unreported, 33% of women face domestic violence and women only represent three percent of the ministries, local and Shura council.

“Women have yet to be named to the committee which is drafting the new Egyptian constitution," says Fairuz. “In addition there needs to be a lot of work to help women break the cycle of fear.”

CLIO TALKS BACK: Louise Bourgeois, midwife extraordinaire

Reproduction of title page

Louise Bourgeois's Observations 1609 (vol. 1)

Today’s guest blog on the French midwife Louise Bourgeois is contributed by Clio’s longtime colleague, historian Alison Klairmont Lingo, at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Louise Bourgeois (1563-1636), French midwife extraordinaire, was the first woman to publish a printed medical treatise on childbirth and women’s illnesses (1609). In her capacity as royal midwife to queen Marie de Médicis, the second wife of King Henri IV, she also had the honor of delivering the future king Louis XIII, thus ensuring peace and stability in France by facilitating the birth of a healthy male heir for the Bourbon dynasty. Only males could succeed to the French throne.

“Born into a wealthy, property-owning family living just outside the city gates of Paris, her life fell apart in 1589 during the religious civil wars when royal troops reduced everything in her neighborhood to rubble, including her home and other family properties. With her surgeon husband already at the front, Bourgeois fled to safety within Paris with her mother and three small children.

“Upon her arrival in Paris, Bourgeois eked out an existence by doing needlepoint, her only marketable skill, and by selling personal property. She discovered her medical calling by chance when a honneste femme; i.e., an unlicensed midwife who had delivered her children, counseled her to become a midwife. Bourgeois’ reading skills and connections to the medical world through her surgeon husband made a career in midwifery a natural choice, the older woman told her. Reluctant at first to engage in a craft, perhaps because it seemed lowly to her, perhaps because of the responsibility for human life it entailed, Bourgeois considered the woman’s advice more seriously once economic necessity forced her to do so.

“Bourgeois trained herself by reading the works of the famous royal surgeon Ambroise Paré who had reintroduced birthing techniques for delivering malpresenting babies without the use of crochet hooks or knives, as was the usual practice. She then began delivering the children of women from her district. Word spread of her skill until ultimately she rose to the position of royal midwife, a post she acquired through a vast networking scheme that called upon her aristocratic clients, their husbands, and the royal physicians who had recommended her to Marie de Médicis.

“Clearly Bourgeois benefitted financially by becoming royal midwife. The celebrity and confidence that the king and queen bestowed upon her resulted in a payment to her of 900 livres for each of the last four royal births, when a salaried midwife hired by municipality earned only fifty livres per year. Eventually the king settled upon a yearly pension of 300 écus, a goodly amount when compared to the 26 livres a year made by midwives in the city of Nevers in 1602. Thus, in 1605, Bourgeois and her husband were able to buy a house in Paris to replace the one they had lost during the civil war (known as the ‘troubles'). They were still living there during the second decade of the seventeenth century.

“The life of Louise Bourgeois, published author and royal midwife, is a true success story and a warning tale. Bourgeois’s economic future depended on the royal family's trajectory and her own success at court. After Henri IV was killed by an assassin in 1610, she continued to receive her pension but found herself with little work. At this juncture, she complained that she lost the Paris clients who she had neglected out of necessity during the peak of her activity at the royal court. Nevertheless, she continued to write and to publish while concerning herself with building a family medical dynasty. Two more volumes of her three volume work Observations diverses appeared in 1617 and 1626, respectively. These volumes include case histories, autobiographical materials, advice to her daughter, her thoughts on the moral and spiritual role of the midwife, criticism of physicians’ and surgeons’ behavior in the birthing room, as well as recipes for medicaments that any housewife could make up in her own kitchen.

“Bourgeois’s daughter Antoinette became a midwife and married a physician while one of her sons became an apothecary and another became a royal physician. Another daughter, Françoise, married a medical student who launched a brilliant career facilitated by Bourgeois’s professional connections and the huge dowry she and her surgeon husband gave to their son-in-law. Thus, Bourgeois remarked, ‘The whole body of Medicine is complete in our house.’

“In 1627, one year after the final volume of her Observations diverses was published, Bourgeois suffered a serious professional blow when King Louis XIII's sister-in-law Marie de Bourbon Montpensier died a few days after Bourgeois attended the birth of her child. The royal death sent the court physicians and surgeons into an attack mode. Their autopsy report left the impression that Madame de Montpensier died as a result of Bourgeois's failure to remove all of the placenta, which caused a lethal infection. While Bourgeois responded to the post-mortem autopsy report with great vigor, an anonymous author responded in kind, accusing the royal midwife of incompetence and insubordination. (At the time, physicians and surgeons were the midwives’ professional overseers). We don’t know how Bourgeois fared after her fall from grace. However, her overall reputation seems not to have suffered outside of courtly circles. The appearance of her last publication, Recueil de Secrets (1635), published a year before her death, suggests that at least as far as her publisher was concerned, her practical wisdom was still in demand. Recueil de Secrets contains recipes for a variety of illnesses, including, but not limited to, women’s maladies.

“Louise Bourgeois’s popularity can be measured by the numerous editions of the Observations diverses that appeared in French throughout the seventeenth century. German and Dutch translations were published in the seventeenth century as well as a partial English translation. While Bourgeois's fame and the recognition of her contributions to the field of obstetrics has waxed and waned over the centuries. today she is widely recognized by historians as an outstanding woman of her time.”

Clio Notes: The author of this profile, Alison Klairmont Lingo (University of California, Berkeley), is currently writing an introduction, medical glossary and other accompanying notes for the first complete English translation (by Stephanie O’Hara) of the Observations diverses sur la sterilite. perte de fruit & foecondité , accouchements et maladies des femmes et enfantz nouveaux naiz (Paris, 1609, 1617, 1626). The volume is being prepared for publication in a series entitled “The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe,” produced by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies Publications (CRRS), Toronto, Canada. For further information, contact
alisonlingo@gmail.com.

Rich Country, Poor Children

The other night I watched a disturbing report on 60 Minutes about newly homeless children in Florida who were living in vans and cheap motels, studying by candlelight, and getting ready for school in public bathrooms. A large segment of these children were living with parents who made a comfortable living and owned homes just two, three, or even one year ago.

Now I am not a naïve U.S. citizen -- I know that the poverty rates in the wealthiest nation are at record highs, and the middle class is disappearing. Women, once employed at a higher rate than their male counterparts, are now facing the same unemployment rates as men. According to a recent story in the New York Times, the portion of American women at work declined to 53 percent in February, the lowest levels since 1988.

I have accepted that the jobless rate may remain the same, or possibly rise as projected, for a few more years. But I cannot accept the fact that our children are starving as our economy is booming and our bankers are reaching record profits.

According to the 60 Minutes report:

The government considers a family of four to be impoverished if they take in less than $22,000 a year. Based on that standard, and government projections of unemployment, it is estimated the poverty rate for kids in this country will soon hit 25 percent. Those children would be the largest American generation to be raised in hard times since the Great Depression.

I then discovered something greatly disappointing about my country: since its inception in 1989, only two countries have not ratified UNICEF's Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) -- the U.S. and Somalia.

On the presidential campaign trail, candidate Obama expressed a strong interest in ratifying the global initiative; in 2009, his administration then claimed the U.S. would sign on. That was two years ago, and we now have a rising poverty rate that will affect 1 in every 4 children.

Can our policy makers at the very least begin the process of attaining higher standards of living for our children and future generations?

According to UNICEF's site, the CRC:

"...highlights the unalienable rights of children. It establishes that governments will, to the best of their ability, ensure that all children have adequate shelter and a safe living environment, nutritious food, clean water, health care, and education. It grants children the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns. In essence, the CRC requires governments to protect the humanity and value the potential of all children."

The Obama administration has a lot of policy decisions on the agenda that are surely taking a precedence over the CRC. But without prioritizing the millions of voiceless children suffering right now, the country is not prioritizing its own future. To tell your legislators to ratify the CRC, sign this petition.

Women in the Arts: Where Do We Stand Today?

Guerrilla Girls poster from 1988. Copyright Guerrilla Girls Inc.

How much has changed for women in the art world since the women's movement shined light on its inequalities in the 1970s and the Guerrilla Girls entered our collective consciousness in the 1980s? What is it like to be a woman artist working in the 21st Century? What difficulties do we face? Have things gotten better? I decided to ask women artists working today how they felt. (And by the way, check out a video excerpt of a recent talk the Guerrilla Girls gave at the Museum of Modern Art for some updated information on the status of women in the arts today.)

“I'd say women in the arts today struggle with being categorized as 'women in the arts' instead of just 'more amazing artists.' I feel the same about 'Black Artists.' Whether we like it or not, whether we admit it or not, there is a difference--society makes sure of that. Whether we're talking about the 1970s...or 2011, the change isn't as significant-in my opinion-as one might think.” - Artist Mallory Dover

Guerrilla Girls poster from 1985. Copyright Guerrilla Girls Inc.

“Women and women's art are still segregated. It’s a women's art show rather then an art show, or labeled feminist regardless of the content of the art. Although I suppose being a woman you just are a feminist. And 'women of color' is almost always meant to represent [an] entire race, which can be good or bad or simply not meant for that. It’s one person’s expression…” -Photographer Sara Hart

"I have to place being a woman as a secondary thing as an artist. It's actually how I like to work, so that when the piece is viewed, one is truly honoring the integrity of the work sans the gender. It's allowed my work to be seen with a strength usually reserved for male artists....I can be strong...and can be raw...and not apologize for it." -Painter Kimberly M. Becoat

"'Keeping it truckin’ on the high road is always a challenge. They don’t tell you, but the high road is full of sinkholes and the tolls are crazy expensive. Low road? Free ride and smoother than a billiard ball, baby. My struggle as a writer, particularly writing for and about women of color, is that I know that I can knock out a magazine article on ‘Back-stabbing Girlfriends’ or ‘Down-low Brothers’ and get ten, maybe even fifty times the readers as I do with a “positive” piece. That’s nothing new, bad news always attracts more eyeballs, but it’s particularly sticky when dealing with issues of race--because I know the history and I want no part of something that is going to cause us harm. So, that means being creative, and constantly trying to find new ways of sexy-ing up the real, of repackaging the good medicine in the latest IT bag." -Writer Black Lily

"Surprisingly, I feel like since I switched from 2D mixed media over to performance art, gender has stopped being a major point of discrimination. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that my work is often about black women and they are also often my primary target audience. Doing public performance means I am often responsible for creating the avenues through which people initially view my work. I also tend to apply to places or events where there are lots of black women, so these places are often excited about me being black and female as opposed to put off by it. So far, the people who run these spaces or events that I have shown my work at have been predominantly women. Perhaps this is rise in female curators and arts professionals is what is making the difference." -Performance artist Aisha Cousins

While these artists all had varying perspectives on what it means to be a woman in the arts today, it's clear that whatever barriers there may be, it's not stopping them from creating or having successful careers. There are still obstacles to be overcome, but there have also been changes for the better. As Aisha noted, there are more female arts professionals in the field today. There are more alternative spaces artists can show their work in, and the introduction of the internet has helped level the playing field in that artists can promote their own work and reach a wider audience quickly, for little or no money. This means that the major museums and galleries--long the primary taste makers, and venues that excluded women and artists of color--are not the only way for an artist to make a name for herself.

Dear Planned Parenthood: Sexuality & Reproduction in Art

Lately, the arts and reproductive rights have been on my mind, which is not surprising by any means since both these topics are on the tips of many tongues. Whether it's Obama's plan to reduce arts funding or Planned Parenthood's recent setback, we've got a lot of advocating to do about their importance.

For example, view the video of Congresswoman Jackie Speier's reaction to a New Jersey representative's attempt to shame women who've had abortions. Sharing her abortion story truly took a great amount of bravery, and even more sensibility than what we've been observing lately regarding reproductive rights. As noted in the Mother Jones article, there is no question about what lies at the heart of the matter:

Critics of the funding contend that because money is fungible, these dollars are, in effect, paying for abortion services.

Moralizing rhetoric is rampant these days. In addition, opinions about sexuality have become confused with guidelines for reproductive rights.

It's a similar story in Art History, where the language is pared down to a few canonical "documents" of culture. Take a moment to search your memory for art works and performances that display (and furthermore, celebrate) female sexuality.

I thought of a few: whether it's the subversive animation that brought us Bettie Boop, Tracey Emin's sensitive installation about intimacy, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (1963-1995), Renee Cox's Yo Mama series, or Frida Kahlo's painting Henry Ford Hospital, the subject matter allows viewers to contemplate childbirth, loss, and the very public nature of womens' bodies.

Frida Kahlo. Henry Ford Gallery. 1932. Oil on metal. Image via Olga's Gallery.

Each of these women attached personal symbolism to their experiences, and this is no different from what we do in our daily lives. What I find most interesting about Henry Ford Hospital and Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (1963-1995), is that they do what Speier did -- they contribute to defending a platform for a larger community of women in similar positions.

When I am shocked by the ultimate ignorance of "leaders," it's always comforting to look at these art works and remember that you can't stifle imagination at its best.

MAKE CHANGE: Join Me on the Bridge for the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day

Ten years ago, when I was twenty-two years old my sister was in downtown Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001. I will never forget every detail of that day. Frantically dialing her cell phone number from my Midtown Manhattan office and holding a sign with her name outside my building while watching the Towers burn then fall. Everything, everyone was on fast forward then pause. I remember walking across the 59th Street Bridge more afraid than I ever have been still, yet knowing she waited for me to arrive home to her in Brooklyn. Safe. As sisters, we spent one day in outright war. Afghanistan has spent ten years due to the War on Terror. According to Women for Women International, in 2010 alone, civilian casualties in the War on Terror are estimated at 10,000 people. Since 1998, the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo has lost 5.4 million civilians. None of these numbers account for rape as a weapon of war, a recognized and grueling byproduct of conflict.

On March 8, 2011, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Mexico to China to India to Brazil to Afghanistan, women, men, and children are coming together on bridges all over the world to honor the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day in a call for peace. Women for Women International's Join Me on the Bridge Campaign is that call for peace: for women and children in countries where war is their every day challenge in life, and has been repeatedly for so many years fathoming their daily existence seems almost impossible.

In San Francisco, the event is hosted by Google and is meeting at Crissy Field before crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. In London, the march is lead by Annie Lennox and traverses the Millennium Bridge. In New York, we converge on the Brooklyn Bridge where Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International, will speak. In China, people will gather on the Great Wall. In Paris, they will gather on March 6 and March 8 to honor the Join Me on the Bridge Campaign.


The 100th anniversary of International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the economic, political, and social achievements of women past, present, and future. One week from now, on the 100th anniversary honor and advocate for peace. In Egypt, we witnessed that the mass can come together in hope and create legitimate change.

Kate Nustedt, Executive Director of Women for Women International UK says, “A 100 years ago brave women stood up and changed the world for so many of us. Today, there are equally brave women standing up for equality in Afghanistan and other war-torn countries. Now is our chance to get behind these women and help bring peace and greater security to their lives.”

You can sign the petition here to acknowledge that you support women in Afghanistan and you can attend a Join Me on the Bridge event near you.

From Freedom Riders to Freedom Marchers: 50 Years of Nonviolent Resistance

African American and Women's History Month held in February holds special significance this year. We mark 50 years since a dedicated group of men and women hailing from all across the U.S. boarded buses in Washington, D.C. bound for Jackson, Mississippi. Bridging the divides of race, age, and class, they united around a common mission: to stage nonviolent protests against the Southern states' outdated Jim Crow laws and their non-compliance with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited segregation in all interstate public transportation facilities.

The core membership of the 430-strong "Freedom Riders" included members of the Nashville Student Movement, an activist group who had already successfully desegregated lunch counters and movie theaters in their home city. Diane Nash, a capable, articulate spokesperson, coordinated the Freedom Riders' efforts from Nashville. Reverend James Lawson, an ardent proponent of non-violence who informed Dr. Martin Luther King's strategies and actions, mentored the Riders in the art of non-violence.

As the buses departed Washington on May 5, 1961, black and white riders sat side by side, an act criminalized in most segregated states. At stops along the way, the Freedom Riders entered "whites" and "colored" areas in contrary fashion and dined together at segregated lunch counters. The journey taken by these non-violent protesters involved brutal beatings, fire bombing of their bus, and ultimate imprisonment in Mississippi's notorious State Penitentiary, Parchman Farm. Their efforts have been hailed as a watershed moment within the trajectory of the Civil Rights Movement.

Spawned by the courage and creativity of bold young people, undivided by gender, race, socioeconomic status, these 430 individuals came together as a united front to oppose discrimination, violent oppression, and sanctioned inequity. I honor them especially right now, as the daily news bears faces of Egyptians, Libyans, Bahrainis, Iranians, Tunisians, Algerians. I see men and women, old and young, of many colors and religious affiliations. United, they stand and march and chant together for their basic human rights: to live free from violence and oppression, to overcome indignity and poverty, to have a voice in their governance.

I offer up a plea that the lesson of history will be repeated and that the truth of of Dr. King's assertion -- "The arc of history is long, and it bends toward justice" -- will have its day.

* * * * * * *

To find our more about the Freedom Riders, watch this trailer for a new documentary by Director Stanley Nelson.

To read more about the protests rocking the Middle East, click here. And read The Economist's analysis of the protests and their potential for effecting regime change here.

Is Popular Culture Bleaching Out Cultural Identity?

Last week a friend turned my attention to Beyoncé’s new look at the Grammys. Normally, I'm not drawn into celebrity culture. Vapid and unattainable, it makes me depressed and overly concerned. But the recent pictures of her took me aback. Blonder and fairer than ever, Beyoncé looked like she had morphed into Gwyneth Paltrow.

As a pop culture role model for women, Beyoncé stands tall. She is an intelligent, attractive, and well-spoken performer and she is also an ardent businesswoman, even holding her own against her partner Jay-Z, the successful rapper. Undoubtedly, she exists within an industry where she has to emulate "a look." For a while, I couldn’t tell the difference between her, Shakira, and Jennifer Lopez -- some of the most culturally diverse performers in mainstream music. Yet, their styles seemed to blend seamlessly into one another. Largely emulating the original material girl, Madonna, these performers are walking advertisements for various brands -- be it hair, make up, clothes, shoes, or cars. On one side, the argument is that these women have in a capitalistic, male-dominated industry been able to create their own lucrative deals and take charge of their own money. But, what about their identity? Are the effects of celebrity-driven culture removing important aspects of their cultural identity?

Beyoncé is a lighter-skinned woman of color. While she usually has the highly moneyed, honeyed hair she had for the Grammys, she has also experimented with various hair colors and styles. However, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a British writer and journalist who grew up in East Africa with ancestry from Pakistan, much like my own parents, was up in arms about Beyoncé's appearance at the awards. She wrote in the Daily Mail accusing Beyoncé of betraying her African-American cultural heritage and of betraying women of color.

I do think in the entertainment industry, where hair is an art form in and of itself, accusing Beyoncé of trying to "be white" is too simple and unfair. As a woman of color, I have done all sorts of things with my hair. Naturally, I am dark chocolate with big waves. But I’ve had light brown, orange, straight, and kinky hair. I’ve partly shaved my head and also had pink and red spikes. I was never trying to look white or wash out my cultural identity. Rather, I was trying to have as much technicolor fun as I could with my hair. I was "experimenting." What then is the problem with Beyoncé’s recent image?

Miss Representation: Exploring the Media's Portrayal of Women

Anyone who watched the Superbowl would most likely agree, hyper-sexualized commercials featuring women in scantily clad outfits have taken over mass-media marketing. GoDaddy.com have actually begun prompting viewers to access their web site in addition to watching the TV ad, in order to see Danica Patrick, GoDaddy’s spokeswomen, in a more provocative setting (click the link to that ad if you're interested in what that entails, or better yet, don't bother). In doing so, the company avoids compliance with the more stringent FCC regulations regarding offensive content of a sexual nature. Is this simply good marketing? Companies knowing how to accurately target the predominately male audience and lure them to their products? Or, are such campaigns actually harming the way both men and women view women in society?

Jennifer Siebel Newsom explores these issues, and so many more, in her new feature length documentary, Miss Representation. Miss Representation debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January and is on its way to theaters across the country and educational institutions throughout the world. Newsom evaluates the messages sent by today’s media: that a woman’s true value lies in her physical attributes and sexuality, not in her actual abilities. Troubled by both the impact these messages have on young boys -- that women are objects of beauty meant to be enjoyed -- and the way the same messages are internalized by young girls, Newsom gathered a top-notch group of female activists to emphasize that something must be done to change our media.

This documentary comes at a rather fitting time when many argue that women have finally achieved greater parity with men, as exemplified by Hilary Clinton’s strength in the 2008 elections. Yet, Newsom shows how the same election highlighted just how much further there is yet to go. Yes, the United States finally had a woman running for the highest office, but the U.S. still ranks 90th in the world for women in national legislatures. That’s embarrassing. Newsom goes on to show that the issue goes so much deeper than just a lack of government representation. What is really at issue is how women are portrayed.

Society has become so fixated on a woman's appearance that even women have started attacking other women for not conforming to media's fabricated definition of beauty. One glance at the Miss Representation trailer and you’ll see clips from women in the media minimizing the accomplishments of other women because of physical attributes. Sitcoms, commercials, and even news shows continuously over emphasize the importance of a woman's age, beauty, and sexuality.

Despite the failings of today's media in portraying a sense of equality among the sexes, Newsom gives her viewers hope and offers real solutions. You can learn more about the film and what you can do to make a difference by visiting the Miss Representation website.

Check out the screening section to see if the film is playing near you or to find out how you can host a screening.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Miss Representation

The Power of Vulnerability

I recently came across this amazing TED Talk (also below) with Brené Brown, an American social scientist who took to the painstaking task of studying vulnerability in human emotions; specifically, what separates people who are able to love wholeheartedly from those who claim they cannot. Her study was brave in that it became a personal exploration that she was able to then relate to big picture issues facing the world around her.

What Brown discovers is that those who have more confidence and are more open to loving relationships also make themselves very vulnerable in life, as in, they take on more risks. She also observed that people in America numb themselves to vulnerability, and this can be evidenced by the fact that we are "The most in debt, obese, addicted and medicated adult cohort in U.S. history."

What do her findings mean for society at large? I'm not entirely sure, but I think the notion that we as a people need to confront vulnerability and embrace it can be a powerful goal, to start.

Glittering Spirit: The Art of Kelly Shaw Willman

From uphill invisible swimming performance series
copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

As an avant-garde performance artist, a vocalist, an experimental poet, and multimedia artist, Kelly Shaw Willman's creativity spans many mediums. Her work is an intricately woven into her life’s journey, making her performances deeply personal. Willman’s performances have taken place in the remote woods of Maine to a sunny Iowa farm to a dimly lit living room in Brooklyn. She has an uncanny ability to transform spaces and to draw the audience into her inner world.

From the uphill invisible swimming performance series.
Copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

According to her website Kelly was "born & raised amongst the cornfields & creek-beds of eastern Iowa, but a life-long obsession with the ocean inspires her to one day settle in a self-sustaining ((coastal)) arts space... Kelly migrates through these creative times as an original daughter of the waves & seeker of glowing trails."

Kelly's performances invoke a sense of magic and involve ritualistic processes with objects and symbols that give her work layered meaning. There are recorded sounds and voices played back on tape recorders, apples being sliced, honey being poured, and copious amounts of glitter in Willman's sacred space.

From Kelly's grunge*quest performance series.
Image copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

Spirituality and the sacred within art practice is a common theme in my ongoing creative discussions with Kelly. During one such exchange over email, she had this to say:

"The community of artists I gravitate toward is operating from spaces that are more energy-based, more mystical. Sounds are words. Color and iconography (in placement and mere presence) equate efforts to communicate a deeper meaning: something of the spirit, of a life past, of a shape shifted, of a message received, of a dream...I think a newfound fixation on this creative magic is much more intensified in the artists of now."

From Kelly's uphill invisible swimming performance series.
Copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

From uphill invisible swimming performance series.
Copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

In Kelly's most recent works, part of her uphill invisible swimming performance series, her body becomes the vessel for her sacred rituals. The pieces bring to mind the work of the late artist Ana Mendieta, whose groundbreaking works incorporated her own body and explored themes of ritual, spirituality, and her own identity. She coined the term "earth-body work," as a way of "resisting the terminology that she felt the art world establishment tried to impose on her." (Olga Viso, Unseen Mendieta). And much like Mendieta, Willman resists putting labels on her work. "I am...not attracted to the exercise of labeling art or beings...I prefer no labels on my work or on my sleeve..."

The strength of Willman's work is that it is so personal, so uniquely her own. Through performance, sound, and image, she has developed a personal iconography that charts the journey of her life. In documenting her own course, she invites each of us to consider the beauty and lessons of our own paths.

From uphill invisible swimming series. Copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

Kelly Shaw Willman is an exciting young artist we'll definitely be hearing much more from in the future. Keep up with her creative process on her blog, check out her facebook fan page, and view more performance photos on her flickr page.

Post-Valentine's Day Reflection: What's Love Got to Do With It?

Just more than a month has passed since Americans witnessed in disbelief as a young, frustrated solitary gunman in Arizona killed six fellow citizens in cold blood and wounded more than a dozen others. This stunning national tragedy generated immediate finger pointing and scapegoating, knee-jerk reactions evidencing the fault lines within U.S. politics. Slowly, however, aggressive vitriol gave way to what felt like communal sobbing. During the first 24 hours following the attack, it seemed as if millions of Americans traversed the stages of grief, albeit at vastly differing paces.

The evening of January 12th, President Obama stood before the families and friends of the slain and wounded citizens. He spoke earnestly and deeply to them in their grief. Summoned to assuage profound sorrow, to rationalize the irrational, and perhaps -- above all -- to reunite a nation deeply at odds, he chose to address the American people on themes that seldom enter political discourse. He spoke about the need for humility, for kindness, and for genuine human compassion.

With the oratorial flourish and sincerity that have become his trademarks, Obama reasoned that the sudden loss of loved ones in such a tragic, violent manner both "causes us to look backward [and] forces us to look forward, to reflect on the present and the future, on the manner in which we live our lives and nurture our relationships . . ." At times of deep loss, he reflected, we are brought face-to-face with our own mortality, the brevity of our human lives, and the fact that ultimately, ". . . what matters is not wealth, or status or power, or fame -- but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others."

As we open the pages of today's newspapers or watch the home pages of world news sites come into focus on our computers, we are bathed in images of violent reprisal to acts of nonviolent resistance. From Bahrain to Iran, Jordan to Yemen, from Iraq to the sandy soil of Egypt -- and all the places where the struggle of ordinary people to gain a legitimate voice in the laws and policies that so deeply influence the degree of their personal freedom and well-being -- we are told of aggression, of force, of some response other than that motivated by genuine human compassion. Into these spaces, I'd like to speak Obama's question: Rooted in the sanctuary of my own free and fortunate life, what small part can I play in improving the lives of others?

Long live and celebrate those brave enough to join the nonviolent movement for freedom, for voice, for greater well-being for all citizens.

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For the full text of President Obama's remarks on January 12th in Tucson, click here.

For more about the nonviolent protests across the Arab World, consult: Democracy Now! or Al Jazeera.