Other Artists Working on Reproductive Rights

Other Artists Who Tell the Silenced Stories

The January 2006 newsletter of The Fund for Women Artists features interviews with three artists who tell personal stories from the struggle for reproductive freedom, but there are a lot more artists doing wonderful work.  You can find them on our free online artist directory, the WomenArts Network, or on the web.  We have listed some WomenArts Network artists and online resources below.

Back to the January 2006 Newsletter>>

Finding Artists On the WomenArts Network

It is easy to do searches by keyword on the WomenArts Network.  Just type a word like “reproductive” or “abortion” into the WomenArts Network Search Box at the bottom of the home page or anywhere else on our site, and click the Go button.  You will see a list of thumbnail profiles for everyone who has listed your keyword in their profile.  Click on any artist’s name or picture to see her full profile.  You can write to any artist on the WomenArts Network by clicking on the email link under her name on her profile page.  You can also use the Advanced Search page to do searches by theme, art form, geographic region, and more.

Here are a few of the artists you will find.  More women join the WomenArts Network every day, so the best way to make sure you get all of the current listings is to do an online search.

Penny Lane

The Abortion Diaries is a documentary about 12 women who have had abortions. 1.3 million women in the US have an abortion each year. Who are they? What can be gained from hearing their stories? In an attempt to answer these questions and sidestep the oppositional rhetoric of the abortion debate, the video introduces the audience to the faces, voices, and histories of the women about whom we are all arguing. In honor of the 33rd anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision (January 22), any organization that would like to screen The Abortion Diaries between January 21 and January 31, 2006, will be able to do so without paying rental/screening fees. Go to the Abortion Diaries web site for more details. http://network.womenarts.org/network/profile_1535.html

G. L. Horton (a.k.a. Geralyn Louise Horton)

Her play, Under Siege (a.k.a. Choices), is set in a Boston abortion clinic where bomb scares and death threats are part of a counselor’s job description. The play charts the maturation of an idealistic young counselor who learns from her colleagues how to use humor to cope with the pain of unwanted pregnancies and the stress of being under siege by pro-life fanatics. There is more information about the play and the first act of the script at: www.stagepage.info/playscripts/choice.html. Horton’s WomenArts Network profile is at: http://network.womenarts.org/network/profile_848.html

Squallis Puppeteers

Expands puppetry by performing innovative theater, exploring original puppet design, and engaging the imagination. They build community through forging creative collaborations that support educational discovery, social change, and vibrant interaction. Squallis’ performance, “The Crowning,” tells the story of a single woman’s struggle through pregnancy and childbirth choices. http://network.womenarts.org/network/profile_712.html

Kathy Coudle King

King’s play St. Bette’s tells the story of four women who entered a “home for un-wed mothers” 40 years ago. Each woman feels this is her only choice. Unmarried, young, no financial means, burgeoning professional dreams, reckless behavior, and love have brought them to this house. Some want to keep their babies. One, because of her disability, is not allowed. What is choice when there are no options? http://network.womenarts.org/network/profile_1646.html

Jane Clark

Carrie’s Choice is a short, educational, narrative film that puts an empathetic face to women who choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, in an effort to bring both sides of the issue more understanding. A college sophomore who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant explores her choices, talking to her roommate, her boyfriend, her grandmother, and a minister. The storyline is juxtaposed against the girl as a grown woman with a great career, loving husband, and her first baby on the way. http://network.womenarts.org/network/profile_1992.html 

Carolyn Gage

The Goddess Tour is an old-fashioned murder mystery play that packs a feminist punch, including exploration of the potentially murderous dyad of mothers and daughters. Celtic ritual and goddess lore are interwoven with sacred imagery of gestation and birth, as these are counterposed with legacies of violence against women and children, the brutal history of Ireland’s colonization, and the horrors of slavery on the American continent. A description of the play is on Gage’s web page at: www.carolyngage.com/shows2.html#Section314. Gage’s WomenArts Network profile: http://network.womenarts.org/network/profile_67.html

 

Finding Projects and Artists on the Web!

This is by no means a comprehensive list – we have selected some of our favorite sites. Send yours to us at info@WomenArts.org!

Jane: Abortion and the Underground, a play by Paula Kamen. Read the original press release (1999) and learn about this network of abortion providers that operated underground in Chicago in pre-Roe days: http://www.cwluherstory.com/abortion-and-the-underground.html

 

Speak Out: I Had an Abortion (2005) – Documentary featuring 11 women, ages 21 to 85, telling their abortion experience. Produced by Jennifer Baumgardner and Gillian Aldrich. www.speakoutfilms.com 

 

Women Make Movies has an extensive catalogue of additional films on reproductive rights. Search by Reproductive Rights on the Advanced Search page of their site to see the list: www.wmm.com

Abortion Stories – Exhibition by Colette Copeland, compiling interviews and photographs of women and their experiences with abortion. www.womanmade.org/show.html?type=solo&gallery=abortionstories2001&pic=1

The Last Abortion Clinic – The documentary examines the damaging tactics that the anti-choice movement in Mississippi and across the country is using to chip away at abortion rights. www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/clinic/

What If Your Mother – Poems by Judith Arcana. Minnie Bruce Pratt says of the collection, “Judith Arcana’s fierce, funny and bold poetry about mothers, abortion – and us – is a page-turner that you can’t put down.” www.chicorybluepress.com/mother.html

Back to the January 2006 Newsletter>>

This entry was posted in Film, Spoken Word & Poetry, Theatre, Visual Arts, WomenArts, Writers/Literature on by .

About Sarah Browning

Sarah Browning is Director of Split This Rock and DC Poets Against the War, author of Whiskey in the Garden of Eden (The Word Works, 2007), and co-editor of D.C. Poets Against the War: An Anthology (Argonne House Press, 2004). The recipient of an artist fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, she has also received a Creative Communities Initiative grant and the People Before Profits Poetry Prize. Browning has worked as a community organizer in Boston public housing and as a political organizer for reproductive rights, gay rights, and electoral reform, and against poverty, South African apartheid, and U.S. militarism. She was founding director of Amherst Writers & Artists Institute — creative writing workshops for low-income women and youth — and Assistant Director of The Fund for Women Artists, an organization supporting socially engaged art by women. She has written essays and interviewed poets and artists for a variety of publications.