Human Rights for Women!
Donation protected
“We wanted a chance to fully dive into the social norms that construct and manage our behavior towards women. As we move closer to a more conscious and socially aware generation, we wanted to know just how far do we have to go for women’s rights to truly be accepted and acknowledged as human rights. We cannot be successful in any movement towards total liberation without getting every person to understand it isn’t just a woman’s issue, it is a human issue.” – Norah Yahya, Curator
As a young woman of color, I was exposed to chauvinism at an early age by being consistently exposed to physical and verbal abuse against women. Unfortunately, sometimes it was by men I loved the most. It shaped my perspective of what it meant to be a woman in this world. Helpless. It wasn't until later in life where I had the chance to develop the mental strength to reject this norm and push back on all former beliefs. We all have an opportunity to create why not give artists an opportunity to create based on this new rejection and go a step further by creating the platform for meaningful dialogue to impact an audience and create not just art, but change. This is us taking back our voices.
We understand it is critical to an artist's development that they be compensated for their contribution!!! So this is a campaign to raise funds to appropriately pay our artists as well as meet their tech needs and stage props needs! We appreciate your donation.
Each night will begin with a performance to ignite dialogue and then move into a panel discussion with the featured artists, community members and leaders, and filmmakers and activists to then engage the audience in the conversation. The curators of the evening want the audience to not only be empathetic but to become altruistic in their vision for women’s liberation.
The first evening will unpack Gender Norms and dissect why certain gender roles are considered feminine or masculine within our society and assess within those norms what expectations are assumed. This evening will be a combination of dance performances by Johari Mayfield. In addition the evening will allow students from Playwright/director Barbara Cassidy and Anthropologist/Linguist Shonna Trinch class called Seeing Rape at John Jay College of Criminal Justice perform their final projetcs. This class explores depictions of rape in theater, literature and film, as well as uses of rape in war and our world at large. Some of their students’ (Brandon Ariezaga, Steven Beauduy, Bradley Davis, Majed Elmoneim, Anna Giannicchi, Shaneek Houslin, Muhammad Khan, Izabela Qafa and Brittany Washington) final projects, which are short plays and monologues using rape as a theme, will be presented in a staged reading by actors.
The second evening exposes the conscious and subconscious treatment of women and the impact it has on the daily lives of women and men. Within this analysis, the artists will propose new ways of thinking and forces us to question our beliefs and assess how modern society’s backbone has been based on religious narratives of womanhood. Featured artists include Tigist Salem and Delphine Fawunda, both well-known mixed media artists. Alongside, Catherine Cabeen will also perform Ready, Aim, a solo comedic performance of dance theatre.
The third evening will dissect the impediments to the Women’s Rights Movement. How often have women's rights been placed on the back burner for greater political agendas? This evening will dig into prior women’s movements and question why leaders like Susan B. Anthony caved to political pressures and subsequently distinguished between the rights of Caucasian and African women; consequentially, shaping the experience of African American Women's Rights in the US. The featured artists for this evening include Brittany Williams, Kasara E. Davidson, Kat Mustatea, Nikki Jusu and Shauntee Henry.
As a young woman of color, I was exposed to chauvinism at an early age by being consistently exposed to physical and verbal abuse against women. Unfortunately, sometimes it was by men I loved the most. It shaped my perspective of what it meant to be a woman in this world. Helpless. It wasn't until later in life where I had the chance to develop the mental strength to reject this norm and push back on all former beliefs. We all have an opportunity to create why not give artists an opportunity to create based on this new rejection and go a step further by creating the platform for meaningful dialogue to impact an audience and create not just art, but change. This is us taking back our voices.
We understand it is critical to an artist's development that they be compensated for their contribution!!! So this is a campaign to raise funds to appropriately pay our artists as well as meet their tech needs and stage props needs! We appreciate your donation.
Each night will begin with a performance to ignite dialogue and then move into a panel discussion with the featured artists, community members and leaders, and filmmakers and activists to then engage the audience in the conversation. The curators of the evening want the audience to not only be empathetic but to become altruistic in their vision for women’s liberation.
The first evening will unpack Gender Norms and dissect why certain gender roles are considered feminine or masculine within our society and assess within those norms what expectations are assumed. This evening will be a combination of dance performances by Johari Mayfield. In addition the evening will allow students from Playwright/director Barbara Cassidy and Anthropologist/Linguist Shonna Trinch class called Seeing Rape at John Jay College of Criminal Justice perform their final projetcs. This class explores depictions of rape in theater, literature and film, as well as uses of rape in war and our world at large. Some of their students’ (Brandon Ariezaga, Steven Beauduy, Bradley Davis, Majed Elmoneim, Anna Giannicchi, Shaneek Houslin, Muhammad Khan, Izabela Qafa and Brittany Washington) final projects, which are short plays and monologues using rape as a theme, will be presented in a staged reading by actors.
The second evening exposes the conscious and subconscious treatment of women and the impact it has on the daily lives of women and men. Within this analysis, the artists will propose new ways of thinking and forces us to question our beliefs and assess how modern society’s backbone has been based on religious narratives of womanhood. Featured artists include Tigist Salem and Delphine Fawunda, both well-known mixed media artists. Alongside, Catherine Cabeen will also perform Ready, Aim, a solo comedic performance of dance theatre.
The third evening will dissect the impediments to the Women’s Rights Movement. How often have women's rights been placed on the back burner for greater political agendas? This evening will dig into prior women’s movements and question why leaders like Susan B. Anthony caved to political pressures and subsequently distinguished between the rights of Caucasian and African women; consequentially, shaping the experience of African American Women's Rights in the US. The featured artists for this evening include Brittany Williams, Kasara E. Davidson, Kat Mustatea, Nikki Jusu and Shauntee Henry.
Organizer
Norah Yahya
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY