All Brooklynites trying to beat the summer heat should take a waterside seat for the Books Beneath The Bridge sessions happening throughout this and next month.
Now in its sophomore year, the annual literature series takes place on the Granite Prospect steps near Brooklyn Bridge and features 6 evenings curated by independent, local bookstores.
Each night will see a different reading, Q&A and book signing with selected authors, so be sure to check out the Brooklyn Bridge Park site for dates and details.
In case you’re stumped for a bit of summertime reading material, pick up a copy of Girls Like Us magazine on your way to the park/fields/strand.
An independent journal focused on women in the arts, culture and activism community, the magazine describes its aim as “mapping new routes towards a feminist, post-gender future”.
Issue 4 (The Work Issue) features NY-based DJ Venus X on its cover, plus interviews with visual artist and model Casey Legler (famously the first woman to be signed to the men’s board at Ford Models), writer and philosophy professor Nina Power, Japanese stylist and designer Mari Ouchi and more.
Girls Against God is the new bi-annual feminist and tabloid-sized print publication founded by Bianca Casady of CocoRosie and artist Anne Sherwood Pundyk.
“GAG deploys the arts to illuminate the oppressive, obsolete nature of traditional, male-defined religions and other patriarchal institutions,” reads their manifesto. Inside the magazine you will find a diverse selection of thought-provoking and original material, from a photo essay of the Seneca Women’s Peace Encampment to the artwork of Vaginal Davis.
The debut issue will be available at select locations in Europe and the U.S. , which can be found on the Capricious Publishing website.
The political debate sparked by Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich continues in literary form with Let’s Start A Pussy Riot.
Not only made in collaboration with the feminist punk rock activists, but also featuring contributions by the likes of Yoko Ono, Kim Gordon and Antony Hegarty, the book delves into the topics of women’s rights, freedom of speech and art activism through a varied selection of artists, writers and poets.
Curated by Emely Neu, edited by Jade French and made in association with Beth Siveyer of Girls Get Busy and Verity Flecknell of Storm in a Teacup, this is definitely one to add to your bookshelf.
Controversial fragrance brand Etat Libre d’Orange have opened up their first fragrance store on our side of the pond.
Known for scents such as Secretions Magnifigues (based on the smell of sperm, blood and saliva) but also olfactory collaborations with the likes of Tilda Swinton and Rossy de Palma, this fragrance brand definitely sets itself apart from your mainstream perfumes.
If you’re on the hunt for a not-so-average fragrance, be sure to pay a visit to their Redchurch Street shop now.
Tomorrow marks the kick-off of the annual East End Film Festival. Founded in 2000, this year’s line-up includes films like the Linda Boreman biopic Lovelace and Noah Baumbach’s latest flick, FrancesHa.
Alongside the over seventy film screenings, the events also includes the EEFF award ceremonies, Industry workshops for aspiring filmmakers and other live happenings. Previous guests have included Tracey Emin, Danny Boyle and Annie Lennox, so be sure to stop by.
East End Film Festival 2013 takes place from 25 June – 10 July.
If you’re keen to add a bit of feminist activism into your Friday routine, check out award-winning human rights organisation OBJECT. With the tagline ‘Women Not Sex Objects’, the group has been running anti-sexist campaigns for over a decade.
OBJECT fights against the ‘pornification’ of society — be it with public slogans such as Eff Off Hef!, law-changing campaigns such as StrippingTheIllusion or addressing the shameless display of lads magazines at national retailers.
Visit the OBJECT website to find out how to get involved.
Documentary film fans will be spoilt for choice at this week’s Open City Docs Fest, which showcases 100 international films alongside workshops, panel discussions and other live events.
Topics include the challenges of urban living, Pussy Riot, drug trafficking, subversion of art and the restorative beauty of music, so no matter what your interest, you’re sure to find its corresponding cinematic counterpart here.
Open City Docs Fest runs from June 20 to 23 at UCL/Torrington Square, WC1H 0BW.
Stumped for inspiring weekend plans? Look no further than Meltdown Festival curated by the one and only Yoko Ono.
Kicking off with a concert by Yoko Ono Plastic Band and ending with a live performance of John Lennon and Yoko’s last album Double Fantasy, there’s lots of musicians, artists and events on offer in between.
Catch the likes of Siouxsie and Julianna Barwick singing their tunes on stage, watch Peaches recreate Ono’s famous performance Cut Piece and pick up your copy of Rough Trade’s latest publication, Let’s Start a Pussy Riot. Alternatively see Kim Gordon and Bill Nace’s experimental project Body/Head in action, take in the poetry and music of Patti Smith or experience a special one-off show with Marianne Faithfull and Bill Frisell.
Meltdown Festival runs from 14-23 June at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX.
The story of punk rock political rebels Pussy Riot aka Nadia, Masha and Katia is captured in Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s documentary, Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.
Filmed over the course of six months, the film follows the trio through their controversial trial and tells the story of the women behind the neon-coloured balaclavas.
Be sure to watch this fascinating and inspiring story of political expression and artistic rebellion.
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer premieres on HBO on Monday June 10 at 7 pm.
Reclaiming the F Word
The f-word (feminism) has become a more important part of our everyday vocabulary than ever. Making sense of it all is the latest edition of Reclaiming the F Word.
Written by Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune, this book examines the development of the women’s rights movement through topics such as sexism in popular culture, the rise of cosmetic surgery and the gendered effects of the economic crisis, making it an essential read in contemporary feminism 101.
For all those looking for a way to reconnect with reality after a long bank holiday weekend, look no further than the What Is Gender? talk tonight with Stella Sandford at The Wheatsheaf.
Sandford, a reader in modern European Philosophy and member of the RadicalPhilosophy editorial collective, will be discussing the factors of sex and gender distinction in everyday life since the emergence of feminist activism in the 1960s.
Find out what subtle behaviours and roles within biology, culture and society separate women from men — and the future possibilites of challenging these impositions.
What Is Gender? takes place today at The Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place, W1T 1DG, starting at 8pm.
Yesterday marked the launch of the annual London Literature Festival at Southbank Centre. From this month through until September a variety of talks, readings and other events will be celebrating the best of fiction, poetry, plays and music.
Special highlights include a group of forty female poets and performers doing a live reading of Sylvia Plath's posthumously published body of work Ariel, poetic artist Cornelia Parker in conversation with psychoanalyst Darian Leader and a discussion on modern-day abortion politics between authors Kate Manning and G
abriel Weston.
Throughout the course of the festival you can also attends readings by award-winning poets Heather Phillipson and Emily Berry, as well as the shortlisted authors for the Women's Prize for Fiction. No matter what genre or topic strikes your fancy, be sure to check out the full list of events on the Southbank Centre website.
London Literature Festival runs from now until 8 September at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX.
This week marks the launch of Iain R. Webb's new book As Seen in BLITZ: Fashioning '80s Style. The ICA is celebrating the event with a series of talks and film screenings.
Webb's monograph focuses on the lasting influence of the style and culture bible, which emerged amongst the new wave of independent publications in London during the early 1980s like i-D and The Face.
In a worl
d of New Romantics, a hedonistic nightlife and post-punk fashion, BLITZ explored ideas of transformation, beauty, glamour and sex through its imagery and featured legendary contributors such as Leigh Bowery, Nick Knight, Bodymap, Katharine Hamnett, Vivienne Westwood and Andrew Logan.
Relive the best of the 80s this weekend by checking out the publication and visiting the ICA.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s latest exhibition devotes itself to the last true subculture: the safety-pinned, in-your-face-spitting world of punk.
Tracing the subculture’s path from underground youth movement to haute couture influence, the exhibition features designers including Vivienne Westwood, Karl Lagerfeld and Riccardo Tisci, as well as music icons such as Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious and The Clash.
Take a tour of the exhibition with the show’s curator Andrew Bolton in the video below.
Punk: Chaos to Couture is on display from May 9 to August 14.
Tonight the 4th Estate Literary Salon will be discussing feminism, fashion and the facts of life.
Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman will be in conversation with The Vagenda founders Holly Baxter and Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett. Their lively discussions will be chaired by Freeman's fellow journalist Rebecca Nicholson.
Any news of an independent, creative publishing endeavour is good news, but Illuminati Girl Gang is especially noteworthy.
Available in both an online and print format, the publication founded by poet and editor Gabby Gabby is a celebration of female poets, artists and writers.
Containing everything from short fiction to collage work, Twin recommends you check this one out.
There is perhaps no title that defines literary overkill quite like FiftyShades ofGrey. The purpose being to seemingly fulfill the intimate fantasies of the every day woman, it was the book on everybody’s lips last year. However, a direct response to James’ novel (although probably unlikely to achieve the same level of fame and a potential clothing line) proves that Mr Christian Grey simply wasn’t for everyone.
FiftyShadesofFeminism is a collection of fifty women’s thoughts on what being a woman today means to them. The book contains thoughts from politicians, youth and cultural leaders, barristers, actors and writers to name a few— from Siri Hustvedt and Jeanette Winterson to Ahdaf Soueif and Linda Grant.
Released fifty years after the publication of TheFeminineMystique, the book is a product of editor Lisa Appignanesi’s beliefs, “In any event, we were leaving Grey to become a spectrum of 50 vibrant varieties of feminism — women who can rally round Malala Yousafzai, or the victims of gang rape, acknowledge that the sheer accessibility of violence in sexuality is having terrible effects on our children’s lives, and speak out about sexist practices, while agreeing that our taste in books, humour, lifestyles or political parties can be quite different.”
Fifty Shades of Feminism is now available and published by Guardian Books.
It’s been twenty years this month since Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail and Kathy Wilcox AKA Bikini Kill last toured the UK with the new found intention of liberating girls through the punk scene.
Cited as a strong influence by nearly all major female groups and artists, from the Spice Girls to Beth Ditto, it’s hard to imagine the state of the music industry today if Riot Grrrl had never happened.
Twin takes a look back through the group’s live performances; bold, raw and the driving force behind what we know now as girl power.
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