Category: Arts

ASWM’s mission extends to the influence of scholarship in Women and Mythology on the arts. These posts highlight some of our activities and members.

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“Still Powerful,” Feminist Art by Rae Atira-Soncea

Still Powerful: Artworks by Rae Atira-Soncea

Feminist visionary artist Rae Atira-Soncea passed away ten years ago. Now in a new retrospective show, her dynamic work will be on display again in the Spring of 2019.  A longtime leader of the arts community and a disability rights activist, Rae was featured at the first symposium of ASWM in 2008. Her work also appears in ASWM’s proceeings volume, Vibrant Voices: Women, Myth, and the Arts.

“Still Powerful: feminist revisioning of domestic objects by Rae Atira-Soncea,” will be March 23-31, 2019, on the 3rd floor Common Wealth Gallery, 100 S Baldwin, Madison WI 53703  Open 10-4 weekdays, and 9-5 on the 24th, 30th and 31st.

Reception will be Saturday, March 23, 2018 4-7:30PM.  Much of the art featured in her blog will be on display and on sale.

Rae working on her Earth Goddess for “The Yurt”
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La Frontierra Chingada: a film

by Emily Packer, Filmmaker

ASWM Winter Warmers Film Festival 2019
ASWM Biennial Conference Film Series 2018
Synopsis

La Frontierra Chingada is a poetic non-fiction film about motherhood on the US-Mexico border. These figures (mythic and otherwise) manifest themselves at Friendship Park–a space where families on either side of la frontera can come together, but under extreme conditions of surveillance. Guided in part by conversations with the filmmaker’s matrilineal family, this Spanglish film concerns itself with relationships between bodies, space, and the shared land and history in the San Diego-Tijuana region.

Trailer

 

"A huge part of my trepidation in making this film was about not wanting to presume to be able to make a relevant film about the border as an Anglo American filmmaker. But I think it’s incredibly important for white artists to make reflexive work about the border, given that we are implicated in its existence, and that our understanding and perspective shift is necessary to improve the situation (which includes death, dehumanization, and forced separation of family). At some point I gave myself permission to trust that I could make meaningful art about the border, and that the story I had to tell was important." - Emily Packer

Bio

Emily Packer is a non-fiction filmmaker with a focus on women's stories and an interest in Border Culture and Border Theory. Her documentary style ranges from observational to reflexive, experimental, and poetic. Emily graduated from Hampshire College in December of 2015. The following year, she organized the three-day event Arte on the Line in San Diego and Tijuana, where she screened her second feature-length film La Frontierra Chingada. Emily’s first film, Nationless, explored the unique socio-political situation of Tibetan refugees in Nepal. In addition to her independent work, she has consulted and edited for Deliberate Healing Productions and Ashbourne Films. She works as a media manager for Zero Point Zero Productions in New York City, and in her spare time volunteers for Tribeca Film Festival’s programming team. Emily collects voicemails for future use; consider yourself notified.

Scholar Salons with Emily Packer, Filmmaker

For more information on Emily's films visit marginalgapfilms.com . 

Scholar Salon 4

Feb 2020 live online salon with Emily Packer about the film.

Feature Film Screening for Members Only

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What’s the Buzz about “Vibrant Voices”?

Vibrant Voices: Women, Myth, and the Arts

Volume II of Proceedings of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology, edited by Sid Reger and Marna Hauk

“Vibrant Voices is an essential guide and touchstone for all future work on women and mythology.”
–Miranda Shaw, author of Passionate Enlightenment

 

We proudly launch this beautiful proceedings volume on March 17, 2018 at our ASWM Conference.  At least 15 of our contributors will be on hand, and book signings will be happening at the Marketplace from4 to 8pm. There is a special introductory price for those attending the conference.

With over 30 contributors, this full-color book explores the many facets of women’s arts as they illuminate sacred stories from many traditions. In her Foreword, Judy Grahn says,

These essays add to our sensual experiences as well as to our ever-expanding knowledge base. The invitational qualities and broad diversity of origin and expression of the selections in this volume are balanced by histories of the colonization that the foremothers and preservers of indigenous religions and community have had to endure.

 Our goals in creating this book were to honor artist-scholars’ work and to inspire further explorations of women and the arts. We include visual arts, poetry, and scholarship from over 30 contributors who have presented at ASWM events. In her Afterword, Cristina Biaggi speaks to this intention:

This amazing small gem of an anthology – full of wisdom and new ways of seeing and inspiration – is a welcome addition to our growing Goddess library that serves to nourish and inspire us and beckons us toward a new world filled with hope and light.

Here what other goddess scholars are saying about Vibrant Voices:

 

“A stunning testimony to the importance of the path-breaking, boundary-crossing work of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology.”

–Carol P. Christ, author of Goddess and God in the World and A Serpentine Path  

 

“So many forces in our hypermodern culture have denied the ancient triad of women, art, and the sacred that we can barely grasp all that has been lost to us. Vibrant Voices makes an insightful and deeply beautiful contribution to the recovery, as well as inspiration for creative new directions.”

— Charlene Spretnak, author of The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art, 1800 to the Present

 

 “This stunning volume reveals and celebrates the female divine through artistry, poesy, and superb scholarship.  The thorough integration of historical, experiential, and visionary voices is a pivotal achievement. Vibrant Voices is an essential guide and touchstone for all future work on women and mythology.”

~Miranda Shaw, author of Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism and Buddhist Goddesses of India

 

“This collection of wisdom of women’s spirituality scholarship is indispensable for understanding the possibilities today in the midst of converging environmental, political, gender, and spiritual crises – – and to birthing a new civilization where nobody is  ‘othered;’  everybody creates a society of love and justice.”  

-Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, author of Dark Mother: African Origins and Godmothers

Vibrant Voices will be for sale for a special introductory price at our conference in Las Vegas. It will also be available at Goddess Ink and on Amazon.

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“Vibrant Voices” Anthology Released

Announcing the release:  Vibrant Voices: Women, Myth, and the Arts

Volume II, Proceedings of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology

With over 30 contributors, this full-color book explores the many facets of women’s arts as they illuminate sacred stories from many traditions. In her Foreword, Judy Grahn says,

These essays add to our sensual experiences as well as to our ever-expanding knowledge base. The invitational qualities and broad diversity of origin and expression of the selections in this volume are balanced by histories of the colonization that the foremothers and preservers of indigenous religions and community have had to endure.

This book will be available at Goddess Ink and online retailers.

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“Under the Husk”: Special Film at ASWM Conference

“Ohero:kon – Under the Husk,” by Katsitsionne Fox

“Ohero:kon – Under the Husk” is a 26-min documentary following the journey of  two Mohawk girls as they take part in their traditional passage rites to becoming Mohawk Women.  Kaienkwinehtha and Kasennakohe are childhood friends from traditional families living in the Mohawk Community of Akwesasne that straddles the U.S. / Canada border.  They both take part in a four-year adolescent passage rites ceremony that we were able to revive for our youth even though it had not been practiced for generations. This ceremony challenges them spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically.  It shapes the women they become.

The ceremony is called Ohero:kon because the corn is a metaphor for the youth that are meant to be protected by the husk until they are grown. We started with seven youth, and in just ten years there were more than 80 youth with Ohero:kon branching out to sister communities as well. The women and men in our community were called upon to be aunties and uncles to these young people and guide them through a transition we had never experienced ourselves. We learned with them and were amazed by how this ceremony awakened their gifts and strengthened their spirits.

“There are so few films that reflect the true strength and beauty of our young people, especially our young women. It is important for us to be in the driver seat of these stories of hope and empowerment that are unfolding in Native communities across Turtle Island.

The Film “Ohero:kon – Under the Husk” has screened across the country at a variety of film festivals. The film engages the audience to reflect on the importance of recognizing Rites of Passage in their own culture. I enjoy the dialogue that is sparked by the film.”

—Melissa Katsitsionne Fox

“ Ohero:kon: Under the Husk” has won the imagineNATIVE Jane Glassco Award for an Emerging Filmmaker (2016) and the LA Skins Fest – Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking Award for 2016. It is available for purchase through Women Make Movies.