This has been an enormously successful year for women, kicking-off 2021 with the first female U.S. Vice President, the first female U.S. Secretary of Treasury, along with a growing number of CEO’s and CFO’s in major corporations, and two Nobel Prize winners in 2020. The growing number of women in politics defines a “future as female,” and grass-roots groups have proven that together, women can enact change. Let’s celebrate Women’s History Month 2021.
National Women’s History Alliance Extends the Centennial
National Women’s History Alliance announced that because many of the 2020 women’s suffrage centennial celebrations were curtailed due to COVID-19 restrictions, the 2021 Women’s History Theme from 2020 has been extended through 2021 ~ “Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to be Silenced.”
Living with Art, a Salon Celebrating Women in the Arts, with new exhibition ~ March 1
Living with Art Salon opened its doors to three diverse women in the arts, Elan Cadiz, Giannina Gutierrez and Leah Poller. The exhibition, At Home, explores how we live at home, as a family ~ as neighbors, as friends, as lovers ~ looking back on your dad’s favorite chair growing up, waking up in your own bed, working from home in this moment in time, and the emotions connected to the people and places that home ‘is’. Come along on our preview of this thoughtful and timely exhibition.
Working with Fire: Resilience & Resistance in New York’s East Village presented by GVSHP ~ March 3 at 6:00pm
Village Award-winner The Women’s Prison Association (WPA) is the nation’s first organization for women impacted by incarceration, located right here in our neighborhood at the historic Isaac T. Hopper Home at 110 2nd Avenue. Addressing the personal root causes of incarceration and focusing on the needs of women as the experts in their own lives, WPA has been life-changing for countless women and their families in our neighborhoods and beyond. Ever since the Middle Collegiate fire on December 5th, 2020 displaced WPA from their home, the organization has been working harder than ever to serve its mission and save its historic, landmarked home. Join us to learn the incredible history of WPA and to hear about what comes next for their work and building. Registration in advance.
Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And at Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at Brooklyn Museum ~ March 5
International Women’s Day 2021 ~ March 8
UN Women announces the theme for International Women’s Day, 8 March 2021 (IWD 2021) as, “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” The theme celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wow ~ Women of the World Festival at The Apollo Theater ~ March 12-17
WOW Festival celebrates the power of women and girls from Harlem and around the world. At WOW, we’ll unite and explore a variety of issues that affect women across cultural and social boundaries. Stories will be shared, feelings vented, fun had, minds influenced and hearts expanded. The Apollo Theater is proud to be WOW’s New York home and its programming centers on issues and topics of interest to women of color.
Gillie and Marc unveil Ruth Bader Ginsburg Bronze ~ March 12
A bronze statue of the late United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg created by the sculpture artists Gillie and Marc will be unveiled in Brooklyn. the sculpture will be a permanent installation at the City Point development in Brooklyn, and will be unveiled on March 12, 2021.
Honoring Women in Central Park with Urban Park Rangers ~ March 13
Join the Urban Park Rangers in exploring monuments of Central Park influenced by and dedicated to the contributions of historic women. Along this tour, we’ll learn about the newest monument of Central Park, a historic statue honoring the work of famed suffragists Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Read more about Women’s History and Parks.
Women’s History Month Gravesend Cemetery Tour ~ March 14
Dating back to 1643, Gravesend Cemetery is the final resting place of many prominent early residents of old Brooklyn. Join the Urban Park Rangers on this historic tour of Gravesend Cemetery and learn about Lady Deborah Moody and her connections to Gravesend. Join Urban Park Rangers for this special Women’s History Month Tour.
Check out the entire NYC Parks Department calendar of events during Women’s History Month.
We Dissent…And We Are Grateful at Brooklyn Museum ~ March 15
Join the Council for Feminist Art for a special virtual program celebrating the words and life of the most distinguished daughter of Brooklyn, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This one-night-only program on March 15—Justice Ginsburg’s birthday—features dramatic readings of the Justice’s most monumental opinions and arguments, from today’s acclaimed feminist voices, including Kathleen Chalfant, Noma Dumezweni, Karen Finley.
Women’s Jazz Festival via The Schomburg Center ~ March 16
Join the Schomburg for our annual Women’s Jazz Festival during Women’s History Month, as we reimagined it for a virtual space to celebrate Black women in music. Throughout the month, we will explore with scholars, performers, and literary figures, the wide array of contributions by Black women to the music industry. Each program will begin with a musical performance then proceed into dynamic conversations with authors of some of the most exciting work on music today.
‘Her Tennessee Waltz’ at Theater for The New City ~ March 28
“Her Tennessee Waltz,” a radio play by Toby Armour, will be presented by Theater for the New City for Women’s History Month. The play follows Carrie Chapman Catt as she leads the final effort to ratify the 19th Amendment. The performance, directed by George Ferencz, will be live at 3:00 PM March 28 and a recorded version will subsequently be available on-demand through April 11. To tune in, visit the theater’s website, or Facebook page. Admission is free but donations will be gratefully accepted.
Pen + Brush ~ On View through March 31, 2021
This Is Who We Are showcases, loudly and proudly, a selection of the women and non-binary artists who make up Pen + Brush. Featured here are impactful works, so ingrained in a larger cultural dialogue that to deny them recognition is to perpetuate a corrupt and incomplete canon of the history of art. It is our belief that only when work by women is judged solely on its merit and not the gender of its maker can we accurately reflect our world.
Pen + Brush is open to the public for in-person viewing with health and safety measures in place. Visitors need only wear a mask and respect social distancing guidelines.
Visit The Center for Women’s History at New York Historical Society
The Center for Women’s History is the first if its kind inside a major museum. Within this space, explore the lives and legacies of women who have shaped and continue to shape the American experience.
City of Women Celebrates Women who have Shaped NYC ~ at the New York Transit Museum Store
Monumental Women Sculpture of Women’s Rights Pioneers Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Lady Stanton in Central Park
The winning design by artist Meredith Bergmann, recently amended, includes Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth. All three are remarkable and monumental women’s rights pioneers who were New Yorkers and contemporaries. In the amended design, nationally-recognized sculptor Meredith Bergmann shows Anthony, Stanton, and Truth working together in Stanton’s home, where it is historically documented they met and spent time together.
More Monuments Dedicated to Women
Here are monuments dedicated to women currently found in our parks and public places, along with plans for future monuments.
National Organization for Women (NOW)
The National Organization for Women is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States. Founded in 1966, NOW has hundreds of chapters and hundred of thousands of members in all fifty states.
The Wing
The Wing is a women-only work space dedicated to supporting and empowering today’s professionals with multipurpose spaces to network in one of The Wing’s several NYC locations.
New York Junior League
Founded in 1901, the New York Junior League is the oldest and largest women’s non-profit volunteer organization in the city, with more than 2,800 volunteer members who donate thousands of hours of service every year.
The Lower Eastside Girls Club
The Lower Eastside Girls Club has been empowering women and building community (girl by girl) since 1996 with programs that serve girls and young women throughout New York’s five boroughs.
Little Feminist 500 Piece Puzzle in the Gift Shop at the New York Historical Society
The Little Feminist 500-piece puzzle is comprised of colorfully illustrated portraits of real women who have made a historical impact on the world. Illustrations by Lydia Ortiz introduce children to these important people in history, including Marie Curie, Sally Ride, Amelia Earhart and Billie Jean King, Maya Angelou, Lucille Ball, Frida Kahlo, Ella Fitzgerald, Hillary Clinton, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Gloria Steinem and many more!
Women Who Draw
Women Who Draw is an open directory of female* professional illustrators, artists and cartoonists. It was created by two women artists in an effort to increase the visibility of female illustrators, emphasizing female illustrators of color, LBTQ+, and other minority groups of female illustrators.
Women’s March Alliance
Women’s March Alliance hosts dozens of events focused on issues specific to women nationally and at a local level. Together, women make a difference.
We will continue to add additional exhibits and events throughout the month.
#WomensHistoryMonth2021
ON MARCH 28, FOR WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH, THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY WILL OFFER “HER TENNESSEE WALTZ” BY TOBY ARMOUR AS A RADIO PLAY, DIRECTED BY GEORGE FERENCZ .
Performance to be available on-demand until April 11.
Please note schedule change:
Date of the live event has been changed since my February 15 newsletter, which said March 27.
NEW YORK, March 1 — “Her Tennessee Waltz,” a radio play by Toby Armour, will be presented by Theater for the New City for Women’s History Month. The play follows Carrie Chapman Catt as she leads the final effort to ratify the 19th Amendment. The performance, directed by George Ferencz, will be live at 3:00 PM March 28 and a recorded version will subsequently be available on-demand through April 11. To tune in, visit the theater’s website, http://www.theatreforthenewcity.net, or its Facebook page. Admission is free but donations will be gratefully accepted.
Armour’s play dramatizes Carrie Chapman Catt’s leadership of the final effort to secure women’s right to vote through ratification of the 19th Amendment. Catt’s mentor, Susan B. Anthony, had spent a lifetime fighting for women’s suffrage. Dying in 1906, Anthony never saw the end of the struggle, but she never doubted. “Failure is impossible” were her words. The play is set in 1920, when the battle continued under Catt. The 19th Amendment, giving women suffrage, is coming to a vote in a special session of the Tennessee legislature. If Tennessee, the 36th state, ratifies it, the Amendment will finally become the law of the land after 87 years of struggle.
Campaigning takes place during the sweltering days of August in Nashville. The opposition, led by a coalition of Southern belles and corporate lobbyists, is powerful. Double dealing, threats, bribery, slander are all part of the action. Carrie Chapman Catt is fighting the battle of her life. It all comes down to one roll call vote in the Tennessee legislature. The suspense is hair-raising as the play shows us–up close and historically–how near the country came to never allowing women to vote.
The actors are Jenne Vath as Carrie Chapman Catt, Susan Patrick as Harriet Upton (the suffragist leader and friend of Carrie), and the ensemble of Richarda Abrams, Karen Sunde, Gregory Marlow, John Barilla and Daniel Wilkes Kelly. Stage Manager is Karen Oughtred. Incidental Music is by Peter Dizozza.
Toby Armour’s plays have been presented in NYC, LA, Boston, Denver, elsewhere in the U.S., as well as Scotland, Ireland and London. “Voices from the Black Canyon” won the Lewis National Playwriting Competition. “Fanon’s People,” which debuted at TNC, won four Dramalog awards when produced at the Fountain Theater in LA. She has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Arts Council, the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, the Arizona Arts Commission, and the Jerome Foundation She is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Her last two plays at TNC, both directed by George Ferencz, were “155 First Avenue” (2012) and “155 Through the Roof” (2014). She is grateful to Crystal Field, George Ferencz, Peter Dizozza and the actors for all their support and wisdom in this production and she is ever grateful to Theater for the New City for its many years of making courageous and exciting theater in New York.
George Ferencz (director) is best known for his direction of plays by Sam Shepard. Recognized by the New York Times “as one of the foremost directorial interpreters of Shepard,” he has directed landmark productions of “Angel City,” “Back Bog Beast Bait,” “Cowboy Mouth (in Concert), “Suicide in B-Flat” and “The Tooth of the Crime.” His productions and rehearsal techniques appear in “The Cambridge Companion to Sam Shepard” edited by Matthew Roudané, “Theater On The Edge: New Visions, New Voices” by Mel Gussow and “Theater Criticisms” by Stanley Kaufman. Ferencz’s ”Directing Shepard” was published by the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Journal. His TNC productions include “Lincoln on Hester Street,” “Fear Itself,” “Piecework,” “Delicate Feelings” and “The Space Show,” the first TNC production at 155 First Avenue. As a resident director at La MaMa, he has directed over 30 productions there including the blues opera “Conjur Woman” in New York and Rome.
Peter Dizozza (Musical Settings, Piano) has accompanied plays by Maria Micheles (including “Night Park” at TNC), Leah Maddrie, Myron D. Cohen, Bruce Jay Friedman, Helen Slayton Hughes and Richard Vetere, and an oratorio score for the legendary “Legs Like These,” Neil Ericksen’s adaptation of the myth of Atalanta. He has also provided scripts and scores for a wide range of independent “Cinema VII” projects including “A Question of Solitude” and “TentagatneT,” an experimental play produced by La MaMa in its Experimenta! 2007 Program. Other song settings include poems and texts by Shakespeare, T.S.Eliot and Thomas Hardy. He appears regularly in TNC’s weekly “Open ‘Tho Shut” walk-by theater productions.
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PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hcx6egXprb5JW7pN8
We’re delighted to add this wonderful play to our Women’s History Month post.