at LA State Historic Park, 1245 N. Spring St., LA CA 90012, next to Chinatown Metro Stop

#lafreewaves #dismiss #aintiawomxn

On Saturday, July 28. 2018, Freewaves will present Ain’t I A Womxn?, a genders promenade, an event that brings together audiences, artists and activist organizations to stretch gender expressions in new directions. Featuring 20 independent artists and 10 art collectives, the outdoor participatory event will unfold in Los Angeles State Historic Park next to Chinatown to explore intersectional identities under a full moon. From an audio tunnel to voguing to group scream to the launch of the Zanja Madre Fan Club, participants will present performance art, spoken word, sonic art, media projections and zines. Aint I A Womxn? is the next phase of Dis..Miss, a public art series that investigates current artists’ and audiences’ views on gender. It is an evening of seeing, hearing, finding connections, and mingling. The event’s title refers to freed slave, Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I A Woman speech to an 1851 feminist convocation comparing the respect afforded White women with the disrespect afforded Black women, as well as the disregard afforded Black women versus Black men. Intersectionality advanced that day but the struggle continues.

Participating artists: Bitchface, Nao Bustamante and Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, Martha Carrillo, Zackary Drucker, Reanne Estrada & C. Ree, Rafa Esparza, Funmilola Fagbamila, Rudy Bleu Garcia, Janice Gomez & Fatima Hoang, Raquel Gutiérrez, Elana Mann, Jennifer Moon, Amitis Motevalli, Thinh Nguyen, Patty Schemel and Object as Subject, #SNATCHPOWER, Christy Roberts Berkowitz, Yozmit Walker, Kristina Wong, Kiki Xtravaganza and Exposure Drag, Xina Xurner (Marvin Astorga & Young Joon Kwak), and Austin Young.

Participating art groups include: ArtworxLA, Dirty Looks F.L.O.W. (Feminist Library on Wheels), KCHUNG, Las Fotos Project, Ni Santas, Self Help Graphics and Women’s Creative Center for Work.

Activist organizations, a night group bike ride, group discussions, food trucks, social media feeds, free zines and art postcards will connect to communities via Black Lives Matter, East LA Women’s Center, Gender Justice, LA LGBT Center, Peace over Violence, People forMobility Justice fka MCM, and others.

Feminist PSAs by video artists: Adebukola Bodunrin, Mail Order Brides, Gloria Morán, Meena Nanji, and Caress Reeves and art videos by Johanna Breiding, Deanna Erdman and Andre Keichian.

Postcards by visual artists: April Bey, boychild, Cassils, Chan and Mann, Roya Falahi, Alexandra Grant, Micol Hebron, Thinh Nguyen, and Shizu Saldamando

Producers and Directors:  LA Freewaves  6522 Hollywood Blvd  LA 90028  Anne Bray, Sara Daleiden, Nateene Diu, Ginger Holguin, Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, Gina Valona, with designer Soyun Cho

Curatorial Advisors 
Toro Castaño, Evonne Gallardo, Raquel Gutiérrez, Daisy Noemi.

Partners Go Metro, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), L.A. State Historic Park, and Women’s Creative Center for Work

Funders: Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Metabolic Studio and Pasadena Art Alliance

Dis…Miss is comprised of a series of audience engaging exchanges about gender, using videos, performance art, and postcards. Each Dis…Miss postcard has an image and a related question that viewers answer anonymously. The answers are gathered and analyzed to be displayed as an interactive online tool. Screenings, workshops, exhibitions and discussions have occurred and will continue throughout the greater Los Angeles area and beyond — available at Freewaves.org.  Ain’t I A Womxn? evolves from Dis…Miss and will be documented in its online publication later this year.

Founded in 1989, Freewaves is an art organization that creates public events to bring diverse audiences and independent artists together in dialogue on current issues.

Images L to R: Rafa Esparza, Snatch Power, Freewaves’ Dis…Miss, Kristina Wong

Los Angeles, Calif. – On Thursday, Nov. 17, from 7-10 p.m., Freewaves will launch its most ambitious initiative to date, entitled Dis…Miss, with a reception at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. The reception will feature the work of 20 artists and artist collectives, together comprising a survey of the challenges facing feminism as its “fourth wave” emerges. Featured artworks address persistent issues prioritized by the second-wave feminist movement, such as workplace discrimination and sexual violence, combined with a third-wave awareness of the intersection of sexism and other forms of oppression, based on age, ethnicity, religion, or class. Finally, Dis…Miss examines how, and to what extent, contemporary feminism will adapt in response to society’s evolving understanding of the complexities of gender identity.

The Nov. 17 opening reception of Dis…Miss will include projections of 25 original videos and the public debut of 10 artist-designed postcards, each posing a provocative question related to identity. Throughout the evening, performance artists will interact with the audience to encourage and facilitate participation, using the artists’ questions to begin a dialogue about feminism and gender.

Opening Reception: Thursday, Nov. 17, 7-10 p.m.
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 6522 Hollywood Blvd.
Free/ Open to the Public

This position is part-time and UNPAID but we will provide you with college credit, if applicable.

Currently, Freewaves is seeking Intern participation to undertake a variety of tasks, all entailing a high degree of computer literacy and communications competency.  All of the tasks will be part of Freewaves long time initiative to disseminate the new media arts, on this year’s theme of women and gender issues, as well as Freewaves’ interactive video archive consisting of over 500 pieces of experimental media art.

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Our 5-month residency at Pasadena City Hall has come to conclusion!

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Join us on Friday, March 11th, and Saturday, March 12th, 7-10pm at Pasadena City Hall for the finale of “Lions, Tigers, And … ,” a five-part series consisting of an interactive sound installation, video projections, musical performances, all responding to the presence of cast-stone lions on the façade of the City Hall building.

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It is an alien figure. there’s no lions in America.

They are exotic because they are African, and they are also exotic because they are an extraordinary thing, they are beautiful.

They are by definition, one of the most exotic animals of all of society, because of their power.

Sound conveys a whole different message than visuals, than an image.

It’s enforcing to understand the power of sound.