¡ACTIVISTA! An International Women’s Day Concert and Roundtable

An ad-hoc group of women hailing from various sectors in the arts and activism communities today announced that they have joined forces with the award-winning Chicago-based nonprofit arts presenter HotHouse and publisher Haymarket Books to curate and present an online cultural event to mark International Women’s Day. The program will be broadcast over the HotHouseGlobal streaming platforms on March 7, 2021 at 4pm CST.

The program includes performances from women-identified artists, speakers, and messages from places located throughout the world. The two–hour free event is focused on concerns that impact the lives of women and reflect issues that represent the overarching values of the producers - climate change, access to health care (clean water, housing, childcare), immigration, safe provisions for family life, economic mobility and self-determination.

Curated and Produced by Marguerite Horberg, Esty Dinur, Karima Daoudi, Claudia Norman, Viviana Benitez, Jin Won, and Haymarket Books, the program is additionally supported by HotHouse, Haymarket Books, The Mexico Now Festival, Middle East Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design.

“ We came together over several months to collectively present the voices we feel are often overlooked or altogether missing in commodified appropriations of women’s issues” says one of the event organizers, Esty Dinur.

The event will be streamed for free without paywalls (although registration is requested and donations are encouraged). Registration is via EventBrite.

The event will be streamed on Twitch.tv/HotHouseGlobal, Facebook, the HotHouse website, www.hothouse.net; and on both the HotHouseGlobal and Haymarket Books YouTube channels.

THE PROGRAM

Musical and spoken word:

ANGEL BAT DAWID

Angel Bat Dawid is a Black American Composer, Improviser, Clarinetist, Pianist, Vocalist & DJ. In 2018 Angel composed Song of Solomon: A Cosmic Space Opera that was performed by prominent free jazz musicians in Chicago. Her critically acclaimed Album " The Oracle,”released by Chicago label International Anthem was created entirely by her- performing, overdubbing & mixing all instruments & voices - and recorded using only her cell phone in various locations, from London UK to Cape Town RSA. In the fall of 2019, she composed and premiered “Requiem for Jazz" at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. In 2020 Angel composed “Peace: A Suite for Skylanding,” commissioned by the Art Institute of Chicago for Yoko Ono’s outdoor Skylanding Installation. Angel tours internationally with her septet "Tha Brothahood" and released the album LIVE, which made NPR’s best of 2020 list. She also leads the all-woman trio Sistazz of the Nitty Gritty, and has released the album “Message from the DAOUI'' with electronic artist Oui Ennui as the duo DAOUI. Angel is a member of the Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble and hosts a monthly music show on NTS Radio.

COLECTIVO DE MUJERES KIÑEWEN

A group of women musicians/artists from Latin America and Europe (Chile, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Perú and Italy), some of us residents in other countries such as Oakland, CA, Hamilton, Canada, Basque Country and London, who came together to create and perform this song titled Mujer Entera which speaks of unity and of women’s empowerment. We share the belief that music and the arts are powerful vehicles of resistance and social change. With Constanza Duran Vidal, Chile/Canada, Silvia Balducci, Italy/London, Teresa Méndez, Argentina, Cristina Narea, Chile/Basque Country, Rosa Los Santos, Perú/Oakland and Madeleine Zayas, Puerto Rico, director/producer of the video Mujer Entera.

Mujer Entera – Honoring women’s rights to choose

NATU CAMARA

Hailing from Guinea, Natu Camara is a musician and committed activist for the empowerment and education of girls and women in west Africa. In the early 2000s, Camara led West Africa’s first all-female hip-hop group, the Ideal Black Girls (IBG). The band released the album Guinèya Moumonèra (It’s Not a Shame to Be a Woman) — a multiplatinum opus advocating for women’s rights. In her latest album, "Dimedi" ("Child" in her native language, Sousous), she sings in five languages. Natu’s foundation supports local organizations which mentor and empower young girls and support education as a tool to reduce poverty in Guinea. She won the prestigious 2020 NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre. ‬‬‬

LYLA JUNE

Lyla June is poet, musician, educator, anthropologist, activist and community servant of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. She holds a degree in Environmental Anthropology with honors from Stanford University and a degree in American Indian Education with distinction from the University of New Mexico.

BRANDY NĀLANI MCDOUGALL

Brandy Nālani McDougall is a poet and educator who weaves the Hawaiian language with English to create a complex, bilingual texture. She received her PhD from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she currently teaches. She is the author of The Salt-Wind / Ka Makani Pa‘akai (2008) and the scholarly monograph Finding Meaning: Kaona and Contemporary Hawaiian Literature (2016).

IRMA PINEDA

Irma Pineda was born in Juchitán, Oaxaca, Mexico. Her interest and activism for the human rights of indigenous people is due to the fact that her father, a Zapotec leader, was a victim of enforced disappearance by the Mexican army in 1978. Her texts have been translated into English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Serbian and Russian and appeared in various anthologies of the Americas and Europe. Pineda has held numerous residencies and was recently elected to represent Latin America and the Caribbean region as a member of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2020-2022.

FARAH SIRAJ

Named Jordan's Musical Ambassadress, Jordanian virtuoso Farah Siraj balances a career that spans the US, Europe and the Middle East. She has performed at some of the world's most prestigious platforms, including the UN, Nobel Prize Hall, the World Economic Forum, The John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC and many others. Farah has performed before HM King Abdullah II and HM Queen Rania of Jordan, HM King Juan Carlos of Spain, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and HE Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon. She represents Jordan annually on UN World

KYUNG-HWA YU

Yu Kyung-hwa specializes in traditional Korean rhythms as a composer, ensemble director, and instrumentalist while covering the range from pure Korean tradition to improvisation. She has a doctorate in musicology from Hanyang University. Prof. Yu plays the zither geomungo and performs various traditional dances, but it is in the art of the cheolhyeongeum and percussion instruments that she has, over the past few years, established her reputation as a performer and mediator between Korean traditional music and fusion music. Her work has earned her many prizes, including Artist of the year with her first cheolhyeongeum recital and Grand Prize for traditional music in the category of stringed instruments.

SPEAKERS

JANEL PINEDA is a Los-Angeles born Salvadoran poet and educator. She has performed her poetry internationally in both English and Spanish, and been published in LitHub, PANK, The BreakBeat Poets, Vol. 4: LatiNext, and The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the U.S. among others. As a Marshall Scholar, she holds an MA in Creative Writing and Education from Goldsmiths, University of London. Janel’s debut poetry chapbook, Lineage of Rain, is out now from Haymarket Books.

DR. SEEMA YASMIN is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, medical doctor, disease detective and author. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news reporting in 2017 with her team from The Dallas Morning News for coverage of a mass shooting. Yasmin was a disease detective in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she chased outbreaks in maximum-security prisons, American Indian reservations, border towns and hospitals. Currently, Dr. Yasmin is a Stanford professor, medical analyst for CNN and science correspondent for Conde Nast Entertainment. Find her at seemayasmin.com, Twitter @DoctorYasmin and Instagram: @drseemayasmin.

MAYA MARSHALL, a writer and editor, is cofounder of underbelly, the journal on the practical magic of poetic revision. An educator, Marshall has served as artist in residence at Northwestern University and as faculty for the Loyola University Chicago creative writing program. She holds fellowships from MacDowell, Vermont Studio Center, Callaloo, Watering Hole, Community of Writers, and Cave Canem. She is the author of Secondhand (Dancing Girl Press, 2016). Her writing appears in Best New Poets 2019, Muzzle Magazine, RHINO, Potomac Review, Blackbird, and elsewhere. She lives in Chicago, where she works as a manuscript editor for Haymarket Books and managing editor for the BreakBeat Poets series

PRODUCERS

Marguerite Horberg founded The Center for International Performance and Exhibition dba HotHouse in 1987. For more than thirty years, she has been at the forefront of creating countless internationally recognized festivals, public programs and international exchange projects. She has been awarded Best of Chicago, Chicagoan of the Year and many other top honors for her work as a groundbreaking cultural leader.

Esty Dinur (Israel/Madison, WI) is a founder of the Madison World Music Festival and the Midwest World Music Festivals Consortium (now the World Music Festivals Consortium). She served as Artistic Director of the MWMF since its inception in 2004 and until her retirement in 2020 and produced the festival in 2019 and 2020, the latter year taking it online. Esty has also served as the Marketing, Communications and Community Relations Director for the Wisconsin Union Theater from 2001-2020. She is an award-winning radio, digital and print journalist.

Karima Daoudi (Algeria/Honolulu, Hawaii) is a community arts and culture curator, educator and administrator. In her career organizing and supporting a wide variety of arts and cultural programming, she consistently works to highlight social justice, racial equity and global citizenship in innovative and collaborative ways. Since 2019, Karima has served as Public Programs & Special Events Coordinator at the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she curates and produces residencies featuring emerging and established multidisciplinary artists from Hawaii and around the world.

Jin Won (South Korea/New Jersey) Praised by the NY Times as “an exuberant dancer whose musicality transform[s] her dancing into something primal," dancer and percussionist Jin Won is a one-of-a-kind artist in the field of Indian performing arts who explores the sonic and visual possibilities of rhythm through dance and music. As artistic director of Pradhanica Dance and Music Company, Jin has created, choreographed, and starred in various ensembles that have performed in esteemed venues across North America, as well as taught master classes and workshops in many arts institutes.

Viviana Mercedes Benitez (Paraguay/Brooklyn, NY) a member of Women of Color in the Arts, has spent the past decade in the music industry focusing on world music and the performing arts. Viviana has toured and managed with emerging artists and has spent the past five years producing public programs presenting national and international musicians. She is the founder and president of Guava Tree Music Agency.

Claudia Norman (Mexico/Queens, NY) is a multilingual award-winning arts producer, consultant and event manager based in NYC with 25 years experience developing, producing, and executing international performing arts projects in the USA and Latin America. She is the executive producer/founder of the annual Celebrate Mexico Now Festival; curator/producer of La Casita at Lincoln Center Out of Doors; produced Yo-Yo Ma’s The Bach Project/Days of Action in Mexico City and the Farewell Concert at Carnegie Hall for Mexican icon Chavela Vargas; and is co-producer and co-curator of the Rebel Spirit series. Claudia specializes in online, streamed and live content curation in the performing arts. She has deep knowledge of community outreach, marketing, social media, fundraising and sponsorship development in global markets.

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

HOTHOUSE

A nonprofit, arts presenting organization formed in 1987 in Chicago, HotHouse (www.hothouse.net) has been one of the premiere cultural institutions in the US. In March, HotHouse developed an online streaming initiative to serve the NGO, small business, and cultural industries adversely affected during this health and economic crisis. The HotHouseGlobal channel facilitates a variety of multi-arts and community-based content and a worldwide network in the social justice and cultural sector. Since March more than 14,000,000 people have tuned in to HotHouseGlobal.

Celebrate Mexico Now Festival

For 17 years, Celebrate Mexico Now has been the only independent arts festival spotlighting contemporary Mexico in the US. Every year, we disrupt the often narrow definitions of Mexican culture by exploring the way artists are reshaping, envisioning and reflecting on their identity in the ever changing global context. As the arts face a deeply challenging time, we have been mindfully working on commissioning projects that will help reactivate communities by providing work to artists, creatives and managers in the cultural field. We are convinced that art is a significant engine for change and we are fighting to keep it running.

HAYMARKET BOOKS

Haymarket Books is an independent, radical, non-profit publisher based in Chicag. Our mission is to publish books that contribute to struggles for social and economic justice. We strive to make our books a vibrant and organic part of social movements and the education and development of a critical, engaged, international left.

MIDDLE EAST STUDIES PROGRAM, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON