I brought along one of my Yoni Valentines to give to Eve
and had the opportunity to present it to her when we were
setting up in the Activist Lounge on Thursday.
It’s a wire, steel and encaustic sculpture from the
Yoni Valentine Series started in 2005.
WANTED!
People of the Gulf South affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: We want to know
WHAT MAKES YOU SEE RED?
From orgasmic joy to primordial angst - the City of New Orleans, as with Life itself, encompasses the extremes of human experience. Launched during the V-Day SUPERLOVE V TO THE TENTH Celebration in April 2008, Seeing Red: Voices of the Gulf South is a collaborative project that encourages the people of the Gulf South to express their feelings about the violence, loss, devastation and hardship they’ve experienced due to the storms as well as personal expressions of love, passion, courage, strength, joy and ecstasy.
Words and images created in red are being collected through July 31st and will be compiled into a book and traveling art exhibition that will tour nationally. The hundreds of works on paper created by participants of all ages and from all walks of life, answer the question: “What makes you see RED?”
If you’re interested in participating - or organizing a group to participate - in the project, please contact us by writing theredcollaborative[at]mac[dot]com. We’d love to have you on board!
Thursday May 8th: Transcendental Moments to Ecstasy
marc zegans + gabrielle senza + the ecstatic ensemble
book signing + reading + performance
May 8th. 8:00 pm.
Issue Project Room in Brooklyn presents Marc Zegans and Gabrielle Senza reading from Pillow Talk, their newly released book of erotic haiku and gestural drawings, sculpting and shaping the spoken work with the sounds of THE ECSTATIC ENSEMBLE. $10.
THE ECSTATIC ENSEMBLE
MV Carbon cello
Lucian Buscemi, Bass
Anthony Ptak, theremin
Zach Layton, guitar
Michael Evans, Percussion
8PM, ISSUE Project Room
{at The Old American Can Factory}
232 Third Street, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NEW YORK 11215
718 330 0313 tel
http://www.issueprojectroom.org for information
$2. from each sale will be donated to Red Collaborative! Order your copy from gspotpress here.
PILLOW TALK
A collaboration between artist Gabrielle Senza and poet Marc Zegans, Pillow Talk explores the human comedy through erotic haiku and graphite images drawn with sensitivity and light. Read the rest of this entry »
(({ V10 REPORT: MY LETTER OF GRATITUDE TO THE V-DAY TEAM }))
Dear Jen, Eve, Shael & Cecile –
Thank you - thank you - thank you!!!
V TO THE TENTH was amazing. Thank you for inviting Red Collaborative to participate in transforming the Superdome into SUPERLOVE. It was an honor to be a part of creating a safe, healing and inspiring environment for thousands of women and to network with so many incredible organizers and activists from around the world.
I’m happy to report our creative public art initiatives were well received and have generated positive feedback — and for some, cathartic transformation. The Collaborative Scroll: From Isolation to Community held a special place in the Healing Lounge, and received approximately 72 new entries from visitors, who shared their pain, hopes, grief and gratitude. It is both heartbreaking and motivating for me to read the entries on The Collaborative Scroll after each display as I upload them to our online version. As the scroll travels and grows, my commitment to breaking the silence surrounding abuse is stoked and I am aflame with fury and an unstoppable passion to make change by giving voice to those who are seldom heard.
Our second project, Seeing Red: Voices of the Gulf South was launched at our table in the Activist Lounge. New Orleans City Council President, Arnie Fielkow kicked off the project by donating the paper on which participants would share in words or pictures their response to the question: What Makes You See Red? We collected over 170 pieces in the two days we were at the Super Dome. The Seeing Red: Voices of the Gulf South project will be extended over the next few months, while we collect pieces from hundreds of school children and adults throughout the Gulf South with the help of several local volunteers. The hundreds of red works on paper created by Seeing Red participants will be incorporated into a book and traveling exhibition that will debut in New Orleans in the fall. It was a special privilege to have Dr. Denis Muskwege’s response: “What makes me see red? It is the destruction of women — The destruction of the life force. That makes me see red!”
In the Activist Lounge, we had the opportunity to meet hundreds of organizers from around the world and to learn about pressing issues that need real attention, such as the situation Dr. Muskwege so powerfully brought attention to – the torture, rape and mutilation of women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I was sickened to learn that women are strategically being used as “weapons of mass destruction” in the Congolese war, and are considered “cheaper than bullets.” The source of the problem, we learned, is the protection and control of the earth’s minerals located in the region.
We have to ask ourselves: Are the minerals used for making cell phones and digital cameras more valuable than lives? Are we, the consumers, going to turn a blind eye to the decimation of lives (and indeed the planet), simply for the sake of personal convenience? The precedence set by our nation’s corporate and political leaders seems to encourage us to do just that. I am reminded how strong the spell of inertia and complacency is in this country – especially upon my return to the beautiful, affluent and peaceful Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. It is for this reason, I am so grateful we have people like Amy Goodman, Eve Ensler and other activists around the globe to help wake people up to reality.
I’m still processing all that happened during our visit to New Orleans and the impact it’s had on my sense of purpose. Prior to arriving in the city, I felt a strong pull, an urgent call for action, devotion and a mysterious connection to a city I’d never seen before. The City has captured my heart, and I know my work there is far from finished.
Thank you, all of you from V-Day, for creating an opening to connect to my higher good in ways I never knew possible – from holding space for people to safely share their pain and grief, to joyous serendipity experienced throughout the city at every turn, as we made connections with people in New Orleans.
The City, as in Life, encompasses extremes - from orgasmic joy to primordial angst, and everything in between. But the reality clinging to my heart, is the reality of lives lost and hopes destroyed, yet there remains a fierce will to go on. I am compelled to return to New Orleans and to devote my time to rebuilding the city alongside the thousands of volunteers from all over the world who have come to New Orleans to help build homes because the government is not taking care of it’s own people. There are thousands of New Orleanians that still don’t have homes to return to, nor the support of their government to bring them home. There’s a pattern emerging here in America, created by political and corporate entities, that I don’t want my name attached to. Fortunately, there are thousands of artists, activists, volunteers, journalists and bloggers reporting the truth, raising awareness, and demanding change. We have the power to turn the tide, to change the norm and to redeem this country - but it will take every one of us to do it.
Are we going to turn a blind eye, hide out heads in the sand?
Or are we - all who came to New Orleans to celebrate Eve Ensler’s worldwide movement to end violence against women and girls - going to carry on that commitment to make change in the world by breaking the silence, giving voice to the voiceless and empowering individuals around the globe to be the change they want to see? I, for one, am committed to this cause for life.
In peace and with gratitude to all, namasté.
Gabrielle Senza, Seeing Red in New Orleans
Artist, activist and founder of The Red Collaborative
In less than a week, my friend and former studio intern, Gabrielle Meyerowitz and I will be headed south, to join up with activists and celeberties from around the world to celebrate Eve Ensler and the 10th Anniversary of The Vagina Monologues!
Red Collaborative’s mission is to empower individuals, give voice to the voiceless and initiate public dialogue on the silent epidemic of physical, sexual and emotional abuse through community-building creative art initiatives.
Walk Unafraid Pittsfield
City Hall, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Red Collaborative Presents Public Art Installation
Artist-activist and Red Collaborative Founder, Gabrielle Senza, together with 12 workshop participants installed the Walk Unafraid Pittsfield public art project on Saturday, April 1, 2006 at City Hall in Pittsfield Massachusetts.
“I feel it was a very successful workshop,” Senza states, “because all of the participants - many of whom have been in abusive relationships and have felt helpless, disempowered and ashamed - really felt at the end of the day that THEY now carry the torch for others.
“Each woman who participated, realizes she actually has the power within to do something important in the world. Not only were they each courageous enough to seek help at the women’s shelter, but they also came out to take part in a public art project that helps raise awareness about the silent epidemic of abuse. They know they can now be a strong voice of support and encouragement to other women who are in dangerous relationships and follow their path to find help. I think we all felt incredibly uplifted and empowered at the end of the day. I couldn’t ask for more than that!”
The twelve Red Collaborative participants (Melissa, Sue, Karen, Ana, Mary, Karen C. Olivia, Davina, Gabrielle, Lydia, Marnie & Tory) ranged in age from 8 to 48. Four came from the Freeman House, a shelter for abused women and children; two are therapists, two are teenagers, three are artists and one, a volunteer. Nine of the twelve are mothers. Eleven of the twelve were either victims of violence or related to someone who was a victim. They are ALL courageous! They are all survivors.
The installation was on view through April 30, 2006
Berkshire County Kids’ Place & Violence Prevention Center,
The Elizabeth Freeman Center, The City of Pittsfield, St. Stephen’s Parish, Mayor James Ruberto, Hannah Anderson, Dana Brandon, Mary Campbell, Karen Cellini, Tom Ellis, Sue Kelly, Pam Malumphy, Katrina Mattson, Jim McGrath, Deborah Hammer-Phillips , Ananda Timpane, Megan Whilden, and Jeff Winslow.
WAMC’s Carrie Saldo Interviews Artist-Activist Gabrielle Senza:
Art Installation Designed to Raise Awareness, Artist Says.
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PITTSFIELD, MA (2006-03-21) An art installation designed to help educate the public about abuse and violence has been moved to a park near City Hall in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A more prominent location in the middle of the city has been ruled out after some locals complained that the installation would send the wrong message. Our Berkshire Bureau Chief, Carrie Saldo, spoke with Gabrielle Senza who is the artist spearheading the project;
© Copyright 2006, WAMC
Red Collaborative, in partnership with the City of Pittsfield, hosts a free event to kick off the City’s Red Ribbon Awareness Week. The Red Ribbon Awareness Week Fun Day will feature Free Art Making Activities for All Ages including: The “Seeing Red” Project, where participants can create artwork that answers the question: What Makes You See Red?; A “Dee Dee Rescue” Art Contest, where children and adults are encouraged to draw and sculpt Red Collaborative’s four-legged mascot, Dee Dee the Doxie (see photo at left); Plus, Free “Rescue Pooch” Face Painting for Children.
Sunday, October 23 | 1pm-4pm | Storefront Artist Project Space | 124 Fenn Street | 528-3917 Click here for more information on Red Ribbon Week
gabriellesenza
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