Festivals and Culture

Jo Freeman writes: Mother Earth was celebrated over the Mother's Day weekend at the DC Green Festival, one of five held around the country during the year. This year health and body products dominated among a wide variety of commercial and educational booths. Quorn foods were passing out a non-chicken salad made from mycoprotein that looked, felt and tasted like the real thing. You could sample half a dozen different Mycoprotein bars or Lundberg Family Farms rice and quinoa crackers. Kia Motors let attendees test-drive three electric models. I tried out the Soul EV. Nice car, but it felt really weird to be driving a car and hear no noise. more »

"With a particular New York Jewish sensibility, Chast's humor of complaint offers us all a chance to laugh at the often stressful and absurd world around us. She is an important social satirist who, like so many other Jewish humorists, has helped to shape our culture, and with her moving and honest memoir, she shows us how deeply she can touch our hearts as well." A substantial number of illustrations Chast created for 101 Two-letter Words, a book of two-letter words allowed in the game of Scrabble also appear in the exhibition: an eye-patch-wearing pirate parrot for the word AR and a jar of Grandma Yetta’s Gefilte Fish for OY. more »

In a culture structured in a rigid social hierarchy, the mask offered not just relief from strict codes of behavior, but a deeper liberation born of its equalizing effect on social differences. Creating an appearance of equality, the mask eased the interaction of social classes, permitted women to go out unescorted, and allowed beggars to conceal their shame. And, of course, as profusely and notoriously demonstrated by Casanova’s exploits, the mask’s secrecy enabled a certain sexual freedom. more »

Jo Freeman writes: "A Day Without Women" borrowed it's theme from "A Day Without Immigrants" on Feb. 17, which was new. Many people interpreted it as a call to strike. "Women Strike!" was proclaimed from the top of the arch in New York City's Washington Square. That was old. In 1970, Betty Friedan called for a Women's Strike on August 26, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the US Woman Suffrage Amendment and announce a new women's movement to the world. Leaders of the NOw quickly scrambled to interpret that as a "do your own thing" strike. They organized a march down New York's Fifth Ave., which was the first time in decades that women marched to demand women's rights in the US.      more »