Festivals and Culture
Jo Freeman: There’s Plenty To Do at the RNC – If You Have the Right Credentials
by Jo Freeman
Every national nominating convention has plenty of auxiliary events, some authorized, some not. Getting space can be a challenge; getting the word out even more so. But they do it nonetheless. Press were given a RNC 2024 Master Event Calendar, which was updated a few days later. Events began on Sunday and ended on Thursday. The actual convention sessions were just one item on the list. The calendar said if an event was Open or Closed to press, and also whom to contact to register. I’m going to describe some of the events, including a couple I went to, and a couple I was turned away from.
Since my focus is on women, I obviously wanted to go to those events – if I could.
The National Federation of Republican Women is the largest grassroots Republican women's organization in the country with hundreds of clubs. Founded in 1938, its members made the phone calls and knocked on the doors that elected Republican candidates for decades. It’s Tuesday luncheon featured Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders. The Master Calendar said it was SOLD OUT and they wouldn’t let me in. I was able to get into their lounge at the Fiserv Forum Wednesday evening, where I was repeatedly asked if I was a member, and if not, would I join. “I’m press,” I said. “I can’t join anything partisan.” I then said: “What brings you here?” On hearing that, finding anyone willing to chat with me was like pulling teeth.
Moms for Liberty met in a concert hall that afternoon. I had pre-registered, and I got in. From high in a balcony seat I listened to several people talk about the evils of transgenderism. It’s webpage says WE BELIEVE Power Belongs to the People. Sound Familiar? With a focus is on parental rights, it wants to “STOP WOKE indoctrination.”
Tuesday I went to “The New Mavericks” reception co-hosted by the Black Republican Mayors Association and the Georgia Republican Party. They honored Sen. Tim Scott, four Congressmen and two Georgia delegates – all male. There was only one mayor on stage, from Aurora, IL. The chair of the Georgia Republican Party was the one white man on the stage. At that event, women served; they didn’t speak. The RNC reported that 55 delegates to the 2024 convention are Black, up from 18 in 2016.
I missed the Independent Women’s Forum toast to “Women Who Make Our Country Great” because I went to Convention Fest: The Official Delegate Experience, which was held in the streets outside the Fiserve Forum and Baird Hall as well as some space inside Baird. To get to that one you not only needed a credential of some sort, but a USSS pass (which I have).
Concerned Women for America parked its pink bus across from the Baird Center the week before the RNC. No one was home. When Convention Fest opened on Tuesday afternoon, they set up a pink tent, from which its leaders preached to whomever passed by. It calls itself “the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization” but its focus is evangelical Christian. The slogan on the side of its pink bus captures this emphasis: “She Prays, She Votes.” A prayer precedes each sermon.
President Biden Signs Executive Order to Strengthen America’s Forests, Boost Wildfire Resilience, and Combat Global Deforestation
"Today, on Earth Day, President Biden signed an Executive Order to expand his Administration’s historic and bold efforts to tackle the climate crisis, make our nation more resilient to extreme weather, and strengthen local economies. The President will sign the Executive Order in Seattle, Washington — rounding out a trip across the West focused on lowering costs for families and protecting communities from intensifying climate impacts. Wildfires and extreme weather events are growing in frequency and ferocity, engulfing communities in the West and across the country and costing lives, homes, and money." more »
National Archives Virtual Daytime Programs in March; Celebrating Women’s History Month
One example of the programs available: Book Talk – Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution, Tuesday, March 8, at 1 p.m. ET; Register in advance; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel; Mary Sarah Bilder looks to the 1780s — the age of the Constitution — to investigate the rise of a radical new idea in the English-speaking world: female genius. English-born Eliza Harriot Barons O’Connor delivered a University of Pennsylvania lecture attended by George Washington as he and other Constitutional Convention delegates gathered in Philadelphia. As the first such public female lecturer, her courageous performance likely inspired the gender-neutral language of the Constitution. more »
Weekly Legislative Update, February 14, 2022: Bill To Permit Employees to Request Changes to Work Schedules Without Fear of Retaliation; Bill for Support of National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month”, Disaster Equipment in Emergencies
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)/Education and Labor; House Administration; Oversight and Reform; Ways and Means (2/9/22) — A bill to extend protections to part-time workers in the areas of family and medical leave and pension plans, and to ensure equitable treatment in the workplace; Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)/Placed on Senate legislative calendar (2/9/22) — A bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994; On Tuesday, the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee will mark up several bills, including S. 2042, the Interagency Committee on Women’s Business Enterprise Act of 2021. Appropriations — Bipartisan Violence Against Women Act This week, the Senate is expected to vote on a continuing resolution (CR) (H.R. 6617) to fund the government through March 11. The current CR expires on February 18.
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The Stettheimer Doll's House: For 19 Years, Carrie Stettheimer Worked on This Three-dimensional Work of Art
Today, the Stettheimer “doll’s house” – an artistic model made over the course of nearly two decades between 1916 and 1935 – is one of the great treasures of the Museum of the City of New York. Carrie, along with her sisters Ettie and Florine, hosted a famous artistic salon in the early 20th century, which influential art historian and critic Arthur Danto later called the “American Bloomsbury.” Ettie was a philosopher and novelist; Florine was a painter; Carrie was an aspiring theatrical designer whose artistic goals were derailed by her obligations to run the household. Her creative energies were channeled instead into the crafting of a miniature world whose interior reflected the Stettheimers’ life in their fashionable apartment and reflected the avant-garde artistic circles of New York in the 1920s. more »
