Friday, November 16, 2007

The Red Tent Women’s Project provocatively presents:

vagina vérité®
an unabashed exploration of the plain, ordinary, mysterious matter of vagina

The exploration begins with 70 vagina-portraits: close-up, documentary photographs. No stylists, no details about the model to set the mood for fantasy–just the elusive faces of the vagina in plain view. So women can see ourselves for ourselves. Each beautiful and strikingly unique – like all women!

Join us for the exhibition and gallery talk Friday, Nov. 16, 2007.
Alexandra will talk about how the project began, share some of her experiences, and answer questions.

Friday, November 16 –
• Just for women from 6:30pm – 8pm
• Everyone from 8pm – 10pm
• Gallery talk starts at 8:30pm

Red Tent Women’s Project
338 4th Street, between 5th & 6th Avenues, ground floor
Brooklyn, NY 11215

For more about vagina vérité®, go to http://www.vaginaverite.com.
For more about the Red Tent Women’s Project, go to http://www.redtentwomenspgroject.org.

R.S.V.P. desired, but not required. Email info@redtentwomensproject.org

Subways to Red Tent Women’s Project:
F: Take the F to 7th Avenue (be at the back of the train)
R/M: Take the R/M to 9th Street (be in the middle of the train)
2/3: Take the 2/3 to Grand Army Plaza (if you want a 10 minute walk--make sure you get out at the south side of Flatbush Avenue exit)
Q: Take the Q to 7th Avenue (if you want a 25 minute walk).

By Bus:
You can also take the B63 and B67 buses to the 3rd Street stops.

Why when challenged on what was just said, is "it's just an expression" acceptable? What does that mean? That some words s/he uses mean something and others don't? If that's true, then how would anyone know which words/expressions to care about, respond to, act on, believe? I don't get "it's just an expression". That's everything, isn't it? – all we're doing: Expressing ourselves. Every bit of it matters. Wouldn't it be good, fulfilling, meaningful, useful - if everything mattered?

The seminar began with classical music playing, while a graphical, animated representation of the music, using horizontal lines in different colors and lengths, was projected on a screen.

As each note played [horizontal bars] moved from right to left on the screen.

You could see: the present moment [the highlighted note bars in the middle of the screen] as well as the past receding [unhighlighted notes bars moving off the screen] and the future advancing [unhighlighted note bars moving into view], the duration of each note [length of the note bar], its location on the scale [vertical position] and which hand was playing [two colors for the bars].

The animated music was an illustration of a presentation where everything you saw was content. Nothing could be removed without losing information.

This is good design. In good design everything communicates, delivers information.

...PRESENTING DATA AND INFORMATION
notes from Edward Tufte seminar, April 26, 2007. Brilliant. Highly recommended.

RAISING EYEBROWS TO RAISE AWARENESS
Announcing Vagina Festival: a visual and performance art experience, celebrating women and raising awareness about the pervasiveness of violence against women.

Raised eyebrows are often the response when artist-activist, Alexandra Jacoby describes her work. For the last six years, she’s been working on a book of vagina portraits, documentary photographs for women, so we can see ourselves for ourselves. According to Jacoby, “Most women have not seen their own, much less others.”

The raised eyebrows only last a few seconds, as Jacoby passionately relates the wide-ranging conversations that arise from presenting this still-taboo, and surprisingly unfamiliar body part shared by half the world’s population. From playful to informative to poignant and moving…the conversations spiral outward – and draw you in.

This February, you’re invited to put your 2-cents in, view the v-portraits and more at Vagina Festival – a visual and performance art experience, celebrating women and raising awareness about a painful and all-too-pervasive part of the vagina-conversations: violence against women. The festival is part of V-Day's Worldwide Campaign 2007.

Vagina Festival will take place the weekend of Feb. 16-18, 2007 at Agni Gallery, 170 East 2nd Street, Manhattan. “We’re going to line the gallery walls with visual art and throughout the Festival present performance art, song, dance, as well as two performances of The Vagina Monologues.

Vagina Festival is a space where people can come together and women's stories can be told, celebrating women, peace, creativity and collaboration.

We look forward to a fun, moving thought-provoking event, stimulating conversation that continues beyond the weekend experience!”

Proceeds will be donated to V-Day to support its efforts to end violence against women worldwide.  While Vagina Festival is for and about women, it warmly welcomes men.

Would you like to participate?

SEEKING VOLUNTEERS
If you would like to be part of creating a spectacular event, please go to http://www.vaginafestival.com/participate.html and fill out a participation form.

We're seeking:
•    information/inspiration goody-bag crew
•    a street team to post flyers and hand out invites
•    a set-up and take-down crew
•    a team to keep things running smoothly during the festival, including ticket-takers
•    conversation-starters during the festival
•    help with spreading the word online about the festival
•    production crew for performances of The Vagina Monologues
•    help with lining up sponsors and affiliate organizations, artists, speakers and performers
•    and more! Got an idea? We’d love to hear it!

ABOUT ALEXANDRA JACOBY –
Alexandra Jacoby is an artist-activist, living in NYC. Since Sept. 2000, her primary focus has been making vagina portraits. Jacoby has made 64 v-portraits so far and plans to publish them in a book, vagina vérité™ - an unabashed exploration of the plain, ordinary, mysterious matter of vaginas. To learn more about vagina vérité™ , please go to http://www.vaginaverite.com. To download Jacoby’s CV: http://www.vaginaverite.com/art/AlexandraJacoby-CV-0610.pdf

ABOUT V-DAY –
V-Day is a global movement that supports anti-violence organizations throughout the world, helping them to continue and expand their work, while drawing public attention to the larger fight to stop worldwide violence (including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), sexual slavery) against women and girls. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $40 million and educated millions about the issues of violence against women and girls. V-Day was established by Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues”. For more on V-Day, please go to http://www.vday.org.

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

On 17 December 1999, the General Assembly of the United Nations designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and invited governments, international organizations and NGOs to organize activities designated to raise public awareness of the problem on that day.

It’s the perfect day to announce the first Vagina Festival [that I know of].

Vagina Festival
Vagina Festival is a visual and performance art experience. Its mission is to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of violence against women, to challenge its chokehold on women worldwide; to support women who have survived violence and to honor the women who have not.

Vagina Festival is a collaboration among artists and the community. It is a volunteer-run event, made possible by the generous support of sponsors.

The 2007 Vagina Festival will be our first! It will take place on Feb. 16-18, at Agni Gallery, NYC. Through visual art, music, dance, voice and performance art, we will create a space where people can come together and women's stories can be told—where we can celebrate women, peace, creativity and collaboration, and envision a world without violence.

Vagina Festival is a collaboration among artists and the community. We are just getting underway.

Request for Art Proposals
Artist Proposals are due on Dec. 22. If you’re a visual artist, musician, singer, dancer, or performance artist, please go to http://www.vaginafestival.com for details on how to submit a proposal.

Participation
Vagina Festival will need administrative and promotion help, production crew, and help during the festival to keep things running smoothly. If you’d like to be part of a fun, moving event to raise money toward ending violence against women, please email with your interest and skills that you’d like to offer. Everyone is welcome!

If you are part of an organization whose work is related, and would like to collaborate, please reply email with your ideas.

Sponsorship
Vagina Festival will be presented entirely by volunteers. We will keep expenses low and produce the event with the help of sponsors.

All proceeds from the festival will go to V-Day. V-Day is a global movement that supports anti-violence organizations throughout the world [see below for more on V-Day]. Sponsorship is what will make the event possible, and is not tax-deductible.

Our production expenses include: the space, promotional materials and refreshments. If you’d like to become a sponsor [no amount is too small!], you can mail a check, made out to Alexandra Jacoby, to Alexandra Jacoby, 333 East 45th Street, 21D, NYC 10017. A record of our expenses will be kept on the website [ http://www.vaginafestival.com ]

Sponsors will be listed, and thanked, on the website and in promotional materials [unless you request not to be]. Should sponsorship exceed our expenses, the surplus will be donated to V-Day.

Violence Against Women
At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime — with the abuser usually someone known to her. Violence against women and girls is a universal problem of epidemic proportions.

Fear and shame continue to prevent many women from speaking out, and data collected are often insufficient and inconsistent, so many people are unaware of just how pervasive violence against women is.

One of the pieces to be presented at Vagina Festival is IT HAPPENED TO ME, a set of recordings of women telling stories of violence they have endured. A space is being set up at vaginafestival.com where women can submit their stories.

Please spread the word about IT HAPPENED TO ME. Many women have never told anyone about the violence they’ve suffered. Stories are anonymous, and will be recorded by volunteers.

If you’d like to help record women’s testimony of violence against them, please email.

If you know of organizations or websites that support women who have experienced violence, please let me know. I’d like to reach out far and wide to let women know that we do want to hear about what happened to them, that we support them, and that we want to help prevent it from happening again.

V-Day
V-Day is a global movement that supports anti-violence organizations throughout the world, helping them to continue and expand their core work on the ground, while drawing public attention to the larger fight to stop worldwide violence (including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), sexual slavery) against women and girls. V-Day exists for no other reason than to stop violence against women. In just eight years, it has raised over $35 million and was named one of Worth magazine's "100 Best Charities." V-Day was established by Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues”.

Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read this far. Participating in V-Day’s worldwide campaign is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Vagina Festival is an opportunity to connect vagina vérité™ with some of the issues that have come up in conversation around the v-portraits and to support V-Day’s efforts. I’m very excited about collaborating on a stimulating, fun, thought-provoking and moving experience – and making it an annual event.

Please check out the website: http://www.vaginafestival.com and spread the word about the project.

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions, they are most welcome.

Best,
-Alexandra

--
Alexandra Jacoby
Organizer
Vagina Festival, a visual and performance art experience

alexandra at vaginafestival.com
http://www.vaginafestival.com

an unabashed exploration of the plain, ordinary,
mysterious matter of vaginas

Since September 2000, Alexandra Jacoby has been capturing a glimpse of women’s most private selves. So private that most women haven’t seen their own, much less others.

She’s been making vagina portraits.

The v-portraits are close-up, documentary photographs. There are no stylists, no details about the model to set the mood for fantasy–just the elusive faces of the vagina in plain view. Each beautiful and strikingly unique.

you’re invited to a v-portrait viewing

Sunday, October 29, 2006 from 2pm – 6pm
333 East 45th Street, 21D
[between 1st and 2nd avenues]

Nearest subway station: Grand Central

RSVP by October 25. Email preview@vaginaverite.com

More on vagina vérité™

Visit the website
Download the artist statement
Download Alexandra Jacoby’s CV

Looking forward to seeing you there,
-Alexandra

Just got in copies of the Soho Journal  – and one of my paintings is the cover!
Three more shown inside!

You never know what will come your way...

Come see the first book-form of vagina vérité™ at

Agni Gallery
170 E. 2nd. Street
between Avenue A and Ave B
NY NY 10009

"Rated R for RandOM"
CLOSING PARTY

with a special performance by Nicolas Arjona

September 14, 2006,
Thursday 8pm

Nicolas Arjona's painted fashion statements will be â?o at playâ?? and â?oliveâ??, presented by singer-supermodel Yanelle Dugar and actress Eico Ortiz along with Nicolas Arjona during Fashion Week.

Mr. Arjona will also be presenting his latest collections of "ICONS" titled AT PLAY where the artist reveals through out a series of twenty one water color drawings all about his experiences in the fashion district working and creating next to a music recording studio, painting along with the melody of rock and roll. â?o This is where I'm at today; NICOLAS AT PLAY.â??

" As people say there are no random happenings and there are random happenings, hence, a series of artistic performances and presentations are titled Rated R for Random.

I'm excited about the paintings and artistry of Agni Zotis, her passionate philosophical life statements, her outrageous aesthetic senses and her unique persona of a great hostess. The AGNI Gallery is among one of the best enthusiastic art scenes in happenings of downtown New York today. It is a great honor and pleasure to participate". -- From: cypriajolie@aol.com

So, I dropped off the v-book at Agni Gallery. Agni and Dianne were painting the walls and setting up. Fun! [and work] I love the space. My first time inside. How great would it be to continually set this stage...