Antioch College to Host Arts Residency

Transnational arts exchange, Her Voice Rises, will include public and student-only programs.

Yellow Springs, OH (February 1, 2021) — This February, Antioch College will convene a virtual international performing arts residency highlighting the global movement across the Americas to end gender violence. Her Voice Rises, a transnational arts exchange, will include events open to the public as well as programs limited to students only. Public events in the series are an artist talk on Thursday, February 11, 2021 at 7 PM EST, and world premiere performance on Saturday, February 13, 2021 at 7 PM EST. Both events are free, open to the public, and held via Zoom. More information and registration are online at antiochcollege.edu/her-voice-rises.

The residency builds upon a multi-year transnational partnership between Antioch College and Mujeres de Artes Tomar (Women Taking Up Art) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mujeres de Artes Tomar (MAT) is a performing arts troupe that links everyday women to liberatory arts practices. MAT’s street performances over the past decade have been at the forefront of a surge of feminist activism in Argentina.

Three members of MAT, Leticia Torre, Lucía Snieg y Claudia Quiroga, will be part of a collaborative exchange spearheaded by Luisa Bieri, associate professor of Cooperative Education, who also teaches performance at Antioch. Bieri has led an ongoing exchange of ideas, simultaneous art actions, and mentored students who participated in MAT’s efforts in Buenos Aires through the Cooperative Education program.

More information about the free, public events is below. For further information about the residency, to register for the events, and biographies of the participants, please visit antiochcollege.edu/her-voice-rises.

Artist Talk, Thursday, Feb. 11, 7 PM EST

“Feminist Arts Activism within the Global Movement to End Violence Against Women and Femmes.”

MAT, founded by Claudia Quiroga and Sandra Posadino in 2011, began developing a hybrid of performance and protest aimed to empower women and femmes through embodied practice and street actions in Buenos Aires. From Ni Una Menos (Not One Less) a transnational movement against femicides to Argentina’s national women’s strikes and recent efforts for reproductive rights legislation, MAT has been part of this substantial movement. MAT consists of artists, musicians, performers, student activists, teachers, housewives, and neighbors. In the artist talk, members of MAT will highlight recent actions in Argentina and invite dialogue on their strategies and international movement building. Antioch alumna, Hannah Priscilla Craig ‘17, who joined MAT for a cultural immersion cooperative education fellowship in 2016, will join them. In addition, Dawn Knickerbocker, founder of W.A.R.N. (Women of All Red Nations) Ohio, will discuss intersections with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement here in North America.

World Premiere Performance of Instructions for HOLDing Up (instrucciones de SOStén), Saturday, Feb. 13, 7 PM EST

A woman holds a kite string that stretches to the sky, she speaks to herself with verbiage for a news media outlet in the capital. It’s a suburban wasteland that could be any city. During various months she comes to HOLD Up this “utopia,” and with some complications the community supports her and helps. A poetic and theatrical performance, this new work emerged during MAT’s experience with the obligatory social isolation of the coronavirus pandemic. They have worked through this moment to maintain continuity with a series of encounters via Zoom, continuing even now, to collectivize our knowledge and carry out artivist actions virtually. Instructions for HOLDing Up is a subtle recipe for how we can create and maintain connections of solidarity and sisterhood. Dramaturgy: Claudia Quiroga. Acting: Leticia Torres.

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