Welcome to another Feminist Friday – our weekly column where we share three of our faves that we can’t get enough of right now. We typically focus on videos, but we also like to do book and podcast round-ups as well because content is our achilles heel. And as summer gets into swing and the quarantine bans begin slowly lifting, we want to share some of the content that has helped keep us motivated, inspired and positive during difficult times.
This week we have three new podcast series that are giving us the fierce, feminist fire we need, especially as we head into the 2020 Presidential election this November where there are a number of progressive women, and especially women of color, running for Congressional, state and local seats (yes, we’ve all but given up hope we are going to see a badass female candidate in the White House any time soon, sadly).
First up is a series called ‘Sista Brunch’, hosted by NAACP Award-winning director Anya Adams (‘Blackish’, ‘Fresh Off the Boat’, ‘G.L.O.W.’) and Fanshen Cox, award-winning playwright, and co-author of the Inclusion Rider, made famous by Frances McDormand in 2018. Sista Brunch is a relaxed and fun interview-style podcast where Black women+ (cis-, transgender & non-binary) in the media reveal how they broke into—and now thrive in—one of the world’s toughest industries, with candor and humor. Their mission is to share first-person stories of Black women+ across media / entertainment—building community around what can be an isolating experience—and inspire young people to reach for their dream careers.
You can find the series on Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and check out a sneak preview of Episode 2 below with screenwriter Malarie Howard who talks about always trusting your own voice even when people don’t get it.
The second podcast recommendation this week is called ‘Anthems’ and it celebrates exceptional women across the UK. It is a bold collection of 31 original manifestos, speeches, stories, poems and rallying cries written and voiced by exceptional women across Britain, inspired by International Women’s Day.
Each five-minute episode is a beautiful and immersive audio piece that the listener can return to and feel uplifted, inspired and ultimately not alone. Featuring the voices of Booker-prize winning author Bernadine Evaristo, award-winning journalist Poorna Bell, baker and writer Ruby Tandoh, Poet and author Laura Dockrill, Capital1 Radio Presenter Leah Davis, author Zing Tsjeng, Founder and CEO of Black Ballad Tobi Oredein, the Women of The Receipts Podcast (Tolly T, Audrey Indome, Milena Sanchez), and many more. The series offers inclusive and diverse representation of women from a range of creative sectors.
Anthems was created, executive produced and sound designed by Hana Walker-Brown, produced by Jaja Muhammed and assistant produced by Bea Duncan.
“The women involved in Anthems are truly expectational and their work is moving, hilarious, raw, honest, powerful, playful – everything and anything we could have hoped for. So many women have shared similar experiences but never shared them, but it’s so important to put our thoughts down and speak out into the world and I hope we will introduce podcast audiences to their new favorite anthems,” said Hana Walker-Brown in a press statement.
Subscribe to the series below:
The final podcast recommendation is a new series from Getty called ‘Recording Artists’, that features archival recordings of six women artists. Season 1 is titled ‘Radical Women’ and that name alone had us hooked.
“What was it like to be a woman making art during the feminist and civil rights movements? In this season of Recording Artists, host Helen Molesworth delves into the lives and careers of six women artists spanning several generations. Hear them describe, in their own words, their work, relationships, and feelings about the ongoing march of feminism. Contemporary artists and art historians join the conversation, offering their own perspectives on the recordings and exploring what it meant—and still means—to be a woman and an artist,” says the website description of what each episode contains.
Featuring Yoko Ono, Alice Neel, Lee Krasner, Betye Saar, Helen Frankenthaler and Eva Hesse, the lives of these women will certainly light a fire under us as a reminder that the work of intersectional feminism and gender equality is still not finished. Listen to the Yoko Ono episode below:
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