“Ladies, never let anyone tell you you are past your prime”
                       –Michelle Yeoh

Michelle Yeoh gobsmacked me with this sentence from the stage as she was accepting the 2023 Oscar for Best Actress this month. Yes, I thought. That’s IT. At 62, I’ve been feeling on the brink of my best work, always a late bloomer… but not to be underestimated (!) Women’s History Month at The Alliance this year has meant taking notice of the amazing women who are leading our programs, telling stories and producing work that moves us, illuminates the darkness and builds revolutions.

We gathered a braintrust conversation around culture, technology and the Future of Open Media Archives;  big thanks to Martha Diaz, Xaviera Flores, Pamela Yates, and Jocelyn Arem, who, along with Paco de Onis and Andy Beach, activated a set of powerful ideas that the Alliance will continue to develop. (Highlights from this conversation will be released shortly!)

We did some deep work on the road developing two new regional Arts2Work programs – one with the Warhol Museum Pop District in Pittsburgh and the other at Community Cultural Collective in Colorado Springs. We celebrate the women leading those incredible teams – Anneliese Martinez and Linda Weise – different generations, equally radical creative leaders.

We produced a community screening (in Spokane, WA) of Pratibha Parmar’s extraordinary, award-winning documentary My Name is Andrea, about radical feminist writer and activist Andrea Dworkin, co-presented with End The Violence Spokane. A spoken word performance after the film brought Dworkin’s words live into the Magic Lantern Theater.

Thank you to all the women leading programs at the Alliance: Senior Producer Valentina Vargas, Arts2Work Operations Manager Sonia Dowuona, Social Media Producer Olivia Evans, Learning Hub Community Manager Saki Bowman, and Membership/Communications Producer Priscilla Genet. Click the links in here to learn more about their extraordinary creativity, resilience and vision.

This photograph of Colombian women celebrating abortion decriminalization in Bogota popped into my inbox recently in an email from Open Society Foundations. I can’t stop looking at it. Happy Women’s History Month to all.

Activists celebrate abortion decriminalization outside the Constitutional Court in Bogotá , Colombia,on February 21, 2022.  © Daniel Romero/Abaca/Newscom

In solidarity,

~ Wendy

Notes from the Field

KSUT and partners host first Native Lens Media Fellowship in Durango, CO
At the beginning of this month, KSUT Tribal Radio hosted their first young Native American adults filmmaker fellowship, the Native Lens Media Fellowship. Two short films created during the fellowship premiered in a showcase at Durango Independent Film Festival on March 4th, alongside other shorts from Native Lens.

Hummingbirds Wins Berlinale’s Grand Prix in Generation 14plus
Directors Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía Contreras recently won the prestigious Grand Prix in Generation 14plus for their personal documentary on immigration at the U.S. Mexico border: Hummingbirds. The international jury that chose Hummingbirds said the film provided “a touching and subtle glimpse into the intimate moments of memorable characters…Their self-determination and playfulness, as both protagonists and authors, is inspiring. Their actions, jokes, songs, laughs, and bodies are political and necessary as a way of resistance.” Hummingbirds also received praise from Jason Gorber on Rogerebert.com who called it “a film of deep honesty that’s carefully crafted […] truly is one of the best films of this ilk I’ve seen”