Van photo by Kris Kurzawa.
Attendees throw high heels and handbags at representations of police/customs agents/prison guards, all while calling out injustices and calling on our heroines. Each community can shape the tone and focus of the installation.
An ever-increasing list of femme/effemminate/sissy/queeny activists and cultural producers' names is also read, and attendees are asked to think up, call out [and email/facebook/tweet to add to the record] their own additions of female-spectrum people who inspire them.
Femmes fight back travelled across the US and Canada in 2009, and participants from Montreal to Tuscon and Portland to Brooklyn have called the event "transformative," "community-building," "incredibly moving," and "awesome."
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click here to see where and when we'll be in your city & comment to add your own femme heroines to the list below, this is *our* list!An Incomplete, Mostly Unordered List of Femme, Effeminate, Sissy & Feminine Heroines
Writers + Theorists
Dorothy Allison, Carol Queen, Oscar Wilde, Angela Davis, Hermila Galindo, Gloria Anzaldúa, Dolores Huerta, Cherríe Moraga, Octavia Butler, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Jewelle Gomez, Amber Hollibaugh, Alice Walker, Kate Bornstein, Barbara Carrellas, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Audre Lorde, Suzie Orbach, Tristan Taormino, Stephanie Shroeder, Tara Hardy, Valerie Solanas, Donna Haraway, Carolee Schneeman, Simone de Beauvior, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Kathy Acker, bell hooks, Julia Serano, TJ Bryan aka Tenacious, Anna Camilleri, Dossie Easton, Walt Whitman, Ann Bannon, Joan Riviere, Vita Sackville-West, Joan Nestle, Quentin Crisp, Hilda Doolittle, Una Troubridge, Anna Joy Springer, Sarah Seinberg, Debra Chasnoff & Kim Klausner, Ursula K. Le Guin, Mab Segrest, Martha Beck, Tamora Pierce, Susie Bright, Violet Blue, Trish Salah, Daphne GottliebAndrea Zanin, Charlotte Cooper...Performers + Personalities + Visual Artists
Juliiana Snapper, Madonna, Nina Simone, Missy Elliott, Sista Soulja, Wendy Delorme, Coral Short Emilie Jouvet, Justin Bond, Our Lady J, Glenn Marla, Bitch, Leslie Mah, Heather MacAllister, Candye Kane, Kentucky Fried Woman, Annie Sprinkle, Beth Ditto, Courtney Trrouble, Madison Young, Felice Shays, Bevin Branlandingham, Tanya Cheex, Miss Kitty Galore, Poison Ivy, Mae West, Lydia Lunch, Karen Finley, Holly Woodlawn, Martha P Johnson, Amanda Lepore, April Ashley, Aleshia Brevard, Miss Major, Sandy Stone , Akihiro Miwa , Kathleen Hanna, Michelle Tea, Sadie Lune, Marilyn Monroe, Holly Hughes, Ethyl Eichelberger, Candy Darling, The Cockettes!, Nao Bustamante, Meliza Banales, World Famous *BOB*, Sequinette, Erica Tour Aviance, Hart Collective!, Annie Danger, Dave End, Sweetie, ChiChi Valenti, Zackary Drucker, Lois Weaver, Mother Flawless Sabrina, the Dazzle Dancers, Dolly Parton, Kalup Linzy , Sylvester, Kathleen Hanna, Patti Smith, Wendy O Williams, Jennifer Nettles, Mindy Smith, Meliza Banales, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Kathy Bates, Nina Hagen, Siouxie Sioux, Cathy Rigby, Honey Lee Cottrell, Allyson Mitchell, Nan Goldin, Tee Corine, Jordan Arsenault, Kate Craig, Tanya Mars, Diamanda Galas, Katrina del Mar Bildwechsel, Mihee-Nathalie Lemoine ...Historical + Fictional
the Whore of Babylon [also], Theodora - Byzantine Empress, Miss Scarlet [from Clue], Catwoman, Cleopatra, Charlotte de Berry, Mary Read, Anne Bonney, [Bonney+Read] Florence Nightingale, Louisa May Alcott, Annie Oakley historical, Mata Hari, Lili Elbe , Emma Goldman, Victoria Woodhull, Sappho, Antigone, Bonnie Parker...Activists + Political Figures
Sylvia Rivera, all the queens at the Stonewall Rebellion, Kai Barrow, Annie Oakley current, Scarlot Harlot, Beth Elliot , Nancy Burkholder , Vladimir Luxuria, Christine Jorgenson, Robyn Few, Andrea Ritchie, Del + Phyllis!, Madeline Albright, Femme Sharks, Femme Mafia, the Femme Collective, Femme Family!
Contributors:
Sadie Lune | Amelia Posada |
Bevin B | Marlene Mouttet | Sarah Colleen Dillon | Meagan Foster | Damien Luxe | Mira Bellweather | Rachel Schiff | Sophie Rogers-Gessert | Heather Acs | Bryn Miller | Lisa Alatorre | Haley Assurer | Dee Canadian | Laura Boo | Coral Short | Julie Tolentino Wood ... and you!Email me me with your heroines and their names will get read too when we bring the installation next time!
You can also check out Femme Intelligentisa, organized by Shawna Lipton, who have a similar list of femmes and allies who inspire and support!
