walker, satrapi, and nafisi...some really powerful women

last wednesday, i got to go to l.a. with my feminist concepts and strategies class (more on this later) to see some really amazing and inspiring works.

first, we visited the hammer museum for kara walker's "my complement, my enemy, my oppressor, my love" exhibit. i think walker might be one of my favorite artists, if not my favorite, right now. she uses a variety of different mediums, but she's most well-known for her amazing silhouette cutouts. her works really question the notion of race, gender, and sexuality. she challenges the conventional narratives of american history and the antebellum south. in other words, her works can create tension and uneasiness in the viewers, but i just absolutely love, love her works! she's at the hammer museum at ucla until june 8, 2008, and then the exhibit moves onto the modern art museum in fort worth, texas, after that! i am excited because i'll be in fort worth during the summer, and i did not have enough time to really take in everything.

these are my two favorite pieces from her. keep in mind that these pieces were adhered directly to the walls, and they are massive in scale:

"gone, an historical romance of a civil war as it occurred between the dusky thighs of one young negress and her heart" (1994)

"cut" (1998)

after dinner, we made our way over the ucla's royce hall to hear a conversation between marjane satrapi and azar nafisi, lead by alicia anstead.

 satrapi & nafisi 

marjane satrapi is the creator of the wonderfully humourous and heartbreaking graphic novel, "persepolis", which is basically her memoir of growing up in iran during the islamic revolution. when i first picked up "persepolis", i could not stop reading it. i had to get my hands on the second book and finished both without stopping to do much of anything else. i cried, i laughed, and i fell in love. i really recommend everyone to read this. it's such an easy read, yet it allows the readers to be exposed to some serious matters in a very light-hearted way. and if you don't like to read, a movie was just recently made from the graphic novels.

unfortunately, i don't know very much about azar nafisi. she's best known as the author of the national bestseller "reading lolita in tehran: a memoir in books", which is her account of the struggle she and her students had to go through during the islamic revolution. i definitely would like to pick up this book when i have time over the summer, because from hearing her speak, i can only imagine how wonderful the book is.

the conversation between the two women were hilarious. they talked about everything, from people losing imagination and creativity to people connecting throughout the world to enjoying the simple things of life. i am not doing justice to the very amusing conversation between the two women. all in all, i had an incredible night.