Tag: lectures

A Leaf From Her Book

An absolute and constant motivation for us in creating the Dead Feminists series has been the opportunity to find and share the words and stories of women that people should know, but often don’t. While this might be considered teaching, a February trip to Farmville, Virginia, gave us the chance to be the students. We were invited by Longwood University Professor Kerri Cushman to learn more about the struggle against school segregation that began April 23, 1951 in Prince Edward County—long before the Montgomery bus boycott. On that day, 16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns led her classmates to strike against conditions at their all-black high school. Her persistence convinced NAACP lawyers to take up the students’ cause, filing a suit which would become one of five cases included in Brown v Board of Education.Farmville, Virginia photo by Chandler O'Leary

Farmville, Virginia photo by Chandler O'Leary

R.R. Moton Museum photo by Chandler O'Leary

Barbara’s former high school is now the home of the Moton Museum, a National Historic Landmark. A reconstruction of temporary tar paper shacks built to house overcrowded students, and first-person accounts help visitors understand the extreme conditions that motivated students to strike. According to Barbara’s sister, Joan: “In winter the school was very cold. And a lot of times we had to put on our jackets. Now, the students that sat closest to the wood stove were very warm and the ones who sat farthest away were very cold. And I remember being cold a lot of times and sitting in the classroom with my jacket on. When it rained, we would get water through the ceiling. So there were lots of pails sitting around the classroom. And sometimes we had to raise our umbrellas to keep the water off our heads. It was a very difficult setting for trying to learn.”

R.R. Moton Museum photo by Chandler O'Leary

Farmville, Virginia photo by Chandler O'Leary

Farmville, Virginia photo by Chandler O'Leary As a result of the Brown decision, in 1959 the Board of Supervisors refused to appropriate any funds at all for the County School Board. From 1959 to 1964 Prince Edward County closed their public schools to avoid integration. While many white children attended segregated private schools, black children had to go elsewhere, attend makeshift schools, or forego years of formal education. In 1964, The Supreme Court in Griffin v. Prince Edward ordered schools to reopen, declaring “the time for mere ‘deliberate speed’ has run out.”

Virginia Civil Rights Monument photo by Chandler O'LearyThe Virginia Civil Rights Memorial in Richmond honors Barbara and the striking students.

Virginia Civil Rights Monument photo by Chandler O'Leary

As we considered how best to honor Barbara’s story in our collaboration at Longwood, we took inspiration from what motivated her to take courageous action:  “It was time that Negroes were treated equally with whites, time that they had a decent school, time for the students themselves to do something about it. There wasn’t any fear. I just thought — this is your moment. Seize it!”

Process photo of the creation of our Barbara Johns print at Longwood University

We knew this project would be a little different from our other Dead Feminists broadsides–it would have to happen in a short visit, and we had the special opportunity to create a bigger collaboration and utilize handmade paper. Kerri and her students embraced the idea of making shaped paper that would reference the region’s history as a tobacco producer as well as suggest the shape and look of high school pennants. Kerri created custom paper moulds, and Chandler’s illustration worked to fill the space in both form and content.

Process photo of the creation of our Barbara Johns print at Longwood University

We also created stencils (magnetic sheets cut to resemble leaf veins) and used actual cooked tobacco “juice” to stain each sheet of handmade paper. The five leaf veins represent the five school integration cases.

Process photo of the creation of our Barbara Johns print at Longwood University Process photo of the creation of our Barbara Johns print at Longwood University

In addition to the gorgeous papermaking facilities at Longwood, there are plenty of printing presses. Kerri and her students created plates from Chandler’s illustration on site, and we handset the curved colophon. With ink mixed, we had two presses running and plenty of community members and students attending our working demonstration.

Process photo of the creation of our Barbara Johns print at Longwood University Process photo of the creation of our Barbara Johns print at Longwood University Process photo of the creation of our Barbara Johns print at Longwood UniversityProcess photo of the creation of our Barbara Johns print at Longwood UniversityThe shaped leaf was best handled through the presses by carefully mounting with painter’s tape on a carrier sheet.

Process photo of the creation of our Barbara Johns print at Longwood University

Process photo of the creation of our Barbara Johns print at Longwood University

Process photo of the creation of our Barbara Johns print at Longwood University

We completed the edition with a lot of help from Kerri and her amazing students, including talented and enthusiastic studio assistant Juan Guevara. Working together, we made it happen!

"Broad Words" exhibition featuring artwork by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring

We also shared our work in Longwood’s gallery, including some very big steamroller prints.

Detail of Barbara Johns mini Dead Feminists broadside by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica SpringWe completely enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about Farmville, papermaking, the Moton Museum, and of course, Barbara Rose Johns, as we share her story. We hope “A Leaf From Her Book” honors her bravery as a young woman, but also her continued commitment to education, as shown through her work as a librarian until the end of her life in 1991.

Kerri Cushman of Longwood University and Lara Fergeson of the Moton MuseumVery special thanks to Longwood Professors Kerri Cushman and Larissa Fergeson–collaborators, teachers and hosts–for seizing the moment with us.

 

Feminists of letterpress

Ladies of Letterpress Conference photo by Chandler O'Leary

Virginia Woolf said that “a room of one’s own” was essential for women to do creative work—so imagine what 150 women could do with such a room. Jessica and I got to unveil our newest broadside at the first-ever Ladies of Letterpress Conference in Asheville, NC, where we were asked to speak about our series. It was unbelievably inspiring to stand in a room full of heavy equipment—

Ladies of Letterpress Conference photo by Chandler O'Leary

and even more exciting to help our fellow lady printers turn that room into a powerhouse. The conference was a smashing success, and we were both surprised and heartened to discover just how many of us are out there.

Ladies of Letterpress Conference photo by Chandler O'Leary

The three days of LofLCon were jam-packed with panel discussions, demos and presentations with the most prominent and skilled members of the letterpress community;

Ladies of Letterpress Conference photo by Chandler O'Leary

an exhibition to introduce us to a vast array of talent;

Ladies of Letterpress Conference photo by Chandler O'Leary

and a whole lot of hard-won know-how—like when to salvage an old press, and when to hold a funeral. (Sigh.)

Ladies of Letterpress Conference photo by Chandler O'Leary

Absorbing letterpress goodness by osmosis was wonderful—

Ladies of Letterpress Conference photo by Chandler O'Leary

—but the best part was meeting dozens of long-admired artists and brand-new, fresh faces alike.

Ladies of Letterpress Conference photo by Chandler O'Leary

I can’t express enough how excellent the weekend was—Jessica White and Kseniya Thomas (pictured here in white, giving a die-cutting demo on the platen press) deserve a standing ovation for organizing such a fabulous event, and wrangling so many printers to make it happen.

Ladies of Letterpress Conference photo by Chandler O'Leary

And for those hundred-plus people who shoehorned themselves into that tiny space to attend our Dead Feminists talk, we can’t thank you enough. Your support and enthusiasm for what we do was completely overwhelming—and it was so much fun to be able to get technical with y’all! (Sorry, the accent rubbed off a bit.)

One more thing: I know it somehow didn’t come across in my photos, but we were blown away by the sheer number of feminist fellas who came out of the woodwork and outed themselves as fans of the series. We love you guys—you make us feel like we must be doin’ something right. And thanks to the conference, we’re fired up and ready to get back to work.