Last chance for tea and cookies at the Suffragist Tea Parties installation on March 7

The Euphrat Museum of Art will be holding special Saturday hours from 10am-1pm on March 7th, and I will be in the museum to serve tea and cookies to visitors in my interactive installation about voting rights 100 years after the suffrage amendment. This installation is part of an exhibit called Women Pathmakers, featuring works by pathbreaking artists such as Hung Liu, Jennifer Mondfrans, Rupy C. Tut and Jessica Sabogal. You can read the San Jose Mercury News’ coverage of the exhibit here. My installation features portraits of voting rights activists Ida Wells-Barnett, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Charlane Oliver painted by Johanna Foster, whom you can read more about here. The Women Pathmakers exhibit is up until March 12, and normal museum hours are Monday through Thursday from 10am-3pm.

Visitors to the artist reception having tea and conversation about voting; Jen Myhre and Johanna Foster in the background. Photo credit: Elizabeth Mjelde

Come on out on May 24 to learn about the historical documentary I'm working on

I'll be showing some very preliminary footage and sharing lots of archival materials from my historical documentary about Jane Addams and the U.S. government's propaganda and surveillance campaign against feminist peace activists in the wake of the First Red Scare.  The talk is on the De Anza College campus--the talk is free but daily parking at De Anza is $3.  Also my colleague David Howard-Pitney is bringing his guitar to play a piece of music from the time period, so it should be good times all around as we learn about a period in U.S. history marked by xenophobia, anti-feminism, and violations of civil liberties by the surveillance state. ;) This talk is sponsored by the California History Center.

I've just begun post-production on my next documentary short

This spring I wrapped up most of the research and development on my next documentary short, called The Spider Web, about the U.S. War Department's surveillance and propaganda campaign against feminist pacifists in the early 1920s.  I visited archives in Chicago IL, Swarthmore PA, Ramapo NJ, and Washington DC.  I also filmed interviews with Louise Knight, Jane Addams' biographer, and Dr. Kim Nielsen, who wrote an excellent book about anti-feminism during the First Red Scare.  In the process of working on what will be my first historical documentary, I have discovered that I am a secret historian and archive nerd.  Who knew?!