news / #feministgold

The famed and always fantastic PS 321 Holiday Fair is around the corner and I can't wait to see you all IN PERSON! This market is wonderful– full of luscious gifts from excellent designers and makers, and the added benefit of supporting one of our local public elementary schools. I can do all my holiday shopping here, very happily. Well, maybe here and the Park Slope Food Co-op, whose holiday delicacies compel me. The PS 321 Holiday Shop is Saturday December 2nd, from 10am-5pm. Don't miss it!

I'll have lots of JEWELRY, as well as the beloved Feminist tee shirts, especially for kids and babies... Start them early, and they'll change the world. FWIW: they already are.

I'll also have various and sundry other goodies. TBA.

My hands have been busy, for which I am grateful. 

Silver and gold handmade hamsas, made by me

All I want to do these days is make things! It's like all the deferred creative energy of the last few years is spilling out all at once. Some of that energy has been diverted into my current obsession: Ceramics.

After a 30 year hiatus (no clay since high school, where I took the available studio and instruction for granted) I've been spending hours reacquainting myself. Man it's fun. 

Mother/daughter cups.. sweet, right?

That, plus a long term quilt project: a hexie quilt, my first quilt of any kind, and utilizing the English Paper Piecing technique, also new to me. It's exciting and challenging for me to work on a project that will take me at least a year. It simply will, because that's how long it takes. I'm usually more of an instant gratification person, so I'm enjoying surrendering to the process, and the time it takes.

Working on my Hexie quilt on Amtrak last month

I'm happier when I'm making things, but I've felt conflicted about adding to the world's "stuff". Most everything I'm making is utilizing jewelry supplies and fabric pieces I already have, and that in itself is gratifying. These bits and bobs are fulfilling their (current) destiny, which feels good. 

Let me know if you are looking for anything in particular, and I'll see what I can do :)

xDiana

Join us on Friday evening 9/6 to welcome Jenny Belin and her Portraits of Women show back into the store.

Jenny's paintings of an ever-changing assortment of women is a source of perpetual joy. The subjects bridge the professional spectrum: from artists and writers to mathematicians, activists, icons, justices, and more.

Inspired by the desire to see more women represented in the public sphere, the show aims to do just that.

Come see them for yourself.

Reception is Friday evening, September 6th from 5-7pm

Show will b up in the store through October.

Here we are at the end of 2018. It was a fast-forward kind of year here in DK-land. So much happening in the world and so many moments of feeling both powerless and powerful. There is pleasure and purpose in realizing that although things are broken, we each individually can make them better.. and when there is SO MUCH room for improvement, you can dig in wherever you want, it ALL helps.

To wit: we expanded our collaboration with artist Jenny Belin, showcasing more of her portraits of feminists, including more contemporary women: gun-control activist Emma Gonzalez, writer Rebecca Solnit, artist Amy Sherald, professor Anita Hill, and more.  We created buttons of many of them, so you can carry their images out into the world, because REPRESENTATION MATTERS.

In October we hosted the glorious Turning The Tide: Blue Wave Project from the Pen and Ink Brigade, a collective of women artists and illustrators. We raised over $8000 for voteriders.org, ensuring that people who needed assistance getting to the polls would have it. The artworks were spectacular, as was the opening party :)

This year I dug into it all by co-creating Persisticon. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do. It's a passion project: a social enterprise full of art, laughs, love, and making a difference in the world. Our ultimate goal is the election of pro-choice progressive women, but along the way we seek to foster community, provide platforms for funny women, support our local small businesses, make some art, and have fun. Here's the award winning poster Johanna Goodman did for the first Persisticon event, held in late March at the Bell House in Brooklyn:

When I started this post I planned to include a bunch of pretty new things from the resort collections pooling on the racks in the store.. but it's gotten so long I'm just gonna make another one...

Wishing you and yours all the blessings this world has to offer, and looking forward to seeing you in 2019. 

xDiana

December shows- find us in these two amazing places:

PS 321's famed Stuff You Should Buy on December 9th, at 180 Seventh Avenue in Park Slope Brooklyn.

And, in San Francisco, (YAY!) at the VAS+Susan+Friends show at Zinc Details, 1633 Fillmore Street, Saturday and Sunday 11am-6pm

And then, because OMG, goddess alert: The exceptional Lindy West in a DK Feminist Gold T, rocking my world.

“For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”

                                    —Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

 Feminism and resistance take center stage in the exhibition Nope: The Women’s March on Washington, Photography by Torz Dallison, currently on view at Diana Kane’s project space in Brooklyn. Dallison’s photographs capture the vitality, human compassion, and strength of the millions of protestors who participated in the Women’s March on January 21, 2017. On this historic day, an overwhelming sense of synchronicity and collective unrest unified the nation and the globe in the pursuit of a commitment to human rights and equality. Dallison’s singular portraits and large-scale panoramas respond to a universal and incisive question: Why do we march? Embodied among the strident interlocked figures, and the solitary heroines, we find a reservoir of tenacity, urgency, and activism. Above all else, Dallison’s photographs seize the subtle yet critical directive of the Women’s March to assemble and resist with civility.

 Accompanying the installation is a beautiful catalogue for purchase, with an introduction by art historian Aliza Edelman, featuring over fifty images by Dallison. Nope is Diana Kane’s second feminist project following the presentation of Portraits of Women: Icons and Feminists, and will be on view through May 17. A closing party will be held at Diana Kane on Saturday, May 13, 5-8PM.

Come out TONIGHT to meet the lovely Jenni Li from Intiearth. Jenni brings beautiful textiles back from her country of heritage: Peru. She's bringing a bunch of warm, soft, colorful pieces to us for a trunk show TONIGHT. Her wares are special, many are one-of-a-kind, and all are handmade. The frazadas, her particular specialty, can be used as a rug, blanket, wall hanging, or decorative throw. They are woven by hand and colored with natural dyes using methods passed down for centuries in the rural communities outside of Cusco.

You can see a group of her frazadas in the store now, and online here. And plenty more tonight.

We'll have wine and nibbles and fun. 
We'd love to see you there.
5:30-8pm, at Diana Kane, 229 Fifth Avenue

Yup. It is. What's happening in your macro life is effected by what's happening out there on the world stage and right this moment what's happening is the revelation of national misogyny on an shocking level.

What can you do? VOTE. Vote for the first woman president. Make history. 

To that end we are hosting an event at the store on Wednesday, October 19th from 6-9pm.

With the election mere weeks away it's time for a last push. Come out to contribute: Raise funds for the campaign, connect with others who want ot Get Out The Vote, get your own (very limited edition) Vote Feminist (Feminist Gold meets #ImWithHer) Tee, make buttons, buy raffle tickets and other swag (who couldn't use a spa day at d'mai??), pick up a copy of the official Hillary Clinton Coloring book that Selina Alko and Sean Qualls contributed to, drink wine and hot cider, and generally keep the momentum going.

Judy Goldberg will help you organize- if you're interested in traveling to a swing state to canvass, but have never done it before or even if you have, she'll hook you up. Or if phonebanking is more your speed, she can help you there too.
It ain't over people. And it's not too late to make a difference.
Bring your friends, bring your (older) kids, bring yourself.
Suggested Donation: $10 

See the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1366919546666453/

Here's a quick photo recap of the opening party for Portraits of Women: Icons and Feminists. As usual, I managed to take a few quick snaps at the very beginning and then again at the end. In the middle was a blur of smiling faces and wonderful connections.

I'm happy so many of the artists managed to get here, it was great seeing them with their work, and meeting each other as well. We were packed all night long. but fortunately the wine and bubbly held up- thanks again to our local sponsors: Red, White, and Bubbly, and Acme Wines and Spirits. If you didn't make it, please come check it out anytime- these pieces will be up until 10/15. If you are an artist interested in participating in a future iteration of this show, don't hesitate to get in touch. There are an endless supply of worthy subjects.