Saturday, March 13, 2010

International Women's Day

On Monday, March 8th, the Memphis Socialist Party celebrated International Women's Day by preparing an IWD lesson for our art class at Bent Tree Apartments. A wonderful couple runs an after-school tutoring program in the rent subsidized apartment complex, and we help out as much as we can through tutoring and with our weekly art class.





Our lesson explained the background of IWD along with its relevance today as working women continue to be the caretakers of and providers for our families and communities, while struggling to attain political, economic and social equality.


Bennett and Melanie introduced the work of a few women artists: Kahlo, Morisot, Cassatt, O'Keefe, and the photography of Annie Leibovitz.




The girls enjoyed drawing self-portraits with pastels in the style of these artists, but clearly the most fun was taking black and white photos of each other.





The Memphis SP has few resources, but we promote the socialist principles of love, solidarity and equality through our work by sharing our skills and time in ways that are useful for our community.


We hope to expand our celebration next year outside of the art classroom to educate more mid-southerners about International Women's Day--happy 100th anniversary!

2 comments: