Category: Events

Votes for Women: 100 Years and Counting

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, prints and photographs division.

It feels weird to start a blog post in any sort of “normal” way right now. Thanks to the pandemic, it’s hard to know what to say. It also feels weird to open this like the thousands of Covid-era emails we’ve all received this year, like so many parallel-universe pandemic Hallmark cards: “Hope you’re safe and well in these difficult times…”

But the terrible truth is, odds are that at least some of you reading this are not at all safe or well. Some of you may have been ill or hospitalized, or lost loved ones to the virus. Others of you may have lost a job (or your own small business) or you may be scrambling to make ends meet on reduced hours or a furloughed position. Still others of you are front-line essential workers: tending to patients, or serving customers in person, or dreading the start of a school year where parents and teachers have to make impossible choices and perform advanced risk-calculus daily. And at the same time, many of you may be members of a marginalized population—enduring the added risk and indignation and danger of being Black, Indigenous, trans, a person of color, or an immigrant in a nation careening full-tilt toward fascism, even more entrenched white supremacy and police brutality, and economic ruin. All while the global pandemic and rampant voter suppression target our marginalized friends and family in disproportionate numbers. Oh, and by the way, the administration is trying to kill the U.S. Postal Service while everyone’s just trying to send our rent check or a ballot by the deadline, or receive our benefits check or prescription medication in the mail, or run our thanks-to-Covid-mail-order-only businesses.

In other words… yeah. It’s a lot.

So where do any of us go from here? For Jessica and me, our work fuels us, and our collaboration sustains us. Working on the Dead Feminists series has kept us focused—and given us plenty to do. (Heaven knows there’s no shortage of issues to make broadsides about, right?)

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, prints and photographs division.

Above: Alice Paul unfurls the suffrage flag she sewed to celebrate the ratification of the 19th Amendment. She sewed each star onto the flag as each new state ratified the amendment, until the necessary total of 36 was reached. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Despite every curve ball the world (and specifically America) has thrown at us, we still have reason to celebrate today. On this day 100 years ago, Tennessee became the 36th and final state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which extended the right to vote to women in the United States. The Amendment didn’t officially become law until August 26th, but we wanted to mark today’s milestone, as well. It took almost eighty years for the women’s suffrage movement to win the vote, but their cause excluded many, and their victory was incomplete. Today we are thinking about women all over America—many of whom, despite constitutional “equality,” still don’t have fully equal access to the ballot box. Voter suppression and other barriers to suffrage still threaten our democracy, and disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, and other women of color—denying them the vote that the Constitution is specifically supposed to protect.

Graphics for "Votes for Women: 100 Years and Counting" exhibition at the Washington State History Museum, designed by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring

This historical and contemporary inequality has been on our minds for many months. Since last year we have been designing, writing, and curatingVotes for Women: 100 Years and Counting, the women’s suffrage centennial exhibition with the team at the Washington State History Museum (WSHM). Votes for Women traces the history of the women’s suffrage movement and the ongoing struggle for voting equality for all Americans—all in an interactive voting game for visitors. As events have unfolded in real time—from voter suppression to the possibility of the first woman serving as Vice President—we’re updating content accordingly.

Thanks to the COVID-19 global pandemic, WSHM has been closed to visitors since March, and the Votes for Women exhibit is postponed with run dates unknown. (As soon as the museum is safe to open again and we can confirm the dates, we’ll let you know. Even if reopening is a long time off, WSHM is committed to running the exhibit in full, one day, no matter what.)

In the meantime, we still have another important anniversary to commemorate. Next Wednesday, August 26, is Women’s Equality Day, and the 100th anniversary of the certification of the 19th Amendment. This is the day that women’s suffrage became officially legal in the United States, and we wanted to celebrate by giving you a taste of the museum show!

Graphics for "Votes for Women: 100 Years and Counting" exhibition at the Washington State History Museum, designed by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring

Join us for a conversation with WSHM staff on the development of the Votes for Women exhibition. You’ll get a look at the design of the exhibition (including the overall look we developed, based on Jessica’s collection of 19th-century metal cuts and ornaments), the premiere of our 30th Dead Feminists broadside, and a behind-the scenes look at the interactive game we created at the heart of the show.

Graphics for "Votes for Women: 100 Years and Counting" exhibition at the Washington State History Museum, designed by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring

In Conversation: Dead Feminists and the Creation of
Votes for Women: 100 Years and Counting

Wednesday, August 26, 7-8:30 pm
Talk broadcast through Facebook Live
You can follow the Facebook Event at this link,
or access the video on the WSHM Facebook Videos Page once it goes live.
(Please note, the video won’t appear in the list of videos until the event actually starts, so you may have to refresh the page to see it, if you get there first!)

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Wherever this finds you, in whatever state of anger or worry or dread or even calm, please know that you are in our thoughts. We hope you are safe, and that the things you need are at your fingertips. And we hope that we can provide you with a small bit of entertainment and food for thought online in the coming week—even if we can’t see you in person right now. Many thanks for all your support.

Who is your historic heroine?

"Collaborate" process shot from Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring's PNW Book Award commemorative broadside

Early this month we heard our book had moved from the shortlist to join the winners of the 2018 Pacific Northwest Book Awards. The awards, produced by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, recognize “excellence in writing, publishing, and illustration in the PNBA region.” The first requirement of winning is to, well, write some more. So we wrote an essay about one of our favorite feminist topics: collaboration. PNBA also asked us to suggest our favorite local independent bookstore so celebrations could ensue. Of course we chose King’s Bookstore. Owned by sweet pea flaherty, supported by an awesome staff, beloved by Tacoma, and home of two store cats, the choice was obvious. They have been incredible partners in getting the word out about Dead Feminists well before there was a book to sell.

A Gal-entine for Cipe Pineles. Illustrated by Chandler O'Leary.

The celebration takes place February 13 at 7 p.m. This proximity to Valentine’s Day was no mistake. We want to share some love, cookies and keepsakes with our readers, and ask you to share your favorite dead feminist with us. Choose an important woman in your life—a relative or an historic heroine—and create your own Gal-entine to tell us more about her. We’ll create a display of these Gal-entines at King’s, which will stay up through International Women’s Day (March 8), and share these lovely ladies and their stories through social media for folks too far away to attend. Our printer pal Mary Bruno will join us in the festivities, and show some of her work, too.

We are working on a new broadside, to be unveiled at the party, to commemorate the PNBA award. Not quite a Dead Feminist broadside, this will feature hand lettering and hand set type using action words from the book that have helped guide us through a very challenging year.

Many thanks to PNBA and Pacific Northwest independent bookstores and readers. We are truly honored!

Heading East
For folks on the eastern side of our large state, we’ll be in Spokane this February to share our work. We’d love to meet you.

Auntie’s Bookstore
Book signing — print your own letterpress keepsake!
Sunday, February 4, 2018 at 4:00pm
402 W. Main Ave
Spokane, WA 99201

Re-Sisters: Dead Feminists broadsides, steamroller prints and
our individual books and prints
February 6 through March 23, 2018
Bryan Oliver Gallery, Whitworth University
300 W. Hawthorne Rd., Spokane, WA
Opening: February 6, 5-6 p.m., Lied Center
Lecture: February 6, 6 p.m., Lied 102

 

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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.

 

Deeds (and Words)

1972 electoral college map

As we lurch towards Thanksgiving, still dismayed at the outcome of the election and the steady appointment of very conservative white men as cabinet leaders, we are taking some time to look back and regroup before we move ahead. It’s difficult to find a silver lining in what feels like a crushing defeat, but we are hardly the first to walk this particular mile. Many of the women featured in Dead Feminists: Historic Heroines in Living Color suffered incredibly disappointing losses. As the first woman to run for President on a major-party ticket, Shirley Chisholm turned over her 152 delegates to George McGovern, who was crushed by Nixon (who resigned in 1974 to avoid impeachment). Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony spent their lives working for the cause of suffrage, but both died before women got the vote. Alice Paul penned the Equal Rights Amendment, but never saw it passed—nor have we. (In 1972, the ERA was finally passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. The original seven-year limit was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at that deadline, the ERA had been ratified by only 35 states, three states short of the 38 required.) All these losses are a reminder that we have so much work to do, and it’s going to be a lot harder than we ever thought.

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This fall, we have traveled around the Pacific Northwest sharing the stories of the women in our book. It has been largely celebratory—preaching to the choir, and meeting other authors with whom we agree. We spent several days in Portland for a long run of events, including the opportunity to speak on a panel at Wordstock about boundary-breaking women with best-selling author Laurie Notaro and moderator Elly Blue. An event at Powell’s on Hawthorne let us share the stage with Rad Women Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl. The tour wound up with an appearance at Beach Books on the Oregon Coast, attended by Jessica’s mom and three sisters—an intense feminist posse. We even hit the road on election day, speaking to a standing-room-only crowd at the University of Puget Sound, everyone jubilant with the thought that we’d be celebrating that night.

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A post-election event at Third Place Books last week was—in contrast—fairly somber, lightened by host Lish McBride (YA author of the fantastic Necromancer and Firebug series, who shared some tips for us newbie authors) and an earnest audience. Carole, an insatiable reader, asked us to sign a copy of our book to send to Donald Trump, thinking the abundant visuals would be welcome by a self-acknowledged non-reader. Another woman introduced herself as a Republican, sharing how she scolded her reading group, admonishing them that they could “still be Feminists and Republicans too.” We left that evening feeling recharged, having been told by many women there that they found some comfort in the gathering and were inspired by a message of action.

While it has been amazing to see our books in stores throughout the country, we are especially excited to have our work in Washington, DC. The National Museum of Women in the Arts will feature our broadsides through the inauguration, until March 17th. Knowing that others have tread this path before us, and still others are following behind us, both heartens and strengthens us. And more than ever, we are reminded that all of us have the right and responsibility to act, for our words and deeds have an impact on the future.

Dead Feminists broadsides and steamroller print by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring, on display at the Chartreuse Gallery in Phoenix, AZ.

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Leading the way

Hand-lettered illustration from the book "Dead Feminists: Historical Heroines in Living Color" by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring

When we were coming up with the action-word titles for each chapter in our book, some words came to mind easily, while others were a challenge. Since we had to include three different feminists under each umbrella term, we had to think outside the box of each word’s literal meaning. “Lead,” though, was a no-brainer, and one of the first words that sprung to mind.

Dead Feminists broadsides by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring

The women we featured in that chapter were all natural leaders, both literally and figuratively. Harriet Tubman, of course, literally led people to freedom in the North. The four members of the Washington suffrage movement led the way to gaining women in their state the vote. And Shirley Chisholm was elected to lead her constituents in the U.S. House of Representatives—then led the way as the first woman candidate on a major-party Presidential ticket.

Women's suffrage picket line, c. 1912

So since today is Election Day in the U.S., Jessica and I have our minds occupied with the women who came before us, who forged the path that led us to where we are today. And we’ll be focusing on this topic in our talk today at the University of Puget Sound:

Pressing Matters: Election Day
Artist talk, book signing and pop-up shop
Today, November 8, at 4 pm, in room 020
Collins Memorial Library
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA

1913 women's suffrage campaign program cover

First came the seemingly endless fight to win women the vote—

Women's suffrage illustration in 1909 Seattle Times newspaper

—not just nationally but also within their individual states. The amount of campaigning, organizing, writing, publishing, and picketing done by Emma Smith DeVoe and her colleagues was staggering, but their cumulative efforts built momentum that turned the campaign into an unstoppable train of force.

Historic political cartoon about western states leading the way for women's suffrage

Since women in Washington gained the vote in 1910, a full decade before women could vote in national elections, the suffrage movement saw our region as progressive leaders, trailblazing the path to political equality.

Shirley Chisholm election ephemera

More than sixty years later, Shirley Chisholm took the lead by running for President, which made her, in her own words, “literally and figuratively the dark horse.” Though she lost the 1972 Democratic primaries in the end, she fought hard to make the path a little easier for any women who came after her.

Women's suffrage campaigner in 1920

Today we stand on another historic threshold, where at long last, American women have the chance to vote for the first woman President—not just in the primaries, but in the main event. When we cast our ballots today, we’ll feel the presence of all the women who led the way.

Vintage women's suffrage and voting campaign buttons

A century’s worth of campaign buttons has got it right: your vote counts, especially if you are a woman. Please get out and vote today, and help us make history, not just write about it.

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Tell tale feminists

Hand-lettered illustration from the book "Dead Feminists: Historical Heroines in Living Color" by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring

Dead Feminists: Historic Heroines in Living Color has been out in the world for a few weeks, and most folks have been excited (beyond our immediate families). A common response has been one of surprise: “it’s a real book!” Dashing expectations of a coffee table book, Dead Feminists is more than 180 pages of the women, history and social issues entangled in our series of broadsides. Questions about the writing process have come up, from assumptions that we worked with a “real” writer, or that I did the writing while Chandler illustrated. While we definitely worked with talented editors at Sasquatch Books who steered the book towards “real” bookness, both of us did the research, writing and photo research over nearly two years.

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Many of our dearest Dead Feminists are writers, artists, or both– evidence that we all find a way to tell our stories. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who launched our series, wrote most of the speeches delivered by Susan B. Anthony. Some writers and their books are well known, like Gwendolyn Brooks and Rachel Carson—who both confronted ongoing challenging social and environmental issues—and their voices can guide us still. We have mere fragments of poetry from Sappho and carefully handwritten letters from Jane Mecom to her brother—they give us insights into their lives and eras when words from women weren’t often valued or recorded. In the chapter entitled Tell, we focused especially on women who had stories to share, like Virginia Woolf, who carefully crafted and composed both the pages and handset type for printing. Knowing the time and care involved, there is little doubt in my mind that the act of being writer and printer sharpens both crafts.

Historic image of woman printing, from the Library of Congress

Without the discovery of Rywka Lipszyc’s diary found in the ashes of a Auschwitz crematorium she would have disappeared from history. Sarojini Naidu dreamed of independence for India through her poetry (“Waken, O slumber Mother and be crowned”) and was revered as a nightingale, filling the night air with song. We hope you’ll explore these stories more in depth through the book—and for local folks we have some opportunities in the next few weeks to join us in person.

Dead Feminists event at Ada's Technical Books for Lit Crawl Seattle

Here’s what’s coming up this week and next, when you’ll find us invading first Seattle, then Portland. You can find future events and more info on our events page.

• • •

LIT CRAWL Seattle: book signing and artist talk
Thursday, October 27, 2016, 8 pm
Ada’s Technical Books and Cafe
425 15th Ave. E., Seattle, WA

• • •

BROADS AND BROADSIDES
A retrospective exhibition featuring our series through broadsides and steamroller prints
Reception, book signing & costume party
Come dressed as your favorite historical feminist!
Saturday, October 29, 4 to 7 pm
(the show continues through December 16)
School of Visual Concepts
2300 7th Ave., Seattle, WA

• • •

DEAD FEMINISTS and RAD WOMEN: joint author event
with Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl, authors of Rad Women Worldwide
Thursday, November 3, 2016, 7:30 pm
Powell’s Books on Hawthorne
3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR

• • •

LIT CRAWL Portland: book signing and artist talk
Friday, November 4, 2016, 8 pm
The Big Legrowlski
812 NW Couch St., Portland, OR

• • •

WORDSTOCK: Portland’s Book Festival
Chandler & Jessica appearing on an author panel
with Danielle Dutton, author of Margaret the First
and Laurie Notaro, author of Crossing the Horizon
moderated by Elly Blue of Microcosm Press
Book signing to follow
Saturday, November 5, 2016, 1:30 pm
The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Avenue, Portland, OR

• • •

BEACH BROADS(ides)
book signing and artist talk on the gorgeous Oregon coast!
Saturday, November 5, 2016, 6:30 pm
Beach Books
616 Broadway, Seaside, OR

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Lively Dead Feminists

Costumed historical feminists at the Dead Feminists book launch at King's Books in Tacoma, WA. Photo by Eli Gandour-Rood.

What a week we’ve had. It started with an incredibly fun party at King’s Books for our book release. Dead Feminists fans arrived in awesome costumes, filling the bookstore with Fridas, some Zimmermans, Georgia O’Keeffe, Harriet Tubman, Babe Zaharias, Rosie the Riveter, Woodrow Wilson and John Stuart Mill and lots of Live Feminists. Victoria Woodhull (aka sweet pea, the owner of King’s Books) presided over the event, remaining on fairly good terms with the Susan B. Anthonys, despite their historic friction.
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Susan B. and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (aka Jessica & Chandler) signed piles of books, and especially enjoyed hearing about gifts intended for cool feminist grandmothers or soon-to-be-born feminists. Many, many thanks to Northwest Costume and especially Ricky German, who costumed us with aplomb then arrived as Harriet Tubman; to sweet pea, Raissa and Kenny for their excellent book wrangling; to friends who waited patiently in line to join us in celebration, to our editor Hannah from Sasquatch Books, and photographer Eli Gandour-Rood.
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This was just the first of many events to come, in Tacoma, Seattle, Portland, and other places throughout the Northwest and beyond. If you’d like to join us this fall, check out our events page!

 

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Today’s the day!

Readers with "Dead Feminists: Historical Heroines in Living Color" by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring

People everywhere can finally read our book, because today is the official release date! You can find your copy wherever books are sold—you’ll find all the major retailers on our book page.

If you’re in the Seattle-Tacoma area, just a reminder that you can pick up your copy tonight (and see Jessica and me in costume) at our official release party at King’s Books!

Official Book Release Costume Party
Tuesday, October 11, 7 pm
Hosted by King’s Books
218 St. Helens Avenue, Tacoma, WA
Event is free, all ages welcome; more info here
Come in costume, dressed as your favorite historical feminist!

We’d also love to see you at Tacoma’s Studio Tours, happening this Saturday and Sunday. This is our biggest event of the year, where we join more than 50 Tacoma artists for a city-wide free event. We’ll be selling (and signing) copies of our book at the event, as well our new Dead Feminists broadside and a special new mini letterpress print. We’ll also have a host of new gifts and stationery for sale, plus free hands-on activities: print your own keepsakes at Jessica’s studio, and create a die-cut greeting card at my place. Sstamp your Studio Tour Passport at at least 8 stops on the tour, you can enter a drawing for a variety of artist-made prizes. Here’s the scoop:

Tacoma Studio Tours
This Saturday & Sunday, October 15 & 16
11 am to 5 pm, free!
Chandler is stop #9; Jessica is stop #15

If you’ll excuse us, we have some costumes to get into… See you tonight!

 

Get gussied up

Tuesday is the day! Our book will be released worldwide on October 11, and we’re celebrating with a costume party! This is where you can be the first to get your hands on the book—and extra worth the effort if you want to see Jessica and me wearing ridiculous wigs. We don’t want to be the only ones celebrating Halloween early, so come on down and join the party. We’ll have prizes for the best outfits, Dead Feminists cake and punch, and a printing press ready to make your own keepsake. We’d love to sign a book for you, too. If you’re looking for costume ideas, you might dress up as one of the ladies in our book…

…or you might choose another favorite historical heroine, or a beloved fictional character, or even an historic feminist dude! Anything goes, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with. Here’s the skinny on the event:

Official Book Release Costume Party
Tuesday, October 11, 7 pm
Hosted by King’s Books
218 St. Helens Avenue, Tacoma, WA
Event is free, all ages welcome; more info here
Come in costume, dressed as your favorite historical feminist!

Installing the Dead Feminists exhibition at the 23Sandy Gallery in Portland, OR

In addition to finally sharing the book with you next week, we also wanted the chance to share some of our original artwork. So for the past two years we’ve been planning a big retrospective exhibit with the 23Sandy Gallery in Portland, OR. Laura Russell, the owner and curator of the gallery, has been a major supporter of our series since the beginning—and this week it was no different, as she jumped right in and helped us install our artwork in her space!

Exhibit of the Dead Feminists series by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring at the 23Sandy Gallery in Portland, OR

The show features 10 original letterpress broadsides from our series, two mini-broadsides, original process materials, plus vintage ephemera from our book. This is the first time we’ve done a show like this, and 23Sandy is the only place you’ll still find some of our older, out-of-print broadsides available for sale.

Exhibit of the Dead Feminists series by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring at the 23Sandy Gallery in Portland, OR

The exhibit also includes our 24th and newest broadside, but since she comes out on October 11, alongside the book, we have her hidden under a black veil for now. But you can see her—and all the other artwork—unveiled at our reception and book signing later this month. Here are the details:

Make-Ready: Dead Feminists from Print to Page
A Dead Feminists retrospective exhibit
on display through October 29

Reception & book signing Saturday, October 22
4 to 6 pm, free!
23Sandy Gallery
623 NE 23rd Ave, Portland, OR

Exhibit of the Dead Feminists series by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring at the 23Sandy Gallery in Portland, OR

If you can’t make it to Portland, you can also learn more about the exhibit and view an online catalog on the 23Sandy website.

Make-Ready is just one of many different exhibits in the works this fall—we’ve got the Dead Feminists coming to galleries around the country for both solo and group shows. We’ll be sharing more info here on the blog soon, but as always, you can find all our events, shows, book signings and talks listed on our events page.

See you Tuesday—in costume!

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In good company

Autostraddle's round-up of feminist books coming fall 2016

We just found out that Dead Feminists: Historical Heroines in Living Color has been included in Autostraddle’s roundup of feminist books coming out this fall, and we couldn’t be more thrilled! Also…we’re a bit intimidated, because it’s a bit mind-boggling to appear on a list that also includes Margaret Atwood, Roxane Gay, Zadie Smith and others. Most of all, though, it’s incredibly inspiring to be in the company of so many talented women writers.

Speaking of hanging out with women writers, in November we get to team up with another feminist duo (who are also included on Autostraddle’s list) for a joint author event at Powell’s Books in Portland! Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl, the respective author and illustrator of Rad American Women from A to Z, have a new book coming out on September 27, entitled Rad Women Worldwide. Kate was kind enough to say some super nice things about our book:

Dead Feminists offers well-researched and meticulously illustrated insight into some of America’s inspiring historic heroines—but it also goes way beyond that. This book is a profound and super-smart look at feminist craft, creation, and collaboration, and reminds us that what goes on behind the scenes can be just as powerful as the finished product. I am so grateful to Chandler and Jessica for allowing us into their radical world.”

We’re excited to read and pore over Kate and Miriam’s new book when it comes out, and even more excited to meet them in person for the Powell’s event. Here are the details:

Special joint Dead Feminists & Rad Women author event
Thursday, November 3, 2016, 7:30 pm
Powell’s Books on Hawthorne
3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR

And as always, you can find all our book-related signings, talks and shows on our events page.