100 Years | 100 Women 2021 Conversation Series

Park Avenue Armory Announces Continuation of 100 Years | 100 Women Initiative with 100 Years | 100 Women 2021 Conversation Series in Collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Bi-Monthly, Moderated, Free, Virtual Conversations Invite Partner Organizations and Commissioned Artists to Explore Diverse Topics Related to Universal Women’s Suffrage 

Participants Include Murielle Borst-Tarrant, Rashida Bumbray,
Caridad “La Bruja” De La Luz, Karen Finley, Andrea Jenkins, Shola Lynch, Toshi Reagon, Martha Redbone, Split Britches, Marilee Talkington, Imani Uzuri, and more

New York, NY—April 26, 2021—Park Avenue Armory is proud to announce the 100 Years | 100 Women Conversation Series in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a continuation of the 100 Years | 100 Women initiative celebrating the centennial of the 19th Amendment’s ratification granting some women the right to vote. Beginning Friday, April 30, 2021 at 12pm, these free, virtual, moderated conversations invite partner institutions and multidisciplinary groups of commissioned participants to informal, lunchtime chats. During this series, they will continue the discussion of the complex legacy of the 19th Amendment and the ongoing struggle towards universal women’s suffrage through specific topics that resonate with the Project and are responsive to the complexities and turbulence of the pandemic era. Participants in the Conversation Series include: Murielle Borst-Tarrant, Rashida Bumbray, Caridad “La Bruja” De La Luz, Karen Finley, Andrea Jenkins, Shola Lynch, Toshi Reagon, Martha Redbone, Split Britches, Marilee Talkington, and Imani Uzuri.

The first conversation entitled “Power of the Vote: Legacy of the 19th Amendment” will take place on Friday, April 30, 2021 at 12pm and will reflect on the long arc of women’s movements and voter turnout efforts, successes and challenges of the 2018 and 2020 elections, and ongoing trials of pandemic survival. Conversations will be streamed live on YouTube with live ASL translation and closed captioning. Each conversation will feature a Native Welcome recorded by Henu Josephine Tarrant (Ho-Chunk/Hopi/Rappahannock) and a Closing Song recorded by Martha Redbone (Cherokee/Shawnee/Choctaw/African American). Subsequent conversations will occur every two weeks through August 2021, marking the end of the centennial year. Themes for future conversations include: “Women’s Empowerment: Then and Now,” “Uplifting Underrepresented Stories of Women,” “Solidarity and Allyship,” “Gender and Gender Inclusivity,” and many others. Full schedule on below.

Participants in the Conversation Series were invited by Park Avenue Armory and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, along with the nine other New York City cultural institutions that form the Project Partner group, including: Apollo Theater; The Juilliard School; La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club; The Laundromat Project; Museum of the Moving Image; National Black Theatre; National Sawdust; New York University (Department of Photography and Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts; Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation; and Institute of African American Affairs and Center for Black Visual Culture); and Urban Bush Women. 

All episodes in the 100 Years | 100 Women Conversation Series will be archived on the 100 Years | 100 Women Project website. Information about partner institutions and participants, access to YouTube Livestream links, and archived videos of the conversations will be accessible through the digital archive found at www.100years100women.net/conversations-series. 

ABOUT 100 YEARS | 100 WOMEN

The 100 Years | 100 Women project began in February 2020 to commemorate the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave some but not all women the right to vote. The initiative began with the Armory’s annual Culture in a Changing America symposium, convening artists, activists, scholars, and civic and cultural leaders for a day of conversations, performances, and salons reflecting on womanhood, citizenship, intersectional feminism, and the myriad ways in which artists navigate these issues. Collectively, the eleven partner institutions nominated 100 artists, activists, scholars, students, and community leaders to respond to the centennial with new works to be presented as part of a gathering, showcase, and celebration originally scheduled to take place in the Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall this past spring.

With the unforeseen impacts of COVID-19, which led to the cancellation of this in-person culminating event, the project and many of the commissioned works evolved to respond to the volatile times in which it was created. 100 Years | 100 Women commissions were inevitably shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, #BlackLivesMatter, and a divisive 2020 election season. In lieu of the in-person celebration of the commissions that was planned for the spring, the Armory hosted an online launch party streamed on YouTube on August 18, featuring clips of select commissioned works, remarks by artists and partner organizations, and appearances by special guests, including Maya Wiley, Susan Herman, Jari Jones, Tantoo Cardinal, Rita Dove, Catherine Gray, and the Kasibahagua Taíno Cultural Society. The event also included the premiere of a short film by Armory/Museum of the Moving Image-commissioned filmmaker Shola Lynch documenting the inspirations and processes behind the participants’ contributions, as well as the ways in which the issues of the current moment have informed their work. 

This launch party also celebrated the public opening of the 100 Years | 100 Women Project Archive, where all 100 commissioned artists display their commissioned work and information about their process. This archive has continued to be updated as a living representation of the project in all its forms. To explore the archive, please visit www.100years100women.net.

100 Years | 100 Women is part of the Armory’s Interrogations of Form conversation series, which unites artists, thought leaders, and social trailblazers for creative, multi-dimensional explorations of today’s social and cultural landscape.

 

100 YEARS | 100 WOMEN

2021 CONVERSATION SERIES

A collaboration between Park Avenue Armory and The Metropolitan Museum of Art

POWER OF THE VOTE: LEGACY OF THE 19TH AMENDMENT

Friday, April 30, 2021 at 1pm

The 2021 100 Years | 100 Women Conversation Series kicks off with reflections on the long arc of the women’s and “get out the vote” movements, the successes and challenges of the 2018/2020 elections, and the ongoing trials of pandemic survival from Andrea Jenkins (Artist and Minneapolis City Council Member), Kate Clarke Lemay (Historian, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian), and Hannah Rosenzweig (Director and Producer, Surge Film Project). Hosted by Suhaly Bautista-Carolina (Senior Managing Educator, Audience Development and Engagement, The Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Avery Willis Hoffman (Program Director, Park Avenue Armory).

UPLIFTING UNDERREPRESENTED STORIES OF WOMEN

Friday, May 14, 2021 at 12pm

Drawing on each of their distinct practices and experiences bringing unique and powerful stories to the public eye, Diana Elizabeth Jordan (Actor and Artivist), Sade Lythcott (CEO, National Black Theatre), Jewel Rodgers (Spoken Word Artist), and Sahar Ullah (Founder and Head Writer, Hijabi Monologues Project) will discuss the need for consistent and accessible platforms for underrepresented stories of and by women. Hosted by Shirine Saad (Interim Programming Director, National Sawdust).

ART AND DISABILITY ADVOCACY

Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 2pm

Thirty-one years since the passing of the American Disabilities Act (1990), society continues to struggle with providing exemplary access to live events, creative projects, and digital platforms for disabled, differently abled, and neurodiverse audience members. Disability advocates and artists Christine Bruno, Sofiya Cheyenne, Diana Elizabeth Jordan, and Marilee Talkington discuss these issues and the added challenges of the pandemic era with host, Dr. Lisa Coleman (Inaugural Senior Vice President, Global Inclusion and Strategic Innovation and Chief Diversity Officer, New York University). 

FREEDOM AND LIBERATION

Friday, June 11, 2021 at 12pm

In a period of lockdowns and complete cancellation of work, when artists have struggled to gain access to studios, maintain creative practices, and maintain steady income streams, striving towards personal and professional liberation feels perhaps the hardest challenge of all. Gayle Fekete (Movement-Maker), Andrea Jennings (Disability Inclusion Advocate for the Arts), and Risha Rox (Interdisciplinary Artist) reflect on these challenges and more with host Ayesha Williams (Deputy Director, The Laundromat Project). 

GENDER AND GENDER INCLUSIVITY

Friday, June 25, 2021

Andrea Jenkins (Artist and Minneapolis City Council Member), pioneering politician and curator of the Transgender Oral History Project, returns to the series to engage in a conversation with Catherine D’Ignazio (Scholar of feminist technology, data literacy, and civic engagement, MIT), and Imani Uzuri (Vocalist, Composer, Librettist, and Improviser). Hosted by Suhaly Bautista-Carolina (Senior Managing Educator, Audience Development and Engagement, The Metropolitan Museum of Art). 

ART AND PANDEMIC SURVIVAL: PIVOTING TO VIRTUAL/DIGITAL

Friday, July 16, 2021 at 12pm

Stephanie Berger (Photographer), Caridad “La Bruja” De La Luz (Spoken Word Artist), Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver (Split Britches) exchange stories of resilience and art-making through the pandemic era with host Avery Willis Hoffman (Program Director, Park Avenue Armory).

THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF WOMEN OF COLOR IN FILM AND TELEVISION

Friday, July 30, 2021 at 12pm

Shola Lynch (Documentary Film Director and Curator of the Moving Image and Recorded Sound, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) and Warrington Hudlin (Film Producer and Vice Chairman, Museum of the Moving Image) explore the long and impressive, but often overlooked, legacy of black women in the film and television industry. In the lead-up to the conversation, watch Part One of the CineFemme Cypher, filmed during the 100 Years | 100 Women Symposium in February 2020.

WOMEN AND THE THEATER: INDIGENEITY

Friday, August 13, 2021 at 12pm

Murielle Borst-Tarrant (Playwright, Director, Educator, Human Rights Activist) and Henu Josephine Tarrant (Playwright, Songwriter) share experiences of creating theater projects with their company, Safe Harbors Indigenous Collective, that elevate native and indigenous stories and challenge damaging stereotypes in the theater and film industries.

THE FUTURE OF THE ARTS: WHAT DO ARTISTS NEED NOW?

Friday, August 27, 2021 at 12pm

The arts ecosystem is in deep crisis as the result of the pandemic and rigid structures that have not evolved with the times. What can artists do to re-imagine a mutually beneficial system or subvert the old systems that consistently fail artists and arts workers? What do artists need to charge through these turbulent times? Karen Finley (Visual Artist), Michele Pred (Conceptual Artist, The Art of Equal Pay Project), Toshi Reagon (Singer, Composer, Musician, Curator, Producer, and Civic Practice Partnership Artist in Residence at The Met), and Imani Uzuri (Vocalist, Composer, Librettist, and Improviser), debate these topics, and more, with Avery Willis Hoffman (Program Director, Park Avenue Armory).

 

SPONSORSHIP FOR PARK AVENUE ARMORY

Citi and Bloomberg Philanthropies are the Armory’s 2021 Season Sponsors.

Interrogations of Form is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by the Charina Endowment Fund, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. The artistic season is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.  Additional support has been provided by the Armory's Artistic Council.

ABOUT PARK AVENUE ARMORY

Part palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory fills a critical void in the cultural ecology of New York, supporting unconventional works in the performing and visual arts that cannot be fully realized in a traditional proscenium theater, concert hall, or white wall gallery. With its soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall and an array of exuberant period rooms, the Armory enables a diverse range of artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to experience epic, adventurous, relevant work that cannot be done elsewhere in New York.

In its historic period rooms, the Armory presents more intimate performances and programs, including its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe within the intimate salon setting of the Board of Officers Room; the Artists Studio series curated by Jason Moran in the newly restored Veterans Room, which features a diverse array of innovative artists and artistic pairings that reflect the imaginative improvisation of the young designers and artists who originally conceived the space; and Interrogations of Form, a public talks program that brings diverse artists and thought-leaders together for discussion and performance around the important issues of our time. The Armory also offers creativity-based arts education programs at no cost to thousands of underserved New York City public school students, engaging them with the institution’s artistic programming and outside-the-box creative processes.

Programmatic highlights from the Wade Thompson Drill Hall include Ernesto Neto’s anthropodino, a large-scale, interactive sculpture and labyrinth extended across the Drill Hall; Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s harrowing Die Soldaten, in which the audience moved “through the music”; the event of a thread, a site-specific installation by Ann Hamilton; the final performances of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company on three separate stages; an immersive Macbeth set in a Scottish heath with Kenneth Branagh; WS by Paul McCarthy, a monumental installation of fantasy, excess, and dystopia; a radically inclusive staging of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion staged by Peter Sellars and performed by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker; The Let Go, a site-specific immersive dance celebration by Nick Cave; eight-time Drama Desk-nominated play The Hairy Ape, directed by Richard Jones and starring Bobby Cannavale; Hansel & Gretel, a new commission by Ai Weiwei, Jacques Herzog, and Pierre de Meuron that explored the meaning of publicly shared space in the era of surveillance; FLEXN and FLEXN Evolution, two Armory-commissioned presentations of the Brooklyn-born dance activists group the D.R.E.A.M. Ring, created by Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray and Director Peter Sellars; Simon Stone’s heralded production of Yerma starring Billie Piper in her North American debut; Satoshi Miyagi’s stunning production of Antigone set in a lake; Sam Mendes’ critically acclaimed production of The Lehman Trilogy; and the Black Artists Retreat hosted by Theaster Gates, which included public talks and performances, private sessions for the 300 attending artists, and a roller skating rink.

Among the performers who have appeared in the Recitals Series and the Artists Studio in the Armory’s restored Veterans Room or the Board of Officers Rooms are: Christian Gerhaher; Ian Bostridge; Jason Moran; Lawrence Brownlee; Barbara Hannigan; Lisette Oropesa; Roscoe Mitchell; Conrad Tao and Tyshawn Sorey; Rashaad Newsome; and Krency Garcia (“El Prodigio”).

Highlights from the public programs that generally occupy the historic rooms on both the first and the second floors include: symposiums such as Carrie Mae Weems’ day-long event called The Shape of Things, whose participants included Elizabeth Alexander, Theaster Gates, Elizabeth Diller, and Nona Hendryx; a day-long Lenape Pow Wow and Standing Ground Symposium held in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, the first congregation of Lenape Leaders on Manhattan Island since the 1700s; salons such as the Literature Salon hosted by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whose participants included Lynn Nottage, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Jeremy O. Harris, and a Spoken Word Salon co-hosted with the Nuyorican Poets Cafe; and most recently, 100 Years | 100 Women, a multi-organization commissioning project that invited 100 women artists and cultural creators to respond to women’s suffrage.

Current Artists-in-Residence at the Armory include two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage; Obie winner and Pulitzer short-listed playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Carmelita Tropicana; Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray and the D.R.E.A.M. Ring; singer and composer Sara Serpa; Tony Award-winning set designer and director Christine Jones and choreographer Steven Hoggett; and Mimi Lien, the first set designer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. The Armory also supports artists through an active commissioning program, including Nick Cave, Bill T. Jones, Lynn Nottage, Carrie Mae Weems, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and others.

The Armory has undertaken an ongoing $215-million renovation and restoration of its historic building designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, with Platt Byard Dovell and White as Executive Architects.

www.armoryonpark.org 

ABOUT THE MET

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens—businessmen and financiers as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day—who wanted to create a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. Today, The Met displays tens of thousands of objects covering 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online. Since its founding, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum’s galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.  

ABOUT THE MET’S EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

Dedicated to making art accessible to everyone, regardless of background, ability, age, or experience, The Met’s Education Department is central to the Museum’s mission and currently presents over 29,000 educational events and programs throughout the year. These programs include workshops, art-making experiences, specialized tours, fellowships supporting leading scholarship and research, high school and college internships that promote career accessibility and diversity, K-12 educator programs that train teachers to integrate art into core curricula across disciplines, and school tours and programs that spark deep learning and lifelong relationships with and through art. The Met’s Civic Practice Partnership was launched in 2017 and is a collaborative residency program for artists who are socially minded in their practice and will implement creative projects in their own neighborhoods across New York City. The Met invited two dynamic lead artists for the Civic Practice Partnership’s inaugural program: choreographer and performance artist Rashida Bumbray, working in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and multimedia visual artist Miguel Luciano working in East Harlem. In 2020, The Met welcomed three additional artists to the program: Jon Gray of artistic and culinary collective Ghetto Gastro; Mei Lum of the W.O.W. Project, a community organizing and arts space in Manhattan’s Chinatown; and musician and composer Toshi Reagon. The Met’s Civic Practice Partnership program is made possible by The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust.

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Media Contacts

For more information or to request images, please contact:

Lesley Alpert-Schuldenfrei, lalpert@armoryonpark.org or (212) 933-5801

Allison Abbott, aabbott@armoryonpark.org or (212) 933-5834