#NewGlobalMatriarchy
Stephanie Graham and Maya Mackrandilal
2016
The Goddesses are back, and they’re not happy. They find themselves in a world that has forgotten the radical abundance of women, forgotten our fierce, warrior insides. They’re back, ready to fuck shit up, to take pride in the limitations of their human form—eager for sex, money, decadence, violence, love, community, and power. They will raze the earth with the righteous fire of their anger and build a new one from the ruins: a culture of abundance, radical justice, and balance.
For #NewGlobalMatriarchy, Stephanie Graham and Maya Mackrandilal will present a series of performances and events that imagine radical black femme futures. The two will perform as ancient goddesses who have become incarnated in contemporary US-hegemonic culture, a world of reality television, instagram celebrity, and hyper-sexualization. By inhabiting the visual language and logic of consumerism and voyeurship, the goddesses infiltrate imperialism on its home turf, imbuing the mundane and familiar with moments of radical imagination. What does it mean to be a strong woman with friends in a culture that can only imagine female sexual competition for the ever-elusive “good man”? How can we construct narratives that sabotage a culture that devalues black life, the labor of women, and commodifies queer desire? Is it possible to seduce the oppressor into relinquishing his power?
Graham and Mackrandilal will be joined by collaborators from a wide range of Chicago creative communities, including FEMelanin, a women of color identified theatre collective, and a reprisal of AudioGraham, a one-night music video festival. Programming will also include an international assortment of artists, poets, and collectives submitting work via video and participating in discussions via online video-chat services.
mayamackrandilal.com
missgraham.com