Festival Albertine 2017: It Starts in the Streets

The panel will open with a spoken word poetry performance by Staceyann Chin. 

When “La Brique,” a name adopted by two young graphic designers, wanted to change consciousness in Rennes, France, they made night raids, and replaced some of the very many street signs bearing men’s names with signs bearing women’s names instead. When the Guerilla Girls wanted to protest the almost total exclusion of women artists from museums in the U.S., they created posters and graffiti with the question: “Must a woman be nude to get into the Metropolitan Museum of Art?”  Other signs declared: “MoMA is a female impersonator.” Change starts where people are, and people are in the streets, as shown by movements such as Black Lives Matter, Women’s March, Femen, as well as the many forms of street art that are displayed in our cities.

This panel will explore the vibrant, outrageous, imaginative, verbal and visual ways that big changes have begun in small places, both through activism and through the arts. Reflecting on the changing nature of public spaces—both physical and digital—it will also brainstorm on how to do this in the future.


Houda Benyamina is a film director and screenwriter. Her César- and Cannes Camera d’Or-winning film, Divines, follows young women from the outskirts of Paris who use violence and grace as means to achieve their goals. She actively works toward gender equality in the film industry through her organization, 1000 visages.

Tania Bruguera is an installation and performance artist whose works exposes the social effects of the power of political force. She participated in the Documenta 11 exhibition and established the Arte de Conducta (Behavior Art) program at Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana. Her work has been exhibited at the 2015 Venice Biennale, among other galleries and museums.

Marie de Cenival is a former Act Up activist and founder of the radical feminist action group, La Barbe (The Beard), which denounces white men’s monopoly on power, prestige and money in France. De Cenival is now Senior Gender Advisor for Heartland Alliance International, a U.S.-based human rights organization.

Staceyann Chin, a writer and activist, has received several awards including the Power of the Voice Award from The Human Rights Campaign, the Safe Haven Award from Immigration Equality, and Honors from the Lesbian AIDS Project. She unapologetically identifies as Caribbean and Black, Asian and lesbian, a woman and a resident of New York City. She is also the author of the memoir, The Other Side Of Paradise.

The Guerrilla Girls are feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood and Wonder Woman. Using facts, humor and visuals they expose discrimination and corruption in politics, art, film, and pop culture. They undermine the idea of a mainstream narrative by revealing the subtext, the overlooked, and the downright unfair.

Watch this event live via Livestream on Nov. 5 at 3:30pm (EST)











When: Sun., Nov. 5, 2017 at 3:30 pm
Where: Albertine
972 Fifth Ave.
332-228-2238
Price: Free
Buy tickets/get more info now
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The panel will open with a spoken word poetry performance by Staceyann Chin. 

When “La Brique,” a name adopted by two young graphic designers, wanted to change consciousness in Rennes, France, they made night raids, and replaced some of the very many street signs bearing men’s names with signs bearing women’s names instead. When the Guerilla Girls wanted to protest the almost total exclusion of women artists from museums in the U.S., they created posters and graffiti with the question: “Must a woman be nude to get into the Metropolitan Museum of Art?”  Other signs declared: “MoMA is a female impersonator.” Change starts where people are, and people are in the streets, as shown by movements such as Black Lives Matter, Women’s March, Femen, as well as the many forms of street art that are displayed in our cities.

This panel will explore the vibrant, outrageous, imaginative, verbal and visual ways that big changes have begun in small places, both through activism and through the arts. Reflecting on the changing nature of public spaces—both physical and digital—it will also brainstorm on how to do this in the future.


Houda Benyamina is a film director and screenwriter. Her César- and Cannes Camera d’Or-winning film, Divines, follows young women from the outskirts of Paris who use violence and grace as means to achieve their goals. She actively works toward gender equality in the film industry through her organization, 1000 visages.

Tania Bruguera is an installation and performance artist whose works exposes the social effects of the power of political force. She participated in the Documenta 11 exhibition and established the Arte de Conducta (Behavior Art) program at Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana. Her work has been exhibited at the 2015 Venice Biennale, among other galleries and museums.

Marie de Cenival is a former Act Up activist and founder of the radical feminist action group, La Barbe (The Beard), which denounces white men’s monopoly on power, prestige and money in France. De Cenival is now Senior Gender Advisor for Heartland Alliance International, a U.S.-based human rights organization.

Staceyann Chin, a writer and activist, has received several awards including the Power of the Voice Award from The Human Rights Campaign, the Safe Haven Award from Immigration Equality, and Honors from the Lesbian AIDS Project. She unapologetically identifies as Caribbean and Black, Asian and lesbian, a woman and a resident of New York City. She is also the author of the memoir, The Other Side Of Paradise.

The Guerrilla Girls are feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood and Wonder Woman. Using facts, humor and visuals they expose discrimination and corruption in politics, art, film, and pop culture. They undermine the idea of a mainstream narrative by revealing the subtext, the overlooked, and the downright unfair.

Watch this event live via Livestream on Nov. 5 at 3:30pm (EST)

Buy tickets/get more info now