The Red Tent

We attended the screening of a movie tonight - Things We Don't Talk About: Women's Stories from the Red Tent. The filmmaker, Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost, introduced the film and did a Q and A afterwards. The Clinton Street Theater was swathed in red fabric here and there, meant to simulate a red tent.

It was an interesting movie, but Laurie and I agreed that it really isn't a groundbreaking concept, as the website maintains: The Red Tent movement is changing the way that women interact and support each other by providing a place that honors and celebrates women, and by enabling open conversations about the things that women don't want to talk about in other venues. I'm thrilled that this movement is going on, but it's not new, at least not in the circles I move in. These ideas, based on indigenous people's ways of life (e.g. menstrual huts), had a re-genesis in the 1970s and 80s when women (in the Western world) found power in women-only groups, creating venues where women could find their voices and speak out about issues that were taboo or dismissed in the company of men. Topics such as rape, incest, domestic violence, women's bodies, sexuality, women's health, birth control and abortion were no longer forbidden in women's circles. Women began honoring and even celebrating their bodies and their natural cycles - a refreshing and empowering change from hiding and whispering about them.

So no, it's not a new idea, but we can be grateful that it hasn't disappeared from the culture of the 21st century.

The Aurora Chorus Outreach Ensemble (pictured) opened tonight's event with some good woman-centered songs. They were wonderful. I used to sing with this group and hopefully I will again when I'm done with my apprenticeship!