(en español aquí)

One of the stars of the current feminist constellation–and certainly one antecedent to the 2019 Chilean uprising–began to shine brightly in Chilean universities in the “feminist May” of 2018 with a university takeover to protest cases of harassment and sexual abuse at the School of Humanities of the Universidad Austral in Valdivia. This takeover was quickly followed at the Law School of the University de Chile in Santiago and in a dozen other schools throughout the country. Since then, the feminist movement continues to grow, organizing itself through assemblies and collectives across the territories, recovering and articulating demands which were echoed during the uprising and were translated into articles in the proposal for a new constitution (recently rejected in a referendum), including equal representation (representación paritaria) at all levels of governance, non-sexist education, and the legalization of abortion.

expanding feminisms / feminismos en expansión brings together a series of activities inside and outside the brick walls of New York City’s public university, CUNY, for a week. The different events center distinct aspects of the activist, archival, and artist practices of three inspiring Chilean feminists, Lucía Egaña (Musea M.A.M.I., CENEX, Pluriversidad Nómada), Javiera Manzi (Coordinadora Feminista 8M; Red de Conceptualismos del Sur, Brigada Laura Rodig), and Sibila Sotomayor (LASTESIS). This week-long event includes in-person conversations with CUNY students at BMCC and lectures and remote/online visits to classes; an in-person conversation between these three archivists, activists, and artists, open to the general public moderated by Professor Ángeles Donoso Macaya and hosted at the Graduate Center; a round table with GC postgraduate students and the guests, organized in collaboration with LAILAC and OpenLAB students; a memory and arts workshop at the Bruckner Mott Haven Community Garden, in The Bronx, facilitated by food educator, sou-chef of La Morada restaurant and Archives in Common collaborator chef Carolina Saavedra, with the participation of the three guests; a panel discussion on feminist books (co)written or (co)edited by the guest speakers, at Recirculation/A Word Up Project, a community bookstore and cultural space located Washington Heights; a performance workshop facilitated by Sibila Sotomayor and a workshop on collective creation/reflection lead by Lucía Egaña.