Events

The Rockwell Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate, presents Bare Bones Café – a community-sourced museum experience. 2018 marks the 125th birthday of the Museum’s home, Old City Hall in Corning. To celebrate, artists and performers from the greater Corning community have been invited to use an empty gallery as their laboratory and creative gathering place, April 27 – May 12, 2018. At the heart of this pop-up gallery is a challenge – how can an artist present their vision with only bare bones staging? The Rockwell provides the space and limited equipment – the artist brings the space to life.

May 6, 2018

Considering Matrilineality: an alternative to patriarchy

Sunday, May 6, 2018, 3:30 – 4:30 pm
The Rockwell Museum
111 Cedar Street, Corning NY 14830
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Presentation at The Rockwell Museum
Part of a two-week juried series called Bare Bones Café

A matrilineal way-of-life is one in which women and men are equal and share power equally, often in different spheres. Women pass on the lineage, name and clan to their children and are in charge of the all things having to do with the earth including agriculture and wildcrafting. Men represent the tribe to the external world. You can imagine how Europeans were confused by this when it came to land use and treaties with native American chiefs.

Three women who have been interacting with or living inside a matrilineal culture will be presenting the program for their audience’s consideration: Sally Roesch Wagner of Syracuse, Ronnie Reitter of Victor and Destiny Kinal of Waverly, NY.

Sally Roesch Wagner’s book, Sisters in Spirit, documents the influence Haudenosaunee way-of-life had on our early women’s rights foremothers—Gage, Anthony and Stanton. Roesch Wagner’s book is largely responsible for a growing awareness of the international women’s movement’s debt to the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois women. A professor at Syracuse University and Founder/Executive Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Center in Fayetteville NY, Roesch Wagner will be introducing a new suffrage anthology to be published by Penguin Classics in February 2019, foreward by Gloria Steinem.

Sally will be joined by Ronnie Reitter, a Seneca seamstress, cornhusk doll maker and storyteller who recently retired from Ganondagan, the cultural center in Victor, NY that interprets the traditional way-of-life for young native people and for visitors from European, African and Asian lineages who consider themselves allies or are learning about this native American way-of-life. Reitter worked at Rochester Museum and Science Center for 4 years before being recruited to be Peter Jemison’s assistant at Ganondagan for the past 17 years. Reitter will comment on what matrilineality looks like from the inside and speak about the stresses the outside world puts on the tradition.

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May 17, 2018

Destiny Kinal on Sex, Time and Prophecy

Thursday, May 17, 2018, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Community Arts of Elmira
413 Lake Street, Elmira, NY 14901
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Prophecy is the ability to learn from time.

Social scientists and anthropologists Leonard Shlain, Helen Fisher and Marija Gimbutas have reconstructed the importance of women in how the human species has evolved to this moment.

Men who have been raised by feminist mothers to be nurturing are sharing the work of living equally with their female partners.

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Part of the Original Work series at Community Arts of Elmira

Original Work is a series that celebrates original work of poetry, prose and songwriting through featured artist readings and performances. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments are available.

May 20, 2018

Considering Matrilineality: an alternative to patriarchy
Author Discussion & Book Signing

Sunday, May 20, 2018, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Buffalo Street Books
215 N Cayuga Street, Ithaca NY 14850
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In New York State, we are privileged to live with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Nation as neighbors. They, and others like the Lenape, have been matrilineal for untold time; a way of life where men and women share power equally, sometimes in different spheres.

Now that the origin of the three sky god religions that brought the subjugation of women to our world (Judaism, Islam, Christianity), has been described and understood, it is time to reinstate an equal reverence for both male and female principles. The exploitation of Mother Earth is consistent with the exploitation of women and people of color. Enough is enough!

Past Events