Women Studies Event: Coffee With Cool Women

On Wednedsay Novemeber 6 I attended an event hosted by PEEPS called Coffee With Cool Women. This event featured the artist Ilene Berman. Ilene created NODhouse which is an art project that she used for social justice activism. She created NODhouse in order to bring attention the racial divide in St.Louis City Neighborhood. NOD stands for North of Delmar that she learned about after moving to St.Louis during her search for a place to live. People told her not to live North Of Delmar so Illene became aware of the invisible barrier that separates the city by race.

Ilene also found out that one of the many problems that resulted from this invisible barrier was that when the Grand Art Center hosts their art events they never hold anything past Delmar. In that way the Grand Art Center is deciding which part of the neighborhood is worthy of art and what part is not which further perpetuates the barrier.

Ilene started her project by creating a manifest and sewing it into cloth napkins, which symbolizes bringing everyone to the table. She then took the napkins into business on Delmar and Grand and asked the owners if she could hang them up on their walls. She said that the business owners were receptive and open to her project while the Grand Art Center was not.

One thing that Illene talked about that really resonated with me was about graffiti. She pointed out that past the invisible Delmar line there is not much graffiti to be found. When she said that I thought it was an odd statement. Most people consider graffiti to be defacing and devaluing but then Ilene explained her statement. She said that the part of the neighborhood was so run down and neglected that people are not adding graffiti to it because they don't want to claim it is their own. I had never thought of graffiti that way and I found it to be an extremely powerful statement that speaks volumes about the racial divide in this city.

Overall this was a great event. The dialogue created at this event was very inspiring and it was also a great example of how you can use your own personal interests and talents to create social justice and change. I hope to attend many more Coffee With Cool Women events.

More info on NODhouse: http://nodhouse.com/about-nodhouse/