Good morning,

Long term subscribers of Fem Friday will doubtless remember the days when I would not bother with bourgeois conventions like “themes” to tie these emails together and would instead just throw a bunch of links at you, all vaguely related to feminism or women or a woman. If you are such a subscriber, this will be a trip down memory lane and if you joined us more recently, you get to experience those heady days as though for the first time.

For those of you based in London, I recommend Ann Veronica Janssens’ lovely installation, yellowbluepink, at the Wellcome Collection:

“While neuroscience is great about telling us about the relationship between brain activity and some cognitive function, it hasn’t yet come up with an explanation of how the activity of neurons can give rise to the experience of colour, as we enter into this installation. And yet without really knowing how or why, we are all experts in that personal experience. And Ann Veronica’s beautiful installation reminds of the richness of our interaction with the world.”

https://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2015/october/states-of-mind-ann-veronica-janssens-yellowbluepink/

There is a long queue for yellowbluepink but it is worth it. Plus, you can take a book and get loads of reading done – I took Kate Bolick’s Spinster and not only read loads of it but also had ample time to do a series of disconsolate tweets on how terrible it is. Remember that LA Review of Books essay about it that I sent round a couple of months ago? Every word of it was true except it doesn’t fully convey how self indulgent her writing is.

Now, as promised, a violent topic shift! Sometimes friends send me links that make me think, oh, that’s so Fem Friday. On that note, I’d like to share this interview about an oral history of Walatta Petra; seventeenth century nun and saint of the Ethiopian Orthodox church. Note also that this pullquote also features hippos, and I love hippos

a woman who was born to an adoring father, lost three children in infancy, left her abusive husband, started a movement, defeated a wicked king, faced enraged hippos and lions, avoided lustful jailors, founded seven religious communities, routed male religious leaders, gathered many men and women around her, and guided her flock subject to no man, being the outright head of her community and even appointing abbots, who followed her orders.

http://blog.press.princeton.edu/2015/10/26/an-interview-with-wendy-laura-belcher-on-the-life-and-struggles-of-our-mother-walatta-petros/

Maybe another one for your Christmas lists! Speaking of which – would you be interested in my books of the year? If yes I’ll do that next week and we can return to themes.

Alex.