Author and artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh outlined her experience with street harassment and the process that went into creating Stop Telling Women to Smile: Stories of Street Harassment and How We re Taking Back Our Power in a webinar last week. This was the third component of the Berkshire Domestic and Sexual Violence Task Force s annual One Book, One Community event. About two dozen groups around Berkshire County first participated in a communitywide read of the book and Fazlalizadeh s artwork was displayed in several locations across the county leading up to the virtual presentation. Fazlalizadeh is a Black and Iranian visual artist based in Brooklyn, N.Y. She s a painter whose work ranges from the gallery to streets all over the world and has been profiled by publications including The New York Times and Time Magazine.
Vanessa Hua April 29, 2021Updated: April 29, 2021, 7:11 am
Chaney Kwak, author of the forthcoming “The Passenger: How a Travel Writer Learned to Love Cruises & Other Lies From a Sinking Ship.” Photo: Michael Baca
Chaney Kwak’s great-grandmother had a saying that his grandmother passed on to him: “Water’s the strongest element of all.”
“At least fire might leave ash. And I’ll take grandmother’s word for it: she nearly died at sea immigrating back from Japan to Korea, only to land just in time to see the destruction of the Korean War. She knew what she was talking about. Water, which gives us life, can be the most destructive force of all,” said Kwak, author of the forthcoming “The Passenger: How a Travel Writer Learned to Love Cruises & Other Lies From a Sinking Ship.”
The Berkshire Domestic and Sexual Violence Task Force will present a webinar from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 29, via Zoom, with activist-artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, author of âStop Telling Women to Smile: Stories of Street Harassment and How We re Taking Back Our Power.â
Fazlalizadeh will discuss and illustrate her work interviewing women from diverse backgrounds about the harassment they experience in public spaces. The webinar is the culmination of Sexual Assault Awareness Month activities during which two dozen local groups have read and discussed Fazlalizadeh s book.
The webinar is free and open to the public. Closed captions, American Sign Language and Spanish interpretation will be provided. To register for the event, visit tinyurl.com/2f4xw43v.