Just Take the Mic: The Power of Feminist Comedy

To attend this panel, purchase Sunday Day Pass here.

Just Take the Mic: The Power of Feminist Comedy explores the possibilities of and for feminist comedic performance. Since its founding in 1971, the Barnard Center for Research on Women has been at the forefront of feminist engagement. Our Center promotes women’s and social justice issues through diverse platforms, and we are pleased to participate in the WOW Festival with and event that showcases the work of several comedians. The panel explores their various engagements with feminism, performance and gender, and the implications of feminism for politics, society, and quotidian life (for instance, one of our panelists proposes “Feminist Sex Positions”). In addition to 3 stand-up performances, the moderator will contextualize many of the issues raised by these performers in a longer history of gender, performance, and humor.

Just Take the Mic features Phoebe Robinson, a New York-based stand-up comedian who also writes for and contributes to Glamour.com, The New York Times, bitch magazine, xoJane, VanityFair.com, and The Daily Beast. Her blog Blaria (aka Black Daria) was picked up by The Huffington Post and has been featured on their website. She has also been published in Time Out NY, The NY Post, and The Smoking Jacket. The second performer will be Liz Miele, whose work has been featured by The New York Times, Time-Out New York, and AM-NY. She has performed at Carolines, Comix, Gotham Comedy Club, and Laugh Lounge. The third performer will be Emily Schorr Lesnick, a stand-up comedian and graduate of Macalester College, where she majored in American Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her writing has been featured on Splitsider, Funny Not Slutty, The Mary Sue, ComedyRants.com, Guffaw MN, Lil Veggie Patch, and Hello Giggles. She has written on Jewish American comedy and gender enactment and comedic performance.

The panel moderator will be Amanda Seales, who performs stand-up comedy and tours college campuses lecturing on issues including sexism and black popular culture. Seales is a graduate of Columbia University with a master’s degree in African American Studies, and has been invited as a guest host on ABC’s The View, been featured on VH1’s “Best Week Ever”, TRU TVs “Friends of the People”, as a host/contributor to MTV, Aljazeera America, Huffpost Live, and CNN.

Panelist Twitter Handles:
Phoebe Robinson @PRobinsonComedy
Liz Miele @lizmiele
Emily Schorr Lesnick @eschorrlesnick
Amanda Seales @amandaseales