She has several books in development as well as projects for television and film.Ī vital feature of CalArts’ Creative Writing Program, the Katie Jacobson residency was created by the Jacobson family and friends in memory of alumna Katie Jacobson. Her writing appears in “Best American Mystery Stories 2014,” “Best American Short Stories 2012,” “Best Sex Writing 2012,” Harper’s Bazaar, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction and Virginia Quarterly Review. “Roxane’s impactful trajectory in the arts is a great example of the kind of work we hold in such esteem in our program, in multiple genres, and with an eye for making space for new writers through editing and teaching,” Bryant said.Ī contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, Gay is also the editor of the forthcoming anthology “Best American Short Stories 2018” and the author of the Black Panther superhero title, “World of Wakanda,” for Marvel. Gay, an award-winning novelist, essayist, and editor, became a critical and popular sensation following the release of her 2014 essay collection, “Bad Feminist.” Last year saw the release of two new books by Gay, the nationally bestselling short-story collection “Difficult Women” and the New York Times bestselling memoir “Hunger,” which takes her own emotional and psychological struggles as a point of entry into collective and cultural understandings and anxieties surrounding body image, consumption, health and pleasure. “Having her at CalArts as our 2018 Katie Jacobson Writer in Residence, and bringing these critical conversations into our creative work, especially at this nexus of Black Lives Matter and #metoo, is utterly important and future-forward.”
“With her sharp attention to feminism, race and culture, Roxane Gay is one of the most sought-after and listened-to writers in the nation right now,” said Tisa Bryant, director of CalArts’s MFA Creative Writing Program. Gay will conduct workshops with CalArts students in the MFA Creative Writing Program in the School of Critical Studies and present a public reading on the CalArts campus on Tuesday, April 10, at 7 p.m. Join Opinion on Facebook and follow updates on /roomfordebate.Roxane Gay, one of the most sought-after writers of our current moment, has been selected as the California Institute of the Arts 2018 Katie Jacobson Writer-in-Residence. We need this reminder now, more than ever. Placing Margaret Sanger on the $20 bill will remind us of what she has done for women and our reproductive health and how the fight for reproductive freedom is an ongoing one. Sanger was not without her controversies but neither were any of the men who currently grace our currency. Corporations were, essentially, given more rights than women. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled, for example, that owners of privately held corporations don’t have to provide employees with certain contraceptives that contradict their religious beliefs. Not only are we facing such legislative attacks on reproductive freedom, we’re also seeing a strange cultural backlash against birth control.
Recent legislative attacks on reproductive freedom in states like Texas, North Carolina, North Dakota and Arkansas - attacks that have included 20-week abortion bans, mandatory ultrasounds for women seeking abortions, and unreasonable medical facility restrictions placed on abortion clinics that force them to close - are an unfortunate reminder that despite Margaret Sanger’s efforts, women are perilously close to becoming once more indentured to their bodies. Wade, many assumed that we were done fighting for reproductive freedom and unfettered access to abortion services. This organizing lead to the creation of Planned Parenthood, which continues to serve women and men, offering preventive healthcare, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and reproductive counseling.Īfter the passage of Roe vs.
When, in 1921, she founded the American Birth Control League, Sanger expanded her efforts to include middle class women so more women would be empowered to control their fertility. Sanger’s efforts to promote birth control were originally directed toward working class women who were disproportionately affected by a lack of access to reproductive healthcare.