Let's Talk at Pro Arts

On November 16, 2017, I was delighted to sit with Liat Berdugo and discuss feminism, collaboration, and art-making at Pro Arts in Oakland.

Curated by Leora Fridman and Ellie Lobovits, Let’s Talk is a three-part live conversation series that will explore and amplify collaboration through a feminist lens. This final part features artists, Liat Berdugo and Margaret McCarthy.

Liat Berdugo and Margaret McCarthy co-created Anti-Trump Aerobics as part of the Bay Area’s 100 Days Action, and have performed the Aerobics routine at locations including Alley Cat Books in San Francisco, and covered broadly by media including Mother Jones, Fusion and Allure. In this conversation Berdugo and McCarthy will debrief the fallout of the online harassment that followed their performance, as well as the responsibilities and repercussions of presenting as women/feminist bodies in action in public and political spaces.

Fusion: "Meet two California women who are fusing humor and aerobics to keep the anti-Trump movement going"

"Resistance takes endurance." Meet two California women who are fusing humor and aerobics to keep the anti-Trump movement going. Watch the video on Twitter.

The Independent: "Anti-Trump Aerobics Class Organized to Mark U.S. President's First 100 Days"

"For Americans opposing the presidency of Donald Trump and unsure how best to channel their anger about his pledges to scrap Obamacare, limit women’s reproductive rights or the proposed travel ban from Muslim-majority countries, there is now a solution."

Read the full piece here.

Golden Gate Xpress: "Anti-Trump aerobics: a new way to protest"

Photo: Kyler Knox/Xpress

"Blue sweatbands, red leg warmers, ‘80s Madonna workout music and the collective chant of 'don’t build a wall' were all part of a free anti-Trump aerobics class hosted at Alley Cat Book store in the Mission District Sunday afternoon.

The 50-minute class, led by SF State theatre and English literature alumna Margaret McCarthy and University of San Francisco art professor and artist Liat Burdugo, is part of '100 Days Action', a 'call to thinkers, artists, and writers to propose gestures that can be carried out either at home or in the world,' according to the website."

Read the full piece here.

Allure: "There is now an Anti-Trump Aerobics class"

Photo credit: 100 Days Action

"Want to feel better in the current political climate and get a workout in? Activists in California came up with an exercise class idea that could be the answer to doing both."

Read the full piece here.

Mother Jones: "Exercise Your Freedom of Speech With Anti-Trump Aerobics"

"Alley Cat Books, located in the heart of San Francisco's Mission District, is ordinarily a quiet space for book lovers to peruse multicolored shelves for their next literary adventure. But on Sunday, the small bookstore buzzed with energy as a group of leggings-clad Bay Area residents protested Donald Trump's presidency in the form of a sweaty cardio workout.

'We are here because in this era, in this nation, we need to use our full bodies to resist fascism!' cried Margaret McCarthy, one of two organizers of the event."

Read the full piece here.

CNN: "How artists are marking Trump's 100th day in office"

"...a 100 Days No Ban Dance Party and a poetry reading will take place. They are initiatives of a group called 100 Days Action, which presents itself as 'a counter-narrative to the Trump administration's 100-day plan.'

The group curated a 100-day calendar of 'activist and artistic strategy,' which includes anti-Trump aerobics, a workshop about Freedom of Information Act requests to the FBI, and converting popular album covers into political art."

Read the full piece here.

SFist: "Mission Bookstore To Host Anti-Trump Aerobics Class"

Adding to the list of creative ways that Bay Area folk have found to sort out their political emotions express their resistance to the Trump regime, Alley Cat Books on 24th Street will be hosting an Anti-Trump Aerobics Class later this month with the idea behind it being to "tackle the anxiety of state change through embodied protest."

Read more.

Live105: "Anti-Trump Aerobics is 'The most San Francisco thing of the month' "

"As part of the 100 Days Of Action project, Alley Cat Bookstore & Gallery in San Francisco (3036 24th Street) is hosting an Anti-Trump Aerobics class on Sunday April 30th from 2-3PM.

You might be asking yourself, “what are Anti-Trump Aerobics?”

The point of the class is to “tackle the anxiety of state change through embodied protest.” Margaret McCarthy & Liat Berdugo have created an aerobics routine comprised of Trump’s most common gestures  & the manners you can take in which to block them entirely."

Read the full piece here.