This ongoing series pairs creative thinkers from a range of disciplines for engaging, provocative discussions on culture, science, and the arts.
All Hammer public programs are free. Tickets are required, and are available at the Billy Wilder Theater Box Office one hour prior to start time. Limit one ticket per person on a first come, first served basis. Members receive priority seating, subject to availability. Reservations not accepted, RSVP's not required.
Hammer Conversations
Baby, I'm Bored: When Did Motherhood Become a Career and Is It a Professional Disaster?
Zócalo at the Hammer Museum
A Conversation with Leslie Bennetts and Meg Wolitzer
Moderated by Meghan Daum, Los Angeles Times columnist.
Forty years ago, the term "stay at home mom" would have been considered redundant. Twenty years ago, "housewife" had become a dirty word and the ability to balance family and career was seen as an extension of female self-respect and empowerment. Today, some women are rejecting the 1980s-era notion of "having it all" by dropping out of the workforce--sometimes permanently--to raise their children.
In her book The Feminine Mistake, journalist Leslie Bennetts suggests that women have been oversold on the idea they must choose between being good workers and being good mothers. Using extensive data, she suggests that women who stop working even temporarily sacrifice much more than financial stability.
If there's a fictional companion to The Feminine Mistake, it's Meg Wolitzer's The Ten Year Nap. The story of four highly educated friends who put their careers on hold a decade earlier when they had children, Wolitzer's novel explores how and why these women still haven't gone back to work despite their children being school-aged.
In a lively and provocative discussion, these two writers--both mothers themselves--will talk about the complications and contradictions of "having it all" and the role that feminism does (or doesn't) play in the lives of contemporary women.
Presented in collaboration with Zócalo.
RSVP for tickets at www.zocalola.org. Please note that RSVP does not guarantee tickets, which are distributed on a first come first serve basis. Box Office opens at 6:30 PM.
Fritz Haeg & Chip Lord
Fritz Haeg works between his architecture and design practice, Fritz Haeg Studio, the happenings and gatherings of Sundown Salon, the ecology initiatives of Gardenlab, and his role as an educator. He has taught in architecture, design, and fine art programs at CalArts, Art Center College of Design, Parsons, and the University of Southern California. Haeg’s new on-going series of projects called Animal Estates debuted at the Whitney Biennial in 2008. His first book, Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, will be followed in fall 2008 by Sundown Salon 2001–2006 In Words and Pictures. Chip Lord is a media artist who works with video and photography. As a member of Ant Farm, he produced video art classics Media Burn, The Eternal Frame and Cadillac Ranch, in Amarillo, Texas. His video work straddles documentary and experimental genres, often mixing the two, and has been shown widely at film and video festivals and in museums. He is a Professor in the Film and Digital Media Department at UC Santa Cruz, and lives in San Francisco.
