#UNLOAD FOUNDATION with Ann Chernow - Guns: The Ultimate in Feminine Protection? - Tuesday, February 9 at 7:00 PM

#UNLOAD’s Mary Himes and Miggs Burroughs with guest host, Charlie Grady, will engage in a series of conversations with five women who will shed light on the loaded question of whether firearms make women safer. We will talk with a former police captain, a photographer who documents victims of gun violence, a formerly incarcerated woman who has a successful re-entry story, an artist who reinterprets images of women from film noir movies, and an activist who creates jewelry from bullet casings. We’ll explore what drew these women into the world of firearms and get insights about the impact of guns on women.

We’ll visit with artist/printmaker, Ann Chernow, in her studio and discuss her artworks that focus on female characters culled from American film noir movies of the 1940s. With gun crime as their narrative theme, these works highlight how Hollywood and mass media have created cultural norms that define women as either victims of unsolicited, often dangerous circumstances, or as femme fatales, seductive “bad girls” who will go to almost any length to get what they want. We’ll discuss these stereotypes, ask whether they’re still embedded in our society, and dig into how art can create paradigm shifts that lead to new ways of seeing and understanding.