Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

By Alissa Fleck

Pussy Riot supporters worldwide will be disappointed to hear this morning’s news. Just before 8 a.m. EST, David M. Herszenhorn, the New York Times reporter based in Moscow, reported members of Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot were given a guilty verdict on charges of hooliganism for an impromptu anti-Putin concert put on in Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February. They have been in prison, awaiting charges, ever since then.

Pussy Riot, a group which formed in only 2011, regularly stages similar, politically-charged performances in Moscow. The group consists of at least 10 members, who take measures to remain anonymous, including wearing balaclavas along with their brightly-colored dresses and tights. The Times reports Pussy Riot is “far more political than musical” as “[they] have never released a song or an album.”

Barely a fraction of the people in line outside the Ace Hotel in mid-Manhattan last night, a line which wound all the way around the block, made it inside the hotel’s dark basement bar for the protest in solidarity with the group. Similar protests took place worldwide, including outside the courtroom where the women were to be tried. Herszenhorn reported many of these protesters were also arrested.

People of all ages came together in the hotel basement, some wearing balaclavas and “Free Pussy Riot” t-shirts, many more wearing bright, flashy dresses, to join in the protest.

Artists and writers, including Eileen Myles, Chloe Sevigny and K8 Hardy, took to the stage to conduct dramatic readings of correspondences by incarcerated members of Pussy Riot, song lyrics (such as those to “Putin Pissed Himself”), court transcripts and letters from celebrities in support, like Yoko Ono.

The women’s statements were laced with philosophy and political commentary, as well as humor. “We made a prayer in the church with the wrong intonation,” they said, of their 40 second performance, and: “We are not messiahs…but who knows.”

The group also mocked charges against them, including that they “intentionally bought clothes for the occasion,” explaining the dresses, tights and balaclavas were, in fact, their customary garb.

Photo Courtesy of Alissa Fleck

Channing Powell and Ana Veselic said the New York Pussy Riot protest was the first event they had attended in support of the group, and found the turnout interesting. They knew nothing of the group until they stumbled upon the recent controversy in the Times.

“Then I went and read about it in Jezebel,” said Veselic, “I knew they’d have something about it.” The interest grew from there.

“I think we compare them to Western chicks and identify with them, because of their clothes and stuff,” said Veselic. “And we think in America, it would be better. But would it be?”

Powell said she had listened to the group’s music, and while she couldn’t understand it, it had “an interesting aesthetic.”

“They’re obviously intelligent and incredibly eloquent,” she added.

They also made predictions about the trial’s outcome. Veselic thought the women would be released. “I think they’re going down, sadly,” said Powell. “There would be too much embarrassment in releasing them, Putin has an ego.”

As of this morning, the women are still waiting to be sentenced.

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

Nora Ephron, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter, director and longtime journalist/essayist, passed away in Manhattan last night at the age of 71. Ephron’s career was vast and had much to offer in the way of teaching. She was beloved for her romantic comedies as much as her own brand of feminism, which included no shortage of realist sexiness. Here are some of my favorite lessons the impressively quirky and courageous Ephron had to offer:

1. “Take it personally”

In a 1996 speech to the graduating class of Wellesley College, her alma mater, Ephron urged the women to take every perceived attack on their gender personally. “There’s still a glass ceiling,” she said. “Don’t underestimate how much antagonism there is toward women and how many people wish we could turn the clock back. One of the things people always say to you if you get upset is, don’t take it personally, but listen hard to what’s going on and, please, I beg you, take it personally.” Ephron urged against the kind of passivity and naivete that allow us to see public instances of marginalization as occurring inside a vacuum.

2. You’re only a couple hours a week away from being a homeless person (appearance-wise)

In I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman, Ephron writes in the essay “On Maintenance” about the fragility of being human, the thin, superficial line between being put-together and falling apart: “…the other day, on the street, I passed a homeless woman. I have never understood the feminists who insisted they were terrified of becoming bag ladies, but as I watched this woman shuffle down the street, I finally understood at least my version of it….I am only about eight hours a week away from looking exactly like that woman on the street—with frizzled flyaway gray hair I would probably have if I stopped dyeing mine.”   

3. You can write sappy romantic comedies and still influence national politics…maybe

Ephron claimed she figured out who Deep Throat was while married to Carl Bernstein (half of the team responsible for breaking Watergate), though he did not tell her. She alleged in the Huffington Post in 2005 she figured out his identity on her own and for years told everyone she knew. Apparently Mark Felt himself had begun revealing his identity as Deep Throat though, as with Ephron, no one took him seriously. Whether no one listened because Ephron was, well, Ephron, we’ll never know.

4. “Secret to Life, Marry an Italian.”

This was Ephron’s six word biography in Larry Smith’s Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. Ephron was married to screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi for over twenty years. It speaks to Ephron’s sense of wit when asked to sum up her life in six words, she steered clear of the preachy or esoteric.

5. Get Over It

The advice may seem trite, but in Ephron’s essays this conclusion is more or less a consistent theme. In a 2010 column on divorce for the Huffington Post, Ephron writes: “People are careless and there are almost never any consequences.” Of her two painful divorces, she writes: “I survived. My religion is Get Over It. I turned it into a rollicking story. I wrote a novel. I bought a house with the money from the novel.” She explains the “most important thing” about you at any given time seems it will last forever, but whether it’s being a divorcee or simply getting old, the “most important thing” always changes. And of course it’s always relative too—in “I Remember Nothing,” she writes: “I am old. I am sixty-nine years old. I’m not really old, of course. Really old is eighty. But if you are young, you would definitely think that I’m old.”

6. It’s okay to be a bad secret-keeper, if you’re whimsical about it

By 2006 Ephron was a renowned screenwriter after an early career in journalism. She still, admittedly, had a very difficult time keeping juicy secrets (of which she had a lot). While on a trip to Las Vegas, Ephron witnessed hotel tycoon Steve Wynn put his elbow through a $139 million Picasso. Everyone present agreed to keep the incident a secret, which Ephron wrote in the Huffington Post in 2006 was “the most painful experience of [her] life.” (If the case of Deep Throat is not evidence enough.) She kept the secret for nine days. Ephron may have changed her career four times and been a champion of the relativity of all things in life, but she also showed us some things—like a penchant for sharing delectable gossip— never change.

7. “Be the heroine of your life, not the victim”

The advice, also from Ephron’s graduation speech to Wellesley College, reflected her own trajectory as a woman breaking down barriers in her industry, spanning across four different careers. Ephron was widely considered one of the most successful female writers in Hollywood. Rather than allow herself to be defined by the tragedies which befell her, she made them humorous fodder instead. Ephron advised the graduating class if things did not turn out how they wanted, they had no one to blame but themselves.

—Alissa Fleck