JULY EVENTS inspired by V.L. COX CONSCIENCE OF A NATION ART EXHIBIT at Hudson Valley MOCA. All events take place on stage at Studio Theater in Exile @ Hudson Valley MOCA, 1701 Main Street, Peekskill, New York.

V.L. Cox’s exhibition Conscience of a Nation at HV MOCA, tells the stories of collective histories, her own personal journey, southern society, and the people who influenced her.

Inspired by CONSCIENCE OF A NATION, Westchester poets, playwrights, dancers, and others have created work that expresses the themes of Social Justice, Civil Rights, End Hate, and Democratic Values embedded in the artwork of V.L. Cox.  The Cox Exhibit opens June 28, 2025, free and is on through September 29, 2025.

HELL NO, WE WON’T GO BACK

On Sunday, July 13 at 3pm, Marcy B. Freedman will be at Studio Theater in Exile @ HV MOCA to present a slide show of thought-provoking images of women.  Freedman has gathered dozens of print advertisements from the early 20th century to the present day to suggest the dramatic changes in the position of women in society.  Her goal is to remind us that we must not take women’s rights for granted, as they are newly won and currently at risk.

Marcy Friedman, Master Art Historian and storyteller takes us into the story and relevance of the images she evokes laughter and groans of recognition e leading us through the images that shaped society and how the society that shaped the images presented in advertising and graphic design. Imaging the lives and roles of women evoked by the images, we may find ourselves shouting, HELL NO, WE WON’T GO BACK!

A TALK BACK LETS THE AUDIENCE SHARE THEIR FEELINGS AND STORIES

STUDIO THEATER IN EXILE @ HUDSON VALLEY MOCA

1701 MAIN STREET, PEEKSKILL, NY 10566

Ticket Prices: $15/$10 Senior/Student/Member

For tickets, go to: hellno2025.eventbrite.com

Poetry of Identity

Inspired by the stories told in V.L. Cox’s artwork, Mara Mills, Artistic Director of Studio Theater in Exile @ Hudson Valley MOCA, asked three poets, Edward Currelley, Sarah Bracey White, and Elizabeth Burk to examine their work for stories of their lives, of the places, personalities, and inspirations that shaped them.

A TALK BACK LETS THE AUDIENCE SHARE THEIR STORIES AND QUESTIONS

STUDIO THEATER IN EXILE @ HUDSON VALLEY MOCA

1701 MAIN STREET, PEEKSKILL, NY 10566

JULY 19, 3:00PM

Ticket Prices: $15/$10 Senior/Student/Member

For tickets, go to: poets2025.eventbrite.com

BIO for HELL NO, WE WON’T GO BACK:

Marcy B.Freedman is an artist and an art historian. As an artist, she has worked in a wide range of mediums and explored adiversity of styles.  She has collaborated with dancers and musicians to create multi-media projects, and she is the co-creator of a monthly arts publication.  As an art historian, she has been an instructor, curator, and writer.  A frequent topic of her work has been the role of women in society – past and present.

Bios for Poetry of Identity

Edward D. Currelley, poet, writer, and artist, is the author of “In Two Parts” (Hieroglyphs/Prima Facie) Selected Poetry and Short Fiction. A Pushcart Prize Nominee and his anthologized publications include but are not limited to Split This Rock, as part of their Poems of Resistance. Power & Resilience, Mom Egg Review, Hudson Valley MOCA Anthologies, Dove Tales Anthologies Writing for Peace & Colgate University Research Council, The Peace Correspondent, multiple National Beat Poetry Foundation anthologies, and Metaphor magazine. His performance piece “The Plea” was recently featured in the Studio Theater in Exile exhibit “Climbing the Walls. Board member for both the Bronx Book Fair and Poets Network & Exchange. He is a member of The American Bar Association and a volunteer legal advocate in the fields of human rights, cultural discrimination, housing rights, LGBTQ, ageism, and employment discrimination. He is listed with Poets & Writers as an American poet and author He resides in New York.

Elizabeth Burk is a psychologist, a native New Yorker who divides her time between family in New York and a home and husband in southwest Louisiana. Her debut full length poetry book, Unmoored, published in November 2024 by Texas Review Press, is arranged loosely in the form of a memoir describing life growing up in New York City, her experiences as a northerner living in Louisiana and poems on attempting to age with humor and grace. She has three previous collections: Learning to Love Louisiana, Louisiana Purchase, Duet-Poet & Photographer- a collaboration with her photographer husband. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems, prose pieces, and reviews have been widely published in various journals and anthologies, such as Atlanta Review, Rattle, Southern Poetry Anthology, Louisiana Literature, Arkansas Review, Passager, Pithead Chapel, Naugatuck River Review, PANK, Mom Egg Review and elsewhere.

Sarah Bracey White is a southern storyteller who uses her history and innate gifts to create poetry, essays, fiction, plays and memoirs. She is also a teacher, former librarian and motivational speaker When her memoir Primary Lessons was transformed into an immersive, dramatic musical - at Peekskill’s Paramount Theater – she was cast in the starring role of her own life. Her other published books include “The Wanderlust: A South Carolina Folk Tale”, and “Feelings Brought to Surface”. Her essays have been anthologized in Children of the Dream; Dreaming in Color, Living in Black and White; Aunties: 35 Writers Celebrate Their Other Mother; Gardening on a Deeper Level, and most recently in Mothers, Martyrs and Jezebels, a feminist anthology, and Well Said Well Read, an anniversary collection of curated essays from the Hudson Valley literary performance group WritersRead. In 2024 Arts Westchester awarded Sarah an Artist’s Award that supported her development of “Living on Stage: My Life in Drama.”