Discussion. Feminist Gestures in an Urban Environment. Again?

Urbanfeminism is a project combining studies of urban environment with art and activism. Borrowing their tools from critical geography, sociology, urban planning, cultural, and gender studies, Ulyana Bychenkova and Aleksandra Talaver study the everyday of women and other vulnerable groups, focusing on several aspects of their life in cities: symbolic (the way women’s history and female body are represented in urban spaces); urban planning (accessibility of spaces for parents with babies and young children) and the everyday (whether single women and persons of non-binary gender can feel safe in public spaces).

As part of the Urbanfeminism project, Bychenkova and Talaver have moderated several discussions focused on gender and urban environment, touching on issues like violence, motherhood in Moscow, sexual fulfillment in a patriarchal city, feminist art and activism, and feminist samizdat. They have also organized several self-defense workshops, charity craft fairs, and published zines How to Make It Home from a Club, How to Wash Your Dirty Laundry in Public and a new issue on sexual fulfillment in a patriarchal society. All of the publications by Urbanfeminism are exchanged for a donation to Syostry Center for the Victims of Domestic Violence, which recently lost its state funding.