V-Day 2013

 

2011 Vagina Monologues show in San Francisco
2012 V-Day show at the Uptown Lounge, Oakland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a guest post from our visiting dignitary, Lady Vagina, aka Lady V-Jay Jay:

“Well my lovelies, it’s here again! A fantastic opportunity for you to support the women in our communities who may need a little help, a little, shall we say, attention. Aherm. We’re talking about domestic and sexual violence that has to stop. And WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!

As the ONE BILLION RISING Oakland group showed us: we can all show up for our communities, women, children, men, and say Enough! No More Violence! and dance, rise, celebrate the growth we have experienced.

For this Vagina Monologues show, being performed on Wednesday, April 10 and Thursday April 11, 2013,at the New Parish in Oakland, CA all proceeds apart from direct production costs will go to Communities United Against Violence.

Please join us in supporting our fundraising on Wed.  APRIL 10 & Thurs. APRIL 11, 2013 at the NEW PARISH by attending The Vagina Monologues show in Oakland.  Order tickets here.“

Here are our generous sponsors and donors from last year’s show and the silent auction we held.

All the profits from the 2012 event went to Bay Area Women Against Rape:

Get Goes Mobile Cafe

Fiftyseven-Thirtythree

Book Zoo

Ruth M. Freeman

Tech Liminal

Kristen Caven

The Sacred Well

Blisses B

CupKates Bakery

Good Vibrations

Now some photos from the 2012 show. Rumor has it that Lady V-Jay Jay’s handler performed the role of The Flood in that show. But that’s just a rumor.

Costume Academy 2013

Malvena Pearl’s Emporium will have a table set up  in the vendor room at Costume Academy,  held by the Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild. It’s a day of workshops, classes and fun for costume makers and for people who design and sew. Tickets go on sale February 1st, via the GBACG web site.

2013 Costume Academy Saturday, March 9th, 2013

10:00am-5:00pm

Piedmont Middle School, 740 Magnolia Ave, Piedmont, CA

 

Gratitude

Skull A Day quilt square donation

Halloween and Day of the Dead celebrations are part of our calendar year. They are different traditions; the the Day of the Dead in early November is a time for us show gratitude for our ancestors. Halloween falls on a number of birthdays for our friends. We celebrate the moment and the passing of the year with them.

Both holidays can be an inspiration to create something unique and share it with others: costumes, headdresses, toys, masks or drawings. The possibilities are endless. Today we show gratitude with this quilt square made for a charity quilt.

further along

Well, things have been a little different around the emporium for the last few months. Our proprietor volunteered with a local theater production company as their box officer during the month of June. She’s also been sorting through the stash of fabric and notions in addition to working at a Full-Time Day Job for a great company that let her take two entire weeks off to go back to the East Coast for a birthday gathering for her mother. All of her older sisters were there for an historic group visit and lobster-and-clam-bake.

While she was there, she worked on her sister’s organic farm and attended an all-school reunion for her junior high school, the same school that her grandmother attended, in the town where her mother grew up. She also got to sing in an impromptu rock band who called themselves the Ad Hocs– at the reunion dinner for this organization. The school gathering was attended by more than 150 former students and instructors. The building is now owned by another school but this is the place.

In the meantime, things have changed a little with regard to product sales via the online web site. We’re taking orders but are mostly doing in-person sales and repair jobs; doing our best to complete projects that need completing. Please stay tuned for availability of products. And feel free to drop a note anytime.

 

Malvena Pearl’s Hand Sewing Class at Workshop Weekend

We are happy to report that our proprietor will be teaching a workshop at Tech Liminal in Oakland on Saturday, June 30, 2012.

Basics of Hand Sewing

Are you interested in repairing your own clothing? Not quite certain what to do with that torn shirt? Never known how to sew on a button? How about patching a torn pant leg?

In this workshop, we’ll cover the basics of sewing by hand. You’ll also learn how to repair and care for worn-out and vintage clothing. By the end of this workshop, you’ll have all the knowledge necessary to confidently sew by hand!

Needles, thread and patch fabric will be provided. If you’d like to bring a garment to repair or transform, please do!

Entrance to Workshop Weekend costs $30; the hand sewing workshop materials cost $5.00.

See the available workshops and register here!

 

Happy Mother’s Day and Costume Convention mini-report

We are pleased to share with you a Mother’s Day holiday feature post on one of our sister-sites, Overdressed For Life, by Moya Stone.

The Emporium proprietor was at Costume Convention 30 during Mother’s Day weekend in Tempe, Arizona, with the members of the Wench Posse from North Carolina, Washington state, the District of Columbia and Minnesota. It was fabulous to meet everyone in person and be able to share the fun, live, not just in photos e-mailed and posted on the internet.

We celebrated winning awards in the Masquerade by going to a local pub, hearing live music, dancing and enjoying the nightlife in the college town of Tempe.  Our group presentation won a blue ribbon for Judge’s Choice and four of our members won individual ribbons for tailoring. We also met several incredible costumers from Idaho, San Diego and Vancouver, Canada! They received the “Spammy Award” – entitled Go Big Or Go Home — from the MNSOC (Minnesota Society of Costumers.)

Our ringleader, Laura Ulak, has written at length about our shenanigans that weekend over on her blog, called the Eleonora Project.

In the works are plans to attend both Gallifrey (the Doctor Who convention in Los Angeles) and Costume Con 31, next year in Denver, CO. Stay tuned!