Filmmakers bring unique environmental activism to campus
Posted by Monte Maxwell.August 27th, 2015
What do you get when you mix mountaintop removal activism with sex education? The answer can be found in the Here Come the Ecosexuals! Tour, which visits the West Virginia University campus on September 1 and 2.
Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, activists, artists, educators and filmmakers, are touring with their film about mountaintop removal coal mining destruction in Appalachia titled Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story.
Over their two-day visit, they will hold four events to educate and have public dialogs that advance diversity initiatives, cultural awareness and responsibility, and provide outreach and awareness to students and the public about women’s issues, sexual orientation and health, and the environment.
They have reserved September 1 to participate in classroom lectures.
On September 2, from 1-3 p.m., the duo will facilitate a free sidewalk sex clinic in front of the Mountainlair (inside in case of rain) attended by several local and regional sex educators.
At 7:30 p.m., the filmmakers will introduce a screening of Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story in the Mountainlair’s Gluck Theater and lead a discussion afterwards. Free Pizza will be provided by the WVU Office of Multicultural Programs.
On their website, they describe Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story as “the true tale of the two San Francisco ‘ecosexual’ artist-lovers who join forces with environmental activists in trying to stop a destructive form of mining. This David-and-Goliath struggle for survival in the coalfields is narrated through an autobiographical family visit home.”
Stephens, a West Virginia native, is an interdisciplinary artist, activist and educator who has explored themes of sexuality, gender, queerness, and feminism through art for over 20 years. She is a professor of art at UCSC and a Ph.D. candidate in performance studies at UC Davis.
Sprinkle is an internationally known multi-media artist whose work is often studied in History of Performance Art classes, gender studies and film studies at major Universities/Colleges. She is a popular visiting artist who holds a Ph.D. in human sexuality.
These events are part of the Libraries’ Talking Publicly Symposium and are co-sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Programs, the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, Division of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, SPECTRUM, WellWVU, WVU Extension: Families & Health Center, and the Morgantown Farmer’s Market.
The WVU Libraries received a Diversity for Equity grant from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and the West Virginia Council for Community & Technical College Education.
To learn more, visit the WVU Calendar or contact Beth Jane Toren, Media, Religious Studies, and Research Services Librarian, at 304-293-0336 or beth.toren@mail.wvu.edu.