What a week! From October 4 to 12, 2024, director Clare Major and producer/subject Whitney Bradshaw traveled over 1,200 miles from Chicago to Kansas City via Dayton, Cincinnati, Lexington, St Louis, and Bentonville to screen OUTCRY: Alchemists of Rage and discuss how we can all make our voices heard ahead of the upcoming election.

Each gathering brought together artists, activists, students, and community members for heartfelt and meaningful conversations — and some powerful group screams! We’re so grateful to everyone who took part.

THANK YOU TO: Gem City Action and Yellow Cab Tavern for an inspiring evening of #ArtInDemocracy in Dayton. 21c Museum Hotels and curator Alice Gray Stites for hosting us at 21c Chicago, 21c Lexington, 21c St Louis, 21c Bentonville, and 21c Kansas City, with special thanks to 21c Museum Managers Jennifer Murray, Katharine Erickson, Angie Villa, Veronica Inberg, and Jori Cheville. The Contemporary Arts Center, Boxelder Community Room, and Woodward Theater in Cincinnati — with gratitude to Shawnee Turner, Max, Chris Varias, and Jonny Shenk. And to all the local and grassroots organizations who tabled at screenings and took part in post-film discussions: MarYSoul Studios, Dayton Women’s Rights Alliance, Planned Parenthood, League of Women Voters, Women in Film Cincinnati, Abortion Action Missouri, Women’s Voices Raised for Social Justice, Arkansas Abortion Support Network, Emerge Arkansas, Get Loud Arkansas, Ozark Circle for Choice, and PROMO Missouri. And huge thanks to the OUTCRY participants who joined us for panel discussions — Helen Lee, Cory Brown (with her newborn twins!!), and Neysa Page-Lieberman.

We’re thrilled to be part of rePROFilm and Peace is Loud’s second cohort for Collective Lens: A Community Impact Space, which offers impact training and unrestricted grants for storytellers in the reproductive health and justice space.

From rePROFilm’s site: “This year’s eleven films represent shorts, features, documentaries, and narratives in all phases of production and distribution, and encompass themes of abortion rights & access, contraception, body politics, fertility, endometriosis awareness, HPV awareness, equitable healthcare, stigmatization, infertility, ancestral birth arts, art as activism, vulnerability, love, choice, maternal health care, and birth equity.”

We look forward to a year of learning in community!

Our two Chicago screenings took place at FACETS Cinema on August 14, 2024. They were hometown screenings for Whitney, filled with friends, family, and amazing community. We had two packed shows followed by meaningful discussion and group screams. It was fantastic to have so many OUTCRY and film participants in the theater with us—including Tricia of 6018North, who was kind enough to moderate our post-film Q&As; Alayna, who took part in the first Q&A and whose powerful scream was up onscreen before the film started; Penny, whose joyful scream has been on the film’s social media banners and posts; and Iris, who took part in our second Q&A (and whose poem Archaeologists of Rage was the inspiration and jumping-off point for our film’s subtitle, Alchemists of Rage).