WOMXNHOUSE Detroit transforms spaces across Detroit into platforms for artistic expression

Joining me now, we have Ms. Aja Hamilton. She is the founder of Woman House. Thanks for being here. Oh, hey, hey. Hey, hey. So for those who haven't heard of Woman House, tell us what it is, what inspired you to create something like this. Yes, Woman House is an artist residency for women and non-binary artists. I started the residency in 2021, right after the pandemic. My mom had passed from COVID and I wanted to do something with my childhood home. So I turned it into an artist residency for women artists like myself. Wow. And what was that like transforming your childhood home into something that you're so passionate about? It was really my house. The house had always been like a woman house. You know, I have sisters and, you know, my mom and we would have this, you know, just this gathering of women. And I just wanted to create a safe space for women to talk about their issues or just be able to have a sisterhood. So it was it was kind of like full circle, almost just, you know, being able to share the love that we've had for each other with everybody else. Wow. So women come to this place to connect, to create, to share. Yes. Is that correct? what are you seeing from the women the difference when they walk in that door to when they're walking out um i definitely see uh you know just an opportunity for them to just share with each other um i feel like i wanted to create a safe space in in a way that there is no gatekeeping Like they're not just sharing ideas. They're sharing experiences. They're being able to just kind of use that time to use their art to talk about anything that's on their heart. That's beautiful. And all of these women, are they artists in some realm? Yeah. What are the different artists that come to the house there? All different mediums. We this is our fourth cohort of artists. we opened just last week and we'll be displaying work all the way to the end of the month um but the but they're you know various different artists and not just from the Detroit area we have people from all over the U.S. that come and participate in Woman House that's awesome so tell me about this series this exhibit that you're hosting throughout the month and what people can experience yeah so Woman House has always been a whole house exhibit where we take over a house and turn it into a fully immersive exhibition. It's based off of Judy Chicago's feminist art project that was created in the 1970s. They took over an abandoned mansion and talked about the issues that women were facing in America back then. Sadly enough, women are still dealing with the same things in America today. Everything from wage gap, reproductive rights, you know, ancestral healing, just all of the things that women go through. So we wanted to create our rendition of that, our modernized conversation around that. And instead of us doing a whole house exhibit, which is what we've done annually, we're taking this experience out into the community. So we're doing activations at two woman-owned houses, Irwin House in Acoma, Detroit, which is in the North End area. And now, today, we're actually doing large-scale installations in the park right on Finkel, right in the neighborhood. Wow. And what will those large-scale installations look like? Paint a picture for the people. Yeah. So, man, I feel like this that particular exhibit is focusing on motherhood. We have a this beautiful like fence weaving that speaks to I dream of a black utopia by Amara. And, you know, you want your your children to be able to experience this utopia in their neighborhood. So as she was putting it together, people were like driving and just stopping and looking. So there's going to be a we also have the billboard and some art on the billboard that just speaks to Woman House, the whole cohort. It's a collage piece by Josie. And yeah, so it's going to be really cool. another thing that you're tackling is breaking the silence around menopause yes why is that an important conversation that you're making a part of all this oh man um it's just something that we don't talk about i mean it's just to be 100 you know i am now harry and um you know all of you know my friends and we've just been kind of joking about it but we really don't know what's going on yeah you know um you know oh man i can't remember blah blah blah blah you know whatever the situation is we're uh we're all kind of going through it but nobody's really like talking serious about it and um so yeah next week we're doing a film screening for the m factor uh it's called before the pause it is an award-winning uh documentary we're doing that in conjunction with uh filmology as um and yeah and i'm really excited about uh seeing the film myself i've seen the trailer i've watched part of it but i'm excited to watch it alongside everyone else and then we're going to have an amazing conversation to go along with that and that's um that's this friday coming up how empowering what do you hope people take away from uh this event this series as a whole i mean just a better understanding of women and and what we go through on a daily basis um but but mainly i want you know the women to use that space and the platform to you know to get to know each other to encourage each other to lift each other up um and to just build that sisterhood across the board you talked about some of the challenges that women still face today you mentioned the the wage gap and things like that what do you think needs to be done to address those challenges to move past those challenges oh man oh what can be done you know um i say that we we need to continue to speak out but some of the challenges i think coming together and working together will help us to kind of overcome a lot of those issues um you know not being you know no gatekeeping between the women allowing each other to be able to you know help each other out when the when the when it's needed absolutely and you're of course hosting this amazing event for artists and women tell us about your background as an artist yeah i am an artist and and i've been arting lately um you know well i am the former owner of Northwest gallery of art which is an art gallery that was in existence for eight years we focused on um, African and African-American art and as particularly emerging artists in the Detroit area. Um, at that time there wasn't any space, uh, for emerging artists, particularly black art focus. And, um, I wanted to create that space in the neighborhood I grew up in, which is where woman house is as well. And, um, I am an, I'm a photographer. I've been a photographer for, for many years um and um you know just continuing you know to do my work i just did my first art show oh congratulations that's awesome we love to hear that i've done so many exhibits for other artists so i did my first solo exhibit um which everybody's like what this is your first right like what yeah so um i'm excited to you know be arting now that i've closed the gallery but you know that the amazing things happen what do you love about photography and just leaning into your artistic side in general you know uh you know there's a time for everything and i feel like this time is is you know uh is the perfect timing you know um i you know in the in in the past i've done me you know i've been a journalist so i've worked for Free Press and Detroit News and um as a photojournalist and now i'm really focusing on what feeds my soul and um you know i've been shooting mostly like landscapes and and things that are more mundane and you know kind of slow down and give you the opportunity to heal through your work um and that's also happening in in through woman house they're using this this their work to heal through their work so um i'm excited about the series that i've been working on so yeah yes and i mean news photography yeah versus you know having that freedom talk about the freedom that you have now to photograph anything of your choosing versus you know what it was like working for the free press or just being a journalistic photographer um just the freedom of that is you know when you're when you're photographing events and news you know you're subject to what's going on in the world and that could be anything that could be breaking news that could be um you know something that could be very traumatic it could be something that's very beautiful um but you know when you are creating your own work you're giving yourself the opportunity to to tell your story um to dream to be imaginative um so yeah it is it's um it's definitely what do they say um calming the the nervous system yeah i know all about it i bet your nervous system is uh this is incredible tell the people again when they can check out this series of incredible events that you put on yeah absolutely you can go to Woman House and that's Woman House with an x so um you can go to womanhouse.life and why the x oh why the x so the x represents non-binary artists yeah so yeah we we want to be able to be inclusive to you know all women artists and um yep so you can go there all of our events for the month are on the website um but today i would love to see you at Cook Playground on Finkel and Saint Mary's in the Grandmont uh Grandmont area old school it's Saint Mary's Quarry area okay um and uh you will be able to see us from the street it's going to be an amazing display of um art installations and you can bring your children we're also doing this in conjunction with Micah's Mark, which is a new store that is on Finkel and it's a woman-owned business as well. Be sure to check it out. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you for all that you do. Not keeping your talents hidden, but sharing them with the world and community to bring more joy. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you.