Women Make Arkansas: Conversations with 50 Creatives by Erin Wood and What’s Inside? A Century of Women and Handbags, 1900-1999 (the official book of ESSE Museum & Store) have been named 2019 Arkansas Gems by Arkansas Center for the Book!
Are you ready to rethink women’s fashion as more than what splashes the glossy magazine pages and luxury items that are out of reach for most? Check out Et Alia Press director Erin Wood’s reading roundup in The Rumpus.
Image by World Woman Foundation.
Congratulations to Anita Davis, author of What's Inside? A Century of Women and Handbags, 1900-1999, for receiving a 2018 Global Voice Award from the World Woman Foundation! We love and celebrate all you have done and continue to do for women locally and around the globe, Anita, and are humbled to have you in our Et Alia family of authors.
From the World Woman Foundation:
COMMUNITY LEADER OF THE YEAR: ANITA DAVIS
A Murfreesboro, Arkansas native, Anita Davis has breathed new life into Little Rock’s South Main Street neighborhood. She started the annual Arkansas Cornbread Festival in 2011 to support development projects and foster community. An eclectic, up-and-coming downtown neighborhood, SoMa is home to shops, a farmers’ market, restaurants, and Davis’ own passion project: the ESSE Purse Museum. One of only three purse museums in the world, ESSE was a traveling exhibit of a decades-old collection of handbags before becoming a permanent fixture inside a SoMa historic building in 2013. ESSE embodies Davis’ dream of exploring art, history and the feminine. One of only three purse museums in the world, ESSE Purse Museum & Store is the culmination of Anita’s passion of exploring women’s history and impact through art.
Behind-the-scenes of What's Inside? A Century of Women and Handbags, 1900–1999 by Anita Davis with photographer Brandon Markin and stylist and book designer Steven Otis! Early this summer, Brandon and Steven worked together to style and capture the decades of the 20th century through the lens of the purse in the warehouse area of ESSE Museum & Store.
You’ll recognize the cover purse, but two other photos provide a sneak peak at the decades of the 70s and 80s. You know you want to fiddle with that Rubik’s Cube and see how fast you can solve it while listening to Tears for Fears!
Four days left to preorder your copy. Order two or more copies and use code ESSE20 at checkout through October 9 to take 20% off plus free domestic shipping or local hand-delivery.
Prepare to be blown away by What’s Inside . . .
NOW IN PREORDER! What’s Inside? A Century Of Women and Handbags, 1900-1999 by Anita Davis. Preorder 2 or more copies by October 9 and take 20% off with code ESSE20.
ABOUT
Purses are personal, private places into which only the privileged dare put their hands, vessels of the feminine that hold the essence of a woman’s individuality.
What’s Inside compliments the permanent exhibition of Esse Museum & Store, offering intimate portraits of this most intimate accessory. Step inside one of only three purse museums in the world where, decade by decade, you’ll conjure the lives and habits of 20th century American women through clutch-sized vignettes and gleaming minaudières of fashion.
Breathing life into often unnamed heroines, we revere the stylish changemakers whose struggles and triumphs forged the way for generations of women to come.
Et Alia titles are coming soon to South Main Creative!
Thrilled to be part of this groovy treasure trove of antiques, vintage, and art in Little Rock's booming Soma District, which also offers classes like cigar box assemblage, intro to fine silver clay, painting with wool, and touch painting with Paula Martin who will be featured in Erin Wood's Women Makers of Arkansas book. Another woman maker and forthcoming author, ESSE purse museum founder and director Anita Davis is just a few doors away. Also featured at South Main are the portraits of Joshua Asante, whose Uncertain, But Unafraid is forthcoming from Et Alia this fall.
Stay tuned for when books hit the shelves!
