We discuss the Wide Awakes - their origins as an Abolitionist movement supporting Lincoln’s 1860 election campaign, and their revival in 2020 as a cape-clad artist network that believes in “joy as resistance “. See links below.
Ruth Barnes, Joanne B. Eicher, Dress and Gender: Making and Meaning (first published in 1992): https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/dress-and-gender-9780854968657/
Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, V&A, London (to 25 October 2020): https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/kimono-kyoto-to-catwalk
Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels (first published in 1960): https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/jessica-mitford/hons-and-rebels/9781474605373/
Nancy Mitford, Love in a Cold Climate (first published in 1949): https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/282/2828/love-in-a-cold-climate/9780241974698.html
Gerda Taro: https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/objects/militiawoman-training-on-the-beach-near-barcelona and https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/gerda-taro?all/all/all/all/0
Jon Grinspan, ‘”Young Men for War”: The Wide Awakes and Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Campaign’, Journal of American History, 96 (Sept. 2009): http://archive.oah.org/special-issues/lincoln/contents/grinspan.html
‘Connecticut Wide-Awakes’, Connecticut Historical Society (6 January 2011): https://chs.org/2011/01/connecticut-wide-awakes/
2020 Wideawakes: https://wideawakes.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/wideawakes/
and https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wide-awakes/the-wide-awakes
For Freedoms: https://forfreedoms.org/
Hank Willis Thomas: https://www.instagram.com/hankwillisthomas/ and https://www.hankwillisthomas.com/
Wildcat Ebony Brown: https://www.instagram.com/wildcatebonybrown/
Anya Ayoung Chee: https://www.anyaayoungchee.com/ and https://www.togetherwi.org/
Eric Gottesman: https://ericgottesman.net/
Coby Kennedy: https://www.cobykennedystudio.com/
Kambui Olujimi: https://kambuiolujimi.com/
Jose Parla: https://www.instagram.com/joseparla/
Matt Dellinger, ‘A Civil War Political Movement Reawakens — Complete With Capes’, New York Times (15 September 2020): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/style/wide-awakes-civil-war-activists.html
Rebecca Jamieson, ‘Without Joy, Nothing is Sustainable: The Artist First-Responders Waking Up Democracy with Play, Billboards, and Capes’, Pioneer Works (10 February 2020): https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/for-freedoms-jamieson/
Jammal Lemy, ‘Wide Awakes’, Dazed (15 September 2020): https://www.dazeddigital.com/read-up-act-up-autumn-2020/article/50410/1/read-up-act-up-autumn-2020-wide-awakes-guest-edit
Rujeko Hockley, ‘Joy as Resistance: Artist collective the Wide Awakes takes NYC this weekend. Why we’re marching’, New York Vulture (2 October 2020): https://www.vulture.com/2020/10/wide-awakes-march-nyc.html
Brooke Bobb, ‘The Wide Awakes Are the Civil War–Era Activist Group Making a Comeback in Bold, Joyful Style’, Vogue (2 October 2020): https://www.vogue.com/article/wide-awakes-capes