Nikki Craft
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Nikki Craft (born 1949) is an American political activist, artist and writer known for her provocative and controversial approaches to societal problems and political situations. She is known for radical feminism, though she has said, "My politics are much broader than that feminism." She has had a public profile as an activist since the early 1970s, and has been arrested for acts of civil disobedience. She is also known for researching and publicizing cases of pedophilia and child molestation.
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[edit] Activism
Craft became a feminist and activist in the late 1960s, and was one of the first people to publicly protest against beauty pageants. In the summer of 1975 Craft organized her first anti-pageant action in Dallas at the Miss Texas Beauty Pageant, where the protesters threw raw steak onto the stage during the bathing suit contest. In 1976 she altered a billboard by changing it from "Miss America" to "Myth America,".
In 1975, she presented the Rockwell International Board of Directors with "bloodied" dolls to protest their B-1 bomber called "The Peacemaker".[1] The same year, Craft founded Women Armed for Self Protection (WASP), which advocated armed self-defense for women and retaliation against rapists by their victims; she wrote and recorded the Rape Song about Inez Garcia and Joan Little.
In 1976, Craft co-founded the Kitty Genovese Women's Project (KGWP) when she and another activist posed as sociology students under the pretense of doing a "statistical study on violent crimes" and obtained the names of every indicted sex offender in Dallas County from 1959 to 1975. This was before such records were kept on computer; the activists worked for nine months writing all the names down on index cards. A year later, 25,000 copies of the KGWP newspaper were published. The paper listed all 2,100 sex offender indictments, 1,700 of which were multiple offenders, and was distributed throughout Dallas. On March 8, International Women's Day, the group read the names over local community radio KCHU for 13 hours.[2]
In 1979, Craft helped organize the first Myth California Anti-Pageant in Santa Cruz, California. In 1980 Craft joined other pageant protesters and over the next nine years conducted other actions, including throwing raw meat on the stage and pouring the blood of raped women across a pageant entryway. One year three men locked arms on stage, yelling "Men Resist Sexism! Men Resist Sexism!" preventing the crowning until they were dragged away. There were many arrests, and each year the crowds grew larger at the anti-pageant protests which later resulted in the Miss California pageant leaving Santa Cruz. The protests continued in San Diego and in 1988, after the pageant left Santa Cruz and moved to San Diego, an anti-pageant infiltrator won the local pageant and advanced to the state finals where she unveiled a banner from her bra that read "Pageants Hurt All Women." A documentary called Miss or Myth examines these protests.
[edit] 1980s
In the early 1980s Craft became a ceramicist[3] at UCSC. One year she made 500 handthrown pieces and signed them all "Stop Violence Against Women."
In 1980, Craft started the Preying Mantis Women's Brigade. Preying Mantis organized actions to remove Hustler from local liquor stores in retaliation for publishing violent pornography. Over the next year they succeeded in getting Hustler removed from 28 stores in the Santa Cruz area. These actions were documented weekly in City on a Hill Press at UCSC.
On March 31, 1980, Craft entered the UCSC Special Collections library and destroyed The Incredible Case of the Stack o' Wheats Murder print reproductions a 1972 collection of parodies of forensic photography by the artist Les Krims, by pouring chocolate syrup on the torn pieces. At that time she released In Defense of Disobedience. Months later she donated another set of prints, exactly the same as the one she destroyed. She was arrested for felony conspiracy and malicious mischief, but charges were later dismissed.
In 1981, Craft formed the Cross Your Heart Support network and organized numerous topfree equality demonstrations. Over a period of several years, members, including Craft, were arrested on state beaches in numerous demonstrations.
In 1981, Craft was arrested, along with others, for pouring her own blood ("the blood of raped women") across the entry way of the San Jose Miss Nude Pageant.
In 1981, and again in 1988, Craft was arrested at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant while protesting against the proliferating use of nuclear power in the U.S. During the 1983 "Weight Slavery" Myth California protest, Craft vomited during a street theatre performance, in order to bring about public awareness about eating disorders.
In 1983 Craft founded Citizens for Media Responsibility. During the next year and a half, Craft and Dr. Melissa Farley organized the National Rampage Against Penthouse which resulted in hundreds of arrests of women and men across the country to protest Penthouse magazines publication of what they called "violent Asian pornography." That same year she founded Meredith Stockholders Against Penthouse to protest Meredith printing the magazine. The following year, Merideth Corporation stopped printing Penthouse.
She was arrested in August 1984 while sunbathing at the Cape Cod National Seashore for refusing to put on her shirt. She later organized a class action suit funded by the Naturist Society against the Federal government, which manages the Seashore. Later in the proceedings, she and others withdrew from the case because the Society's attorney had made concessions to the respondents related to clothing requirements for Seashore visitors that included gender distinctions, specifically, the covering of women's breasts.
In March 1986 Craft and eight other women were arrested in Chicago, Illinois after chaining themselves in front of the Playboy Foundation demanding that Hugh Hefner "get naked" and pose in his own publication.
[edit] 1990s and onward
In the early 1990s Craft published a newsletter called The Iconoclast, which reported on nudists and naturists who had been accused or convicted of child pornography or sexual abuse, and her assertion that the nudist/naturist leadership was not taking the problem seriously.
In May 1990, Craft spent 23 days in jail for tearing up four copies of Esquire magazine on a Bellingham, WA mall bookstore, to protest its cover story, "Your Wife: An Owner's Manual," which included articles the magazine claimed were "humorous" about domestic violence and murder.[citation needed]
In 1990 Craft opened the Andrea Dworkin Online Library. In 1992, Diana E. H. Russell dedicated her book Femicide to Craft. In 1997 Dworkin dedicated her book Life and Death to Craft. In 2000, Craft and D.A. Clarke organized "Feminists for Nader" and campaigned for Nader's presidential bid.
In 1995, the feminist journal On the Issues published Craft's article entitled "Busting Mister Short Eyes" about a naturist child rapist sentenced to 30 years in prison, partly as a result of Craft's advocacy.[4]
In 2001 she took a stand against the war in Afghanistan and called upon her feminist colleagues to do the same. In 2005, she created the "Hustling the Left" website, criticizing leaders in leftist and progressive movements who published articles, interviews and expressed public cooperation with Larry Flynt and his magazine, Hustler. The website took its name from a June 2005 article by feminist journalist Aura Bogado, who protested the promotion of Flynt's support by the anti-war group Not in Our Name.
[edit] References
- ^ War Stories: My Demo at Rockwell International. nostatusquo.com. Retrieved on 2006-02-23.
- ^ Exposing the Rapist Next Door. nostatusquo.com. Retrieved on 2006-02-23.
- ^ Nikki Craft's Pottery Pages. nikkicraft.com. Retrieved on 2006-03-02.
- ^ Craft, Nikki. "Busting Mr. Short Eyes", On the Issues, Dec. 1995.
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
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| NAME | Craft, Nikki |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | An American political activist, artist and writer who is known for her provocative and controversial approaches to societal problems and political situations. |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1949 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
