SVA takes part in Racket's #KnowTheFlow Valentine's Day Campaign!
Products of Design is very proud to have contributed to this week's production and release of two Valentine's Day videos from Racket—the grassroots organization dedicated to menstrual health and reducing shame. We've worked with Racket over the past year, and during our recent "Rackathon," one of our first-year students, Gustav Ole Dyrhauge, came up with a simple and charming notion to create "a flower bouquet out of common menstrual hygiene products." Racket founders Caroline Angell and Margo Seibert ran with the idea, collaborating with an incredible cadre of actors (including Broadway star Phillipa Soo! and directors Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Kate Wetherhead) to create the following videos, released to coincide with this year's Valentine's Day.
For the videos, the students created all of the props—including the flower bouquets, logos, brands, and apparel.
Below are some process shots of students creating the individual flowers (fun, but challenging!), bouquets, logos, brands, apparel, and signage. The team consisted of Manako Tamura, Carly Simmons, Alexia Cohen, Bernice Wong, Hannah Rudin, Gustave Ole Dyrhauge, Rhea Bhandari, Ellen Rose, Juho Lee, Smruti Adya, and Andrew Schlesinger.
And then below those are some behind pictures shot on location a couple weeks ago!
But first, here's the official press release from Racket:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PHILLIPA SOO, CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER, and DREW GEHLING star in Valentine’s Parody with a Bloody Twist!
It’s only recently become acceptable to talk about periods in public (without referring to them by a funny and mildly offensive euphemism — Shark Week, anyone?) So how to invite half of the population to join in on this conversation they’ve been taught is unmentionable, and historically excluded from? Get ready folks….
Along with some of Broadway’s most dynamic performers, RACKET (www.weracket.com) has created two short videos (linked below), combining Valentine’s Day and periods in a way you never imagined.
Directed by Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Tuck Everlasting) and Kate Wetherhead (Submissions Only) and with cinematography by Kyle Corea, the videos feature Drew Gehling (Waitress), Olli Haaskivi (Mr. Robot) Celia Keenan-Bolger (Glass Menagerie), Margo Seibert (Rocky) and Phillipa Soo (Hamilton) as menstruators and non-menstruators with one thing in common: They love somebody who has a period.
RACKET’s work aims to remove the taboo surrounding menstruation in our culture. The more openly we talk about it, the less room there is for shame to play a role. In these videos, we imagine a world where if you love her, you #KnowTheFlow.
You can help us make a racket: share this video, and use the hashtag to tell us how you/your boyfriend/your gay bestie/your doorman support the menstruators in your lives. Use the hashtag #KnowTheFlow and tag @we_racket.
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ABOUT RACKET
Actress Margo Seibert and novelist Caroline Angell (All the Time in the World, Henry Holt 2016) are old pals from their college days. Together, they co-founded an initiative called RACKET. Their mission: to take shame out of periods.
RACKET thinks that all people deserve a shame-free relationship with their periods regardless of socioeconomic circumstances. We believe that access to menstrual hygiene products is an essential part of building agency for all menstruating people, and are fighting for this access on many different fronts. We regularly partner with arts organizations, businesses, churches, and shelters to collect menstrual hygiene products, and help facilitate their distribution to people with limited access. And we collaborate with journalists and activists to help publicize their work in the field of menstruation and gender equality.
For more information, please visit us at www.weracket.com.
And a few more pictures as the final bouquets took shape below!
