ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

"I had an abortion in 2015. It broke my heart, but it was necessary for my health and well-being. I had the good fortune to be one subway ride away from Planned Parenthood, and I had health insurance which covered me for “one abortion a year.”

I knew I was pregnant almost immediately, and got a positive pregnancy test about two weeks in, when my period didn’t come. I wanted to give myself an herbal abortion, and I had a tailor-made emmenagogue recipe, but I didn’t have the resources or support to safely go through with it. But I knew I wanted to be present for the bloodletting. So a dear friend, acting as my abortion doula, dressed in white, took me to Planned Parenthood, got me a hot pink water bottle, and came over on the scheduled day to my apartment. We prayed over the medicine and did a ritual, and then I took the misoprostol, and my friend read me bone broth recipes and timed out all my pain meds while I slipped in and out of consciousness from the pain. I wish everyone could have support like that.

Recently, I encountered a brilliant book, Natural Liberty: Rediscovering Self-Induced Abortion Methods by the Sage Femme Collective. It is a thoroughly well researched compendium of herbal abortion remedies from around the world. I was also watching and thinking about Julia Child: how she tried to make seemingly out of reach recipes accessible to everyone. I hatched a plan with the illustrious Anita Revolution Now, who is a huge Julia fan and has been doing drag as Julia Child since the tender age of nine, and together with the brilliant Layla Marcelle, Kayla Watkins, Lamont Nathaniel Gibson and Kwabena Kwateng, we made The French Chef with Julia Child: Abortifacient Herbs."

—Halo Rossetti, 2019

Production Credits
Halo Rossetti (writer/director/co-producer)
Anita Revolution Now as Julia Child
Layla Marcelle (co-producer/art director)
Kayla Watkins (cinematographer/color correction)
Lamont Nathaniel Gibson (camera operator)
Kwabena Kwateng (sound/grip)