Women in Resistance

Filmed in one of the last standing warehouses of the American Tobacco Company in the Southside of Richmond, the film honors the spirit of resistance and liberation of Black female tobacco stemmers who worked in segregated facilities in Richmond and invokes Puerto Rican tobacco factory readers and radical activists Dominga de La Cruz Becerril (1909–1981) and Luisa Capetillo (1879–1922), as inspiration for the present. Both were hired as lectoras, readers in tobacco factories where they read classic literature and union newspapers out loud to the workers. The practice of reading in tobacco factories played an important role in the Caribbean and parts of the United States for raising political consciousness amongst workers. 

While we were filming, the ATC warehouses were being demolished to create a mixed income housing complex. As the physical space disappears, we honor and dedicate this film to the Black women who worked in tobacco factories in Richmond and who organized to denounce the injustices they faced. 

The film is bilingual (Spanish and English) with subtitles and combines biography, poetry, and ritual, with the energy of live performance.