BY Ani DiFranco ruffled quite a few feathers over the weekend when she announced her plans to host a “Righteous Retreat” where lovers of songwriting, poetry and performance could indulge in days of relaxation and creativity. Critics were outraged after learning the event would be hosted on a former slave plantation in Louisiana — whose website boasts about the historic bell still present on the premises that “was rung by the overseer to announce the time for [slaves’] rising, meals and retiring” — causing DiFranco to cancel the retreat.
Some people felt the venue alienated women, queer women and feminists of color. Debate on the event’s, now removed, Facebook page turned ugly. After some women on the social network site dismissed black commenters’ critiques of the venue, one user created a fake account pretending to be a black woman named LaQueeta Jones. Not only did the woman create an imaginary person, she went on to comment as Jones using urban vernacular.
You can view Ani’s full statement regarding the cancellation.
Read more at Huffington Post Gay Voices
