DIFFICULTWOMEN CV
DIFFICULTWOMEN has been performing concerts in the Australian and International Art and Folk Festivals since its inception in 1993. Using the acting, narrating and singing skills of LIN VAN HEK and the musical and arranging talents of multi-instrumentalist, JOE DOLCE, DIFFICULTWOMEN brings to life on stage, both in concert and stage format, some of our most important and controversial women artists, women who were labelled difficult in their day due to their willingness to go against the accepted norm for what it meant to be a female artist.
DIFFICULTWOMEN has been a pioneering force since the mid-90s, presenting FRIDA KAHLO, SYLVIA PLATH, and VIRGINIA WOOLF to audiences almost a decade before the film producers of Hollywood discovered them. In addition to these now well-known women artists, DIFFICULTWOMEN also brings women to the stage who still remain unknown or marginalized: Australian pioneer feminist LOUSIA LAWSON, the mother of Henry Lawson, who first published her son's poetry and founded a newspaper totally run by women in the 1890's, THE DAWN, operating it successfully for 15 years. African-American slave pioneers HARRIET TUBMAN, who organized the Underground Railroad, and SOJOURNER TRUTH, who combined freedom for women with freedom for slaves and was a fierce and innovative orator, even thought she could neither read nor write. MEMPHIS MINNIE, the first electric guitar player, who defeated Chicagoan, BIG BILL BROOZNEY, in The Great Male Vs Female Guitar Contest. French Sculptor CAMILLE CLAUDEL, Russian diarist SONYA TOLSTOI, New Zealand writer KATHERINE MANSFIELD; American writers GERTRUDE STEIN and ALICE B TOKLAS, and many others. Joe and Lin have also forged a beautiful harmony blend from 25 years of singing together and have recorded several CDs, the most recent, FLOWER, selected as a Top Ten Release of the Year by Rhythms Magazine.
The work was developed in parallel lines. LIN VAN HEK, as a published SPINIFEX PRESS author, has a long background in writing and women's writing. Born and raised in Melbourne, she lived for many years in India and Belgium. She was the lead singer of the electro-dance band, SKIN THE WIG, in the 80s, and a song she wrote and sang was part of the first TERMINATOR film score in the US! She recorded a solo CD River of Life, featuring songs of New Zealand writer, Kath Tait, and is featured on the GIRLZONE recordings, which were produced solely by women. She has published two novels: The Hanging Girl, and The Ballad of Siddy Church, and has just completed her third, El Libro de Plata and the Difficult Women's Notebook, and several books of short stories. She has had stories published in recent years in two Spinifex Press anthologies: Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women's Lives, and Horse Dreams: The Meaning of Horses in Women's Lives. She is a previous winner the Melbourne Age Short Story Contest. Lin is also a respected fashion designer, with her own label, LIN VAN HEK DESIGN, working in collaboration with women entrepreneurs in the mountain villages of North Vietnam, travelling there many times a year.
JOE DOLCE has been a professional musician, composer and entertainer for over 35 years. (See his website for his comprehensive CV.)
Lin and Joe's common love for words and music, and the wonderful difficult women that have inspired them both, led them to develop this unique way of combining literature and music, to create something quite special, intimate and entertaining, and an inspiration for any creative person.