Light Source presents- Leticia Molera Vasquez, Sister Solidarity, Female Ritual and the Patriarchy.

Welcome to the Light Source Night School Talks Program

We are pleased to present our third talk in our series, by Leticia Molera Vasquez, Sister Solidarity, Female Ritual and the Patriarchy.

Leticia Molera Vasquez presents an evolutionary approach to the origins of female led ritual centered around the concept of sister solidarity. She will discuss how societies that adopted patriarchal models then persecuted the women they saw as knowledge keepers capable of de-railing their power structures as witches using examples from around the globe. She proposes that both the conservation and revival of female rituals are hence a form of resistance against the patriarchy and part of the solution for many of the issues we struggle with, from inequality to environmental disaster.

Leticia Molera Vasquez is a sociobiological anthropologist, tattooist and practices ancestral ritual, magical, healing and divination traditions from her varied ethnic roots.

She has studied initiation and esoteric rituals, theatre and their connection through an evolutionary lens. Following a field of anthropology that is interested in the links between social and biological adaptation and survival, she has studied amongst cultures as varied as the Quakers, Basque and Berbers throughout her travel and field work and focused on the female within these. She is interested in transcendental rituals in the form of primarily psychoactive herbal ceremonies as well as body modification rituals, female centered practices and primarily tattooing and so called witchcraft, from the perspective of evolutionary anthropology rather than from a purely cultural, artistic or symbolic perspective focusing on performative and sociobiological theories. She lives in London where she co-owns a tattoo studio and gallery, teaches anthropology, religion and classical civilisation subjects at A Level, researches and writes. She has penned a series called Digging Deep for Tattoo Master as well as spearheaded an interview series called Ink Unplugged dedicated to featuring traditional and indigenous, machine free tattooists from around the world. She is currently an active indigenous rights accomplice and ally.

Light Source is a program of talks exploring Witch Hunts and Ritual Performance hosted by artist Amy Kingsmill.

This is our third talk in a series of 12 monthly talks and workshops on these themes, please check back at our website as we announce our full list of speakers and dates. 

Light Source brings light to lost histories of persecuted people- primarily women, and honours them. It explores and expands the use of body performance techniques and contextualises them within the practice of queer people and women, creating a space to share these techniques & histories.

This talk is at William Waldo Suite, Friends House Euston Road. 173-177 Euston Rd, London NW1 2BJ

This project is funded by the Arts Council England.