One theme that I’ve been exploring in this series has been the difference, or balance between celebration and redress, filling a historical hole due to underrepresentation. At this moment in history, they are integrally intertwined: it seems any show by women about women will be both. Both are necessary, and therefore celebration and redress can only be theoretically separated. still hungry’s show Raven adds a third layer to the mix: redefining, reclaiming, or just calling out a harmful cultural phrase.Rabenmaderis a German phrase, “It’s raven mother translated, and this is a bad, bad saying. It’s used to condemn a mother, meaning she doesn’t take care enough about her kids,” Anke van Engelshoven explained to me, “she leaves them alone, she goes back to work very quickly. So it’s really like a neglectful mother.” I delicately wondered, “Is there an equivalent of this word for fatherhood?” “No,” Anke briskly replied. (Had I not asked rhetorically, the way she shook her head and laughed would have signaled a bit of pity for my naiveté. Instead, we had a good chuckle together.) It was worth asking — just in case. 

Anke Van Engelshoven Rabenmutter is an old phrase that has lingered into present-day German culture, but Anke explained that its current use is “specifically a...