5. BLU-RAY: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Out today on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD, Digital HD, VOD, and Pay-Per-View is the second film based on Suzanne Collins’s novels, in which Katniss Everdeen (the adorkable Jennifer Lawrence) embarks on a victory tour after surviving a vicious round of the Hunger Games, in which she fought other young people to the death for the entertainment of the people of Panem, a fictional world marked by extremes of wealthy excess and abject poverty. The friction between the haves and have-nots has reached a crucial point in this enviroment, set in post-apocalyptic North America, and Katniss, as a symbol of hope and potential rebellion for the repressed citizens of the districts, must walk a precarious line or else risk her life yet again. Along the way, she must also publicly claim love for her battle mate Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) for political reasons, while fanning sparks from an old flame, Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth). As the saying goes, may the odds be ever in her favor. Bonus: A nine-part feature documentary called Surviving the Game: Making Catching Fire and audio commentary from lesbian producer Nina Jacobson. — Daniel Reynolds
4. BOOK: Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger
If you were a lesbian activist in the 1990s, you either joined or marveled at the antics and actions of the Lesbian Avengers, an activist group bred from earlier direct action orgs (like ACT UP and Queer Nation) but wholly its own blend of resistance, art, activism, and queer culture. In Kelly Cogswell’s new memoir, Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger, she offers the first in-depth account of the Lesbian Avengers ,a group that managed to mobilize 20,000 women for the first dyke march in Washington, D.C., and eat fire (yes, literally) in front of the White House. A whole book could be written on the influence of the Lesbian Avengers on groups like Occupy Wall Street and even France’s La Barbe, but Cogswell spatters her book with tales of real lesbian travails like finding love, gaining and losing friendships, the impact of street activism, and her founding of The Gully, one of the early queer citizen journalist outlets. A worthy read! — Diane Anderson-Minshall
3. ART: The 2014 Whitney Houston Biennial: I’m Every Woman
This art show brings together the work of 75 female artists from a varied range of geographic and cultural backgrounds, disciplines, methodologies, and generations, curated by Christine Finley. A Brooklyn studio will be transformed into an inviting living space, a salon filled with work from artists including Guerilla Girls, Swoon, Sienna Shields, Narcissister, Annie Sprinkle, and Beth Stephens. The show not only riffs on the “other” Whitney Biennial taking place across town but honors Houston, two years after her untimely death. One night only, Sunday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., 20 Jay St., Suite 207. — Trudy Ring
2. MUSIC: PINS
This Manchester, England-based female quartet brings their debut full-length album, Girls Like Us, across the pond in a big way with a gig on Tuesday at Austin, Texas' epic South By Southwest music festival. The hard-rocking girl-gang offers an infectious combo of retro doo-wop and hard-hitting post-punk riffs that are sure to have you head-banging and dancing around the room. Get acquainted with PINS with the video "Waiting for the End" below, or get pinned in person at the Bella Union SXSW Showcase at Austin's Central Presbyterian Church at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, or in New York and Swarthmore, Penn., next week. Check out tour dates and sample the sound of PINS here. — Sunnivie Brydum
1. EVENT: 14th Annual Invasion of the GoGirls at SXSW
Forty-four acts from the GoGirls community of indie women musicians will rock out at the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin. Performances, free and open to the public, will take place at Austin Java Thursday through Saturday. Find more info here, and check out one the featured artists, bisexual singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rachael Sage, in the video below. — Trudy Ring
