We’re on vacation for the next two weeks (yay!), we’ll be back in the middle of May.

Adiós (for now),

Detroit Feminists 

From Maegan la Mala at VivirLatino.com

I never buy the American Book Review, but I’m going to make an exception for their lastest issue and you should too! The current issue features Women of Color Publishing and contains the words of some blogger/writer hermanas!

Continue reading

THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2008 - BOSTON

PARA NOSOTRAS: The first LATINA PRIDE PARTY from Queer Women of Color and Friends

You are invited to join Queer Women of Color and Friends (QWOC) to show love and support for our Latina sisters during Latino Pride week!

@Club Choices, 379 Somerville Avenue, Somerville, MA 02143

FREE Social 7:30 - 9 p.m., FIESTA 9 p.m. - 1 a.m.

Dance lessons available from MIT’s Casino Rueda Dance Troupe!

La Rueda de Casion originally began in Cuba in the 1950’s, and consisted of couples dancing salsa in a circle, following the moves called by the caller, who set the pace of the dance. The calls ranged from thos known by everyone from Cuba to San Francisco to more unique moves that people invented on their own.

Featuring Informal Latin Dance Lessons From Volunteers, Appetizers, Mingling, Flirting and so on…

Featuring DJ Shorty spinning Hiphop, Reggaeton, Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, and Top 40

Click here to get your tickets! $5 Online ($10 at the door)

Official Site

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JUNE 6-8, 2008 - MINNEAPOLIS

National Conference for Media Reform

Join fellow activists, media makers, educators, jounalists, policymakers and concerned citizens in calling real and lasting changes to our nation’s media system.

2008 provides us with a great opportunity to put the issue of media reform in the national spotlight. Join us in Minneapolis and help us build this critical movement.

Minneapolis Convention Center, 1301 South Second Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403

Event website

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JUNE 20 -22, 2008 - DETROIT

ALLIED MEDIA CONFERENCE

The Allied Media Conference cultivates media strategies for a more just and creative world. It is the primary point of intersection in the U.S. for alternative media makers and committed social justice activists. In June, we will come together on the campus of Wayne State University to share tools and tactics for transforming our communities through media-based organizing. Learn more about AMC

Get these women of color to the AMC! Visit their websites and donate to their travel funds!

SPEAK Women of Color Media Collective and members of the Radical Women of Color blog ring have kicked off a fundraising campaign to cover their travel expenses to Detroit. You can donate by clicking the links, following the instructions and clicking the PayPal donate button.

Every donation makes a difference, and your support is greatly appreciated.

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JULY 18- 20, 2008 - SAN FRANCISCO

BLOGHER CONFERENCE

Adele will be participating in a panel discussion on “Race and Gender: What are the lessons of 2008. No this actually isn’t a re-hash of the Obama vs. Hillary debate. But certainly Election 2008 has made us look at our own (and society’s, and the medias, etc.) attitudes about race and gender. BlogHers proved that you can indeed discuss these incredibly sensitive topics without it descending into anarchy or hate speech, bit it’s tough. Pleas join Maria Nile, Jill Miller Zimon, Adele Nieves and others as we discuss what we’ve learned about ourselves…and about others so far in 2008.

BlogHer’s annual conference is like no other — it is the thrilling diversity of the blogosphere come to life!

Featuring techincal labs, educational workshops, intense discussion sessions, relevant sponsors, speakers from every corner of the blogosphere, established and new, and plent of opportunities to network and socialize.

Appropriate for anyone and everyone who is interested in any kind of blogging, from the personal to the professional to the political.

Full overview, Agenda

1. NYC “Weeds” Out Blacks and Latinos: New study outlines racial disparity in NYC’s staggering number of pot busts.

2. New Style of Policing in America: A new “military-corporate” paramilitary style of policing has been introduced in American society. As automation eliminates jobs permanently, workers find themselves homeless, denied access to healthcare and education and other necessities.

3. Beleaguered protestors talk peace with council: “Rutgers Three” persuade New Brunswick to adopt anti-war resolution…more info.

4. Study: Entrepreneurial activity remained strong in 2007 with major shifts among men, women and immigrants, says Kauffman Foundation Study

AND

5. Read Adele’s Hermana, Resist Zine Review (also check out kids on zines)

The Art of Healing - Explorations of Women’s Health

Artists speak out about women’s health care in The Art of Healing: Explorations of Women’s Health, presented by the Feminist Art Project in partnership with the Women’s Caucus for Art-Michigan, and The Therapy Center of Ann Arbor. The artwork includes both patient and care-taker perspectives as well as responses to social, political and historical health issues.

The exhibit will run May 2-16, 2008

Hours: M-F, noon - 6 p.m., Sunday 1-5 p.m.

Venue: Duderstadt Center (University of Michigan)

Price Range: Free

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SPREAD THE WORD!

Friends of Michigan Midwives

Purpose: To help Michigan Midwives Association with any jobs, manning booths at events, and spreading the word/celebrating the Midwifery Model of Care in all evironments.

Yahoo Group (website coming soon)

Any help you can offer in spreading the word to clients and other interested folks, or if you are able to participate on any level that would be amazing!

We have brochures to display, lots of little jobs and we would appreciate any information about upcoming events in your area in which we could participate. We can also arrange to have a speaker present on the Midwifery Model of Care, or hlep host presentations.

Another very important part of our work is to be fully prepared in the event of any litigation brought about that effects a woman’s right to choose her provider and location for birth. We need to develop a supportive large group that can respond quickly with letter writing, knowledge of who our friendly representatives are, and working proactively to let them know just how many families cherish their midwives.

Heather Hall, Events Coordinator

Friends of Michigan Midwives Board of Directors

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THINK GIRL

Detroit Race for the Cure

Think Girl is doing the Detroit Race For The Cure again this year, join them or help donate to the cause. Link

And

Girls Rock! Movie at the DIA (Detroit Institue of Arts), June 27, 2008

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Summer Arts and Leadership Institute

30 Detroit area underprivileged youth are coming to the University of Michigan to participate in the Summer Arts and Leadership Institute, put on by the Residential College Community Theater Collaborative (RCCTC).

These talented youth face a variety of challenges in their lives, as most come from homeless families, are runaways, or battle with poverty. From June 13 to 15, they will get a chance to experience the arts at the University of Michigan. Youth will stay in a residence hall, participate in arts workshops led by U of M Professors, and have a chance to become more comfortable with the people and places associated with college.

Based in the University of Michigan’s Residential College, the RCCTC serves the university and the community by training college students to use the arts for socail justice, by using arts to expand university knowlege from the community and encouraging arts-based learning for college students of today and tomorrow.

For more information, please contact Craig VanKempen at 734.615.2491 or craigvk@gmail.com

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DETROIT HEALING WALK

Youth of all ages and every race, religion and description will be walking, singing, talking and praying on the Detroit Healing Walk, Saturday, June 7, 2008.

Everyone will gather at the American Indian, 9:30am at the American Indian Health and Family Services (AIHFS), located at 4880 Lawndale south of Michigan Avenue and make a round trip to Fort Wayne for ceremonies by the Detroit River. Transportation will be provided for those unable to walk the distance.

For more information, or to register for the Detroit Healing Walk, contact Nickole Fox or Martha Hinojosa at AIHFS, 313.846.3718 ext. 1113

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Detroit Water Forum: Focus on Water Rate Increases, Sewage Overflows & Aging Water Infrastructure

The high cost of upgrading and expanding Detroit’s aging water and sewage system, among other things, has forces the Detroit Water and Sewage Department to raise its water rates earlier this week. Water—a basic human right—has become unaffordable to many residents and many, as a result, have had their water shut off because of a failure to pay their bills.

All Great Lake Cities need an up-to-date water and sewage infrastructure system. This forum will begin the conversation on how to fix Detroit’s aging infrastructure while making sure all residents have the right to clean and affordable water.

WHAT: Water Community Forum

WHO: Chuck Hersey, Southeast Michigan Council of Goverments, Mary Blackmon, Detroit Water and Sewage Board, Joanne Watson, Detroit City Councilwoman, Maureen Taylor, Michigan Welfare Rights, Detroit Resident that has experienced a water shutoff

WHEN: Monday, May 12, 2008, 5:30pm reception begins, 6pm panel beginis

WHERE: Wayne County Community College - Community Roomn 236 (1001 West Fort Street, Detroit)

Hosted by the Sierra Club

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Activist Mike Farrell’s book signing

Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist, with a new introduction by Martin Sheen

A rare celebrity who makes headlines for the right reasons. Mike will drive himself across the country and back, and will be networking with the human right organizations that will be sponsoring each event along the way…

He’ll be speaking off the cuff, from memories of M*A*S*H and Providence - to heated debates on the death penalty, environmental causes, international human rights abuses, gay rights and election politics.

Thursday, May 29, 2008, 7:00pm

Barnes & Noble, 3235 Washtenaw Avenue, Ann Arbor

Feminism In/Action: What is your feminism for and why does it matter?

This past Sunday Bitch Magazine and Detroit Feminists hosted a participatory discussion about—and whether—feminism can become a transformative movement for social change..more details.

We had a great turn-out and are thrilled Debbie Rasmussen contacted us to help organize this powerful and important conversation. Thank you to Bitch Magazine, Trumbull Plex, those who supported the event and especially the people who came out to get involved!

Bitch publisher Debbie Rasmussen posted an update, please feel free to give us (and Bitch Magazine) any feedback, comments or critique on the format or future discussions.

Stay tuned for our full recap and details for a Listening Party.

From BlackAmazon

Congratulations.

I quit.

I’m done. My blog will go live again when I’m compiling stuff for  my time to apply to gradschool but  I am done for now.

I want to say that this is permaent or that this is just a small break but no , this is teh beginning of a death knell.

 Continue reading at Problem Chylde

I have to admit I’m not very active in the blogsphere, for a number of reasons. It takes me forever to write something, I get lost in what’s going on at home and work, and my debating skills are a work in progress. Plus I still feel like I don’t know enough, like I’m always trying to catch up. But there are women (people) who, unlike me, have spent long hours engaging with the community, speaking to issues most of us ignore and opening themselves up to critique and personal attacks for what they believe in. BlackAmazon and Brownfemipower have always been two of those people. While we’re on the subject of defending people’s character and careers, it deserves mentioning that besides being amazing bloggers, they are genuinely good people. This is important and it often gets lost in the debate raging around issues.

Whether you’ve disagreed with them in that past, taken issue with some of their ideas and opinions, or just outright refused to dialogue with them, doesn’t erase the fact that they always remained willing to give.

We’ve arrived at a point where two important, prominent leaders - not only of the women of color community, but the feminist community in general - feel they are better off shutting down. I’m not sure who wins from this, but certainly not us - not any of us (although I don’t begrudge them their right to do what they think is best).

So please don’t come to this blog looking for my resume, or to ask me what I’ve written and where you can find my contributions. I am merely one of many addessing these issues. Instead, ask me to help you find the women who taught and never asked for anything in return; the women who wrote/worked for me even when I couldn’t see it, and gave when it was easier to take.

BlackAmazon and BrownfemiPower, thank you - and thanks are not anywhere near enough!

Read:

Mamita Mala

Angry Black Woman

Thanks Elaine, for helping me retrieve this post.

Please visit Diary of an Anxious Black Woman for an update, I can hardly speak right now.

Update from Mamita Mala:

SATURDAY 4/26:
9:00am
Rally at Rev Sharpton’s House of Justice
106 W. 145th Street, near Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.

12:00pm
Harlem Revolutionary Club at 125 & Frederick Douglas Blvd. or in in Queens at Sutphin Blvd/Archer Ave. stop on E, J, Z trains.  Call 212-691-3345

Tonight Las Comardes held a teleconference to discuss “when and how children should be taught about racism.”

The conference featured the authors of the book That’s Not Fair!: Emma Tenayuca’s Struggle for Justice /¡No es Justo!:La Lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la Justicia
(Wings Press, 2008. Illustrated by Terry Ybañez) and focused on the issues it raised:

This is the first book ever published about the significant Latina civil rights leader (Emma Tenayuca) from the 1930s, who at the tender age of 22, organized twelve thousand pecan shellers in a strike that was to become the first successful action in the Mexican American struggle for political and economic justice. Aimed at readers 6 and up, That’s Not Fair is the April 2008 national Las Comadres Book Selection.

Notes

I came in on the call a little late, therefore my notes are 10 minutes into the conversation. Also, these are not direct quotes, but my best attempt at paraphrasing:

Author Carmen Tafolla/ Sharyll Tenayuca (not sure): When you ask children about the election, do they feel Latinos or women can be president, they are very attuned to what’s going on around them. You get answers like: no, because women are weaker, or it’s illegal for Latinos to be president.

Dr. Rebecca Bigler, UT Professor of Psychology, mentions how white parents are usually very reluctant to talk to their children about racism and racial injustice.

Interviewer Adriana Dominguez asks how we can best introduce the topic of racism and social inequalities to children?

Bigler: We don’t have quite enough research to know. What we do know is you start by introducing topics slowly, without violence, so they aren’t as troubling. Start with cases like Emma’s (good evidence of important change and good outcomes), in a fair and compassionate way, that teaches children about history and also gives them hope.

Bigler: Research shows children do have an awareness for justice at an early age, and you need to be encouraging them to develop attitudes towards social justice. Encourage love of reading, writing and courageousness.

Dominguez: How is the book received among Latino/a families as well as non -Latino/a families?

Tafolla: Very well, with Latino/a children there is a little extra excitement. They ask, “she (Emma Tenayuca) really existed, this is really her picture on the back of the book?”

Bigler: White children who heard the story about racial discrimination often demonstrated a level of guilt; they felt bad about their privileged status. Because of this, I have received hate mail asking, “how dare you make children feel bad about their privilege”

But feeling racial guilt wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. What we found was the initial guilt lead to them feeling connected (to some degree), and toward caring about social justice. Some of the stories might be sad and troubling for children, but what we need to learn is how can we tell these stories in a way where we have good outcomes, and make them feel like there is hope.

Dominquez: What would you like Emma’s legacy to be?

Tafolla: Everyone can make a difference in this world. That’s very reflective of Emma’s voice. Make use of everyone who wants to help. “You can make a difference in your world”

Bigler: Emma’s story shows that heroes are people who see, acknowledge and fight social justice, and those heroes come in all shapes and sizes and genders. It shows that children can be on the look-out for social injustice, and when they see it, they can name it and fight it.

Announcement: The full teleconference will be available on the website in a couple of weeks.

Las Comadres is also starting a book club, which should begin sometime in May. Learning through reading, and practicing what we learn. Hasta luego!

Side Note from Las Comadres:

We ask that you purchase a book and give it to an elementary school of your choice.

In Austin you may purchase the book at the Resistancia Book Store. If you purchase at Resistancia you can give the book in memory of Raul Salinas, our activist compadre who recently passed, and whose life was devoted to issues of justice and fairness.

Resistancia Book Store
1801-A South First St.
Austin, TX 78704
Phone: (512) 416-8885
Email: revolu@swbell.net 

Attention book lovers:
Join us on Thursday April 24th in El Barrio for the launch of La Casa Azul Bookstore’s website.

Event information:
Website Launch Party

Thursday April 24th
6pm - 8pm

Net Plaza
206 E. 116th St.
(near 3rd Ave)
El Barrio, NY 10029

The online store will be set up to allow for national orders and shipping within the continental Unites States.

La Casa Azul Bookstore - Mission:
Inspired by Frida Kahlo’s house, La Casa Azul Bookstore is a place of knowledge, art, creativity and culture. Our mission is to provide the community with contemporary bilingual literature, featuring works by Latino authors.

–
La Casa Azul Bookstore
El Barrio, NY

MYSPACE
lacasaazulbookstore@gmail.com 

Queridas comadres…it’s TELECONFERENCE TIME!

We ask that you consider purchasing the children’s book we selected for April and donating it to an elementary school in your area. In celebration of El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day)on April 30, we are combining an interview with authors of a children’s bilingual book on activism with a university professor studying when and how children should be taught about racism. This is a different format just for the month of April. In May we’ll be starting our partnership with the American Association of Publishers and Borders, Inc. Reading With Las Comadres where we interview Latina authors about their newly published book and their work.

*

TELECONFERENCE DATE AND TIMES:
DATE: April 24, 2008 / duration approximately 1 hour
TIME: 5:00 PM PST
6:00 PM MST
7:00 PM CST
8:00 PM EST

*

Call in number (long distance charges will apply)
1-712-432-2323 / Access Code: 162718#

That’s Not Fair! / ¡No Es Justo!
by Carmen Tafolla and Sharyll Teneyuca

Illustrated by Terry Ybáñez, Spanish translation by
Carmen Tafolla, Translation editors: Celina Marroquín and Amalia Mondríguez, Ph.D.

http://www.wingspress.com/book.cfm?book_ID=26

*

THE STORY
In the 1920s and 1930s, the pecan shellers of San Antonio, Texas, were some of the lowest-paid workers in the nation. They were all Mexican-Americans, who had fled the revolution in their home country. Pecan shellers worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for as little as six cents a pound. In addition, they had to work in dusty, closed rooms. This made many of them ill. And then, in 1938, their wages were cut in half. They needed someone to be a voice for them, someone both brave and caring. They needed a hero. A young woman, barely twenty-one, answered their call. Her name was Emma.

But Emma Tenayuca was not born a hero of the poor. That’s Not Fair! / ¡No Es Justo! tells how the seeds of Emma’s awareness and activism were sown when she was very young. This story of courage and compassion shows how each of us, no matter how young, can help to make the world more fair for everyone.

*

SOME PERTINENT RESEARCH ON THE TOPIC

White Children More Positive Toward Blacks After Learning About Racism, Study Shows

Challenging the idea that racism education could be harmful to students, a new study from The University of Texas at Austin found the results of learning about historical racism are primarily positive. The study appears in the November/December issue of the journal Child Development.

“There is considerable debate about when and how children should be taught about racism,” says Bigler, director of the university’s Gender and Racial Attitudes Lab. “But little research has examined
elementary-school-aged children’s cognitive and emotional reactions to such lessons.”

TELECONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS

Carmen Tafolla is one of the most anthologized of all Latina writers with work for both adults and children appearing in more than two hundred anthologies. With work translated into Spanish, German, and Bengali, Tafolla has been published in a great variety of genres. Carmen Tafolla has also published five adult poetry books, seven children’s television screenplays, and numerous short stories and articles.

Sharyll Tenayuca is an attorney in San Antonio and the niece of Emma Tenayuca.

UT Professor of Psychology Dr. Rebecca Bigler, director of the University of Texas at Austin , Gender and Racial Attitudes Lab

Interviewed by: Adriana Dominguez is the Executive Editor who manages the children’s division of HarperCollins’ Latino imprint, Rayo. Before joining Harper, she was Críticas magazine’s Children’s Review Editor. She has many years of publishing experience in the children’s market, and has worked for most major publishers: WEBSITE

 

On average, women working full-time, year-round earn only 77% of men’s earnings as a whole. And for women of color the problem is even bigger. African American women earn only 68% and Latinas just 57% of the average earnings of all males.

Worse, a poll from the AAUW Educational Foundation reports that 29% of people questioned think that young women aren’t promoted because employers assume that they will leave their jobs if they have children.

Find out what you can do to support pay equity at www.aauw.org/payequity

 Some context.

I wrote what I wrote in response to all those feminists who, during the Full Frontal Feminism blow up, kept insisting over and over again that if “WOC” want book deals, they should “go get it them themselves.” That publishers weren’t skimming through the blogosphere looking for just anybody who’s a good writer. That you had to work for a book deal—you had to fight for it, show a little initiative, stop complaining, just do it. JUST. DO. IT.

As if there were no such thing as racism—as if there was no such thing as racism that is alive and well and present in the most cellular of spaces. As if simply opening a proposal and viewing the odd name at the top of the proposal doesn’t influence how the person reading that name will understand the rest of the proposal.

I wrote what I wrote to all those people, to all those feminists, who insist that short of refusing publication (and what good is that?) there is little to nothing feminists can do to stand in solidarity with other feminists who are not as privileged as they are…

Continue reading

 

The ideas of others are not resources to be plundered. They should be shared, and in the sharing we must give credit where it is due. It’s how we recognize the worth and humanity of others, and ourselves.

*Also read: Team Rainbow and PhysioProf (thanks to magniloquence for the links) and The Curvature

Many of you are familiar with the conflict that has arisen in recent weeks between Seal Press and women of color bloggers, Black Amazon in particular, after she wrote “Fuck Seal Press” in one of her posts. Given that this has been completely misconstrued, and Black Amazon has (honorably) refused to reveal the story that was the catalyst for her comment, it is important for me to come out as the friend Black Amazon was ultimately speaking to on that blog.

An informal meeting with an editor from Seal Press at the WAM conference regarding the proposal for my anthology left me feeling frustrated and deflated. I was not seeking or particularly interested in having them publish the anthology, but merely hoping for advice on my book proposal. The editor, while impressed with the format of the proposal, advised me that anthologies don’t sell, and I should get someone like Gloria Steinem or Katha Pollitt to contribute, even though, as she said, I wouldn’t be able to get access to them. I was struck by the fact that she did not suggest I contact Daisy Hernandez, bell hooks, Andrea Smith, or Alice Walker. I might not have access to them either, of course, but given the intent of the anthology is to highlight the voices of people of diverse backgrounds, especially those we’ve not heard from in other works, I found her comments discouraging.

Afterwards, I had a private conversation about the meeting with a small group of friends, including Black Amazon, in hopes they could help me work through this. They did.

After the conference, Black Amazon posted a blog, toward the end of which she wrote “Fuck Seal Press” as a message to me, as a show of friendship and support. It was not a call for attention, or as bait for Seal Press. In response, I posted the following: “Seal Press has NOTHING on women of color.” This comment was in response to BA’s message of support, and not – as many mistakenly assumed – that Seal Press does not publish women of color. Still, as the comment thread on the post shows, this is the direction the conflict took, and not without justification.

No one (especially Black Amazon) could have expected the backlash that came from this, or that Seal Press would ever find their way over to her blog, let alone respond.

Since then, many people have been hurt by this, especially Black Amazon. For that, and to her, I apologize. She is someone who truly understands sisterhood, and the invectives hurled at her are unfounded and unfair.

It is important to point out the reason I have largely kept silent about this. I felt a responsibility to the 50-plus contributors to my project; they do not deserve to be dragged into something they had no part in or any control over. I refrained from entering the debate for their sake.

My initial reaction was to make a call to Seal Press. Black Amazon advised against it, as she did not want me to risk the project. That is not the reaction of an “angry, snarky, WOC,” as she has been called, but of a friend and a sister. Besides, by that time the debate had evolved into the question of women of color, respect (or the lack thereof) for their work, and the general inability/fear of many white feminists to engage women of color.

To be clear, I am under no illusion that Seal Press has any responsibility to me, or to any woman of color. They can publish what they want, and ultimately will publish what they think will sell. If women of color are not part of that equation, or can be only under certain conditions, that is completely up to them.

Despite the risk to those associated with the anthology, it is more important to me that I set the record straight and assume responsibility for a conversation that started with me, and, I can only hope, will end here with me.

This is not Black Amazon’s burden to shoulder, and it is not fair that I remain anonymous while she takes the heat. Black Amazon acted out of friendship and sisterhood. In the end, that’s what all of us want. In a life without books, press, or fame – which is life most of the time – it’s our friends that hold us up. That’s what she did for me, and I’m eternally thankful for it.

Adele

 Picture of La Mujer Construye (Women Who Build) 

How long shall they kill our (leaders)

While we stand aside and look?

Some say it’s just a part of it:

We’ve got to fulfill de book…

Redemption Song, Bob Marley 

 

Brownfemipower, thank you for leading the way!

~Amor y luz en su viaje

 P.S. - Thank you, Aaminah, for being the love we want to see

 I’m taking a weekend break to get some work done.

I want to concentrate on writing a recap on the Sex Trafficking Conference, which was a full weekend with many important lessons and painful realities.

I will be attending Race Sex Power: New Movements in Black and Latina/o Sexualities and Labor Notes: Rebuilding Labor’s Power and I want to be fully present for them.

I also want to read the two Hermana, Resist zines Noemi gifted me and take them in silently.

Lastly, I’m planning a nice long conversation with my brilliant niece. And there’s nothing I anticipate more!

Have a great weekend!