THE BIG SHE-BANG TURNS 7

Crossposted with For the Birds

Today is the 7 year anniversary of the first-ever BIG SHE-BANG, organized by the Long Island Womyn's Collective. For a history of the Big She-Bang, check out Beth Puma and Kate Wadkins' "I Got a Proposition Goes Something Like This: A Brief History of the Big She-Bang." To see how the festival has changed and grown through For the Birds, check out our archives.

Note: I also have some fun, old images of Long Island Womyn's Collective projects & events on this blog. Check them out here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JODI

I almost posted this on Facebook yesterday, in remembrance, as a Happy Birthday gesture. Usually I post things there that I think everyone should see, since although my account is private, my friends respond most on Facebook. I want my friends to respond to Jodi; I want everyone to see her words.

"hey ladies...
i'm sorry it took so long to reply to this but it's been something i've been meaning to do for awhile. tonight i was also feeling nostalgic...stalking all you girls on myspace seeing what's been going on in your lives..and the lives of friends of the liwc... hopalong, the good good, jenny owen youngs, cara beth, chugga chugga... among others. i totally miss working with all you... and i think it's about time we all get together...possibly throw up an liwc pyramid sometime in the near future... but let's talk, i miss you girlies.
xo, jodi"

These are the last words I can find from her in my e-mail accounts. Sadly, they are from about eight months before she passed. It is safe to say that we spoke on the phone after that at some point, maybe we exchanged e-mails that I can't find about whether or not we'd make it to a potluck at Beth's. I've written about Jodi before, I conjured her energy and was enveloped in my own sadness while planning and carrying out the Big She-Bang 3 in her honor.

Jodi lives in many of our living rooms, in posters on the wall, photographs in albums, in memorial zines on our bookshelves. In a more real way, she has inspired us, she lives in our hearts and molds our decisions. Jodi's death tore me up so much. It helped me realize mortality tangibly, for the first time in my life, and it showed me that this invincibility that many of my friends had come to believe was our own was entirely false. That we could lose someone who was so bright, cheerful, insightful, and real, was an arrow through my heart. The kind of instance where all you can think is that everything is unfair in the world; why Jodi? Of course, the great and expected truth is that I learn(ed) as much from Jodi in her death as in her life.

Reading this e-mail from her made me nostalgic. So many of the women we worked with in the Long Island Womyn's Collective have dispersed to different states, different projects, different lives. Yet I remain in touch with many of them. It saddens me that I was a year behind Jodi--our lives' paths would not cross again. My first "big girl job" came a year after hers and Beth's, and as I transitioned from graduating college to living my own life, Jodi's passing would be a bridge. I never wanted this bridge, and I have done my best to honor her in her passing as I don't think I did enough in her life. If she were alive now we would work side by side, infusing our work with equal bits love and biting humor, so I carry her in all that I do just like I would have otherwise.

Us girlies miss you too, Jodi. Always.

The 5th Annual BIG SHE-BANG

Interview I did with Jesse Sposato in the Greenpoint Gazette.

full-size photos at my flickr (click on them!)

MESSAGE FROM KATHLEEN #2

FEMINISTS WE'RE CALLING YOU

SAVE THE DATE: THE BIG SHE-BANG V

[flier by Lauren Measure]

THE BIG SHE-BANG IV: Details Confirmed!

I just posted everything you need to know about The Big She-Bang IV on the For the Birds blog here.

ON JODI TILTON

I contributed to a zine about my dear friend Jodi, with the excerpt that I read on the panel we organized in her rememberance at last year's Big She-Bang. The zine will be available this week, printed by Eberhardt Press.

Here's the post about it on the Team Colors blog: http://teamcolors.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/new-zine-jodi-tilton-one-of-the-womyn-the-world-requires/

There is a PDF of the zine available here: http://www.scribd.com/full/16909776?access_key=key-1wz2rgok6bdp2d14fh6y

FOR THE BIRDS

Myself and the other folks who brought you The Big She-Bang have finally settled on a moniker. We are now known as FOR THE BIRDS. We are a feminist collective & distro. We will book your feminist event, art show, punk show, whatever. We will distro wherever. Just get in touch!

Also: I drew the logo above.

::::::::::::::: MISSION STATEMENT :::::::::::::::

FOR THE BIRDS is a New York City-based feminist collective. We are interested in establishing alternative spaces that promote the creative interests of women and women-identified community members. For The Birds is a collaborative group of organizers with backgrounds in feminist social justice work and various artistic pursuits. Through DIY feminist cultural activism, For The Birds aims to empower and support radical women of action.

As a collective, we intend to connect with other groups to create a feminist network through a collaborative blog, shared resources, semi-annual zine, and future events. We aim to foster more of a visible presence of women at community events with a distro featuring feminist voices. We plan to host events like skill-shares, discussions, forums, art and music shows.

We are the collective that brought you The Big She-Bang 3. More information on that can be found at http://myspace.com/thebig_shebang

If you are interested in organizing or collaborating with us, please get in touch!

FORTHEBIRDSCOLLECTIVE@GMAIL.COM
HTTP://MYSPACE.COM/FORTHEBIRDSNYC

I've Got A Proposition, Goes Something Like This: A Brief Herstory of The Big She-Bang

Beth and I have been working on this for weeks now. I think this is the final copy which will be going in the Big She-Bang zine. [Poster by No Guts No Glory]

I've Got a Proposition, Goes Something Like This:
A Brief Herstory of The Big She-Bang

by Beth Puma and Kate Wadkins

In late 2003 there had been many rumblings of the girls and women in the Long Island DIY punk and activist community wanting to organize on their own. Modern Times Collective had been around for years, ideas for Freespace were quickly developing, and the Freewheel Bike Collective had really taken off. A lot of folks were engaged in a variety of projects at this time, ranging from animal rights to various social justice groups. The younger women involved in the community wanted to organize in a more direct way, to deal not only with all of the social justice issues they were fighting for, but for their own space in this creative and active community.

A small group of girls decided that they wanted to focus on self-taught, skill-share workshops as a stepping stone to self-empowerment. They began with a series of skill-shares on knitting/crocheting, playing guitar and bass, silkscreening, and bike maintenance, among others. They met in each other's houses and in Argyle Park, Babylon. As with many other feminist collectives, their shared experience with their immediate community brought about common frustrations. Similar to consciousness-raising groups of the 70's and riot grrrl meetings of the 90's, they started to work from their own experience, and identify the sexism they experienced on an every day level in their surrounding community. These women named their group the Long Island Womyn’s Collective (LIWC).

THE BIG SHE-BANG 3

HELLO FRIENDS,

So myself and a collective of girls, including former LIWC members, have been planning for The Big She-Bang 3. This is a celebration that the LIWC used to throw annually, and a whole group of new ladies has brought new life to. THE BIG SHE-BANG 3 will take place on August 9th this year at ABC No Rio in Manhattan.

Here's the info: http://myspace.com/thebig_shebang

Friend us!