Breaking Boundaries & A Night of Spoken Word

via RE/VISIONIST

This weekend the Sarah Lawrence community will be celebrating Women's History Month with our 13th Annual Women's History Month Conference, Breaking Boundaries: Body Politics & the Dynamics of Difference.  Friday, the conference opens with a plenary featuring Marilyn Wann (author of Fat! So?) then a Night of Spoken Word featuring Maria James-Thiaw and Lara Frater, plus other artists: Ms. MaDonna Awotwi a.k.a. Sankofa the Poet, Jennifer Bartlett, Andrea Baker, Sheila Black, Shaashawn Dial, & David Wolach.

flier by Kate Wadkins | illustration by Cristy Road

A full conference schedule can be found here.

I'll be helping with the conference this weekend (along with fellow R/V staffer Thea Michailides) so I really hope to see you there! Excited about it all.

PHOTO FAVORITES: JANUARY

(Kim Shattuck sings "Rock'n'roll Girl" with Paul Collins' Beat

at Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, January 29, 2011)

WOMEN WHO ROCK

(this one is for ADRIAN)

>> D.I.Y. MEDIA PANEL <<

JAMIE VARRIALE VELEZ

ZINE ARCHIVE & PUBLISHING PROJECT

MAGGIE OWSLEY

SEATTLE FANDANGO PROJECT

SEATTLE, WA

Alice Bag wrote a really great piece about the conference, and I want to echo her sentiment that it was super inspiring and reminded me that we need to continue to do this work. Also, the community in Seattle is like nothing I've ever seen: all of the academic folks are involved in community organizing, and the communal warmth was felt, even as an outsider.

Andreana Clay at QueerBlackFeminist wrote this (also beautifully-written) piece about an incident that went down during the panel discussion, which is important to read; it reminds us white folks that in order to be allies we should LISTEN first. It is amazing the connections that can be drawn between music and communication, feminism and respect, and all the rest. It made me proud to be presenting about my own journey through these issues with my comrade, Jamie. I want to write more on this, but for now, check out the articles I linked above.