On March 26: 7:30 p.m., I’ll be giving a talk at Lafayette College on….Sisterhood Interrupted! (How much fun is this Women’s History Month? I wish EVERY month could be Women’s History Month! Who do we petition?)

LOCATION: Kirby Hall of Civil Rights, Room 104. Co-sponsored by Office of Intercultural Development and Women’s and Gender Studies program. Come one, come all!

(I’ll be in New Paltz today.)

If this isn’t the coolest sounding conference: “Fear of Flying: Can a Feminist Classic Be a Classic?” On March 28, Columbia University will host a half-day conference at which speakers will revisit Erica Jong’s novel, assess the status of women’s writing and feminism in today’s literary scene, and suss out the possibilities of subversion open to contemporary young women writers. I’ll be at WAM!, or else I’d be here.

For those in need of a refresher, 35 years ago Erica Jong’s first novel, Fear of Flying, broke from conventional expectations and freed other women writers to write intelligently and openly about sex. It became an international bestseller. (“Zipless fuck” anyone?)

So Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library acquired a large collection of Erica Jong’s archival material in 2007. And so the Rare Book & Manuscript Library will join the Columbia University Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Center for Research on Women at Barnard College as sponsors. I love it.

Speakers include novelists Min Jin Lee, author of the national bestseller Free Food for Millionaires; Aoibheann Sweeney, author of Among Other Things I’ve Taken Up Smoking; literary and cultural critics Nancy K. Miller, Distinguished Professor, Comparative Literature and English, at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and author of But Enough About Me: Let Me Tell You About My Memoir; Susan Rubin Suleiman, C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France and a professor of comparative literature at Harvard, and author of Subversive Intent: Gender, Politics and the Avant-Garde; Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Director of American Studies, Stanford University, and author of From Fact to Fiction: Journalism and Imaginative Writing in America; and journalist Rebecca Traister, staff writer for Salon.com and a founding contributor to Broadsheet. The afternoon will culminate in a conversation between Erica Jong and Columbia professor and novelist Jenny Davidson, author of Breeding. “Fear of Flying: Can a Feminist Classic be a Classic?” is open to the public and will be held at the Social Hall, Columbia University Union Theological Seminary, 3041 Broadway at 121st Street, in New York City, from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. A reception will follow.

Reproductive Justice: “the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, social, and economic well-being of women and girls, based on the full achievement and protection of women’s human rights” (source: Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice)

SisterSong is putting together a special anthology on Reproductive Justice and is currently accepting submissions for consideration. Submit poetry, art, and manuscripts that have not been previously published, especially work by young writers, to

Guidelines for submission are available at www.sistersong.net. Submissions should include: 1) a completed cover page with identifying information (please remove all headers, footers, notes, and bibliographic entries from manuscript that might identify the authors); 2) three (3) copies of the manuscript formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style (14th edition) and printed on standard U.S. paper (8 1/2 x 11); and 3) three (3) copies of an abstract.
DEADLINE for submissions is no later than June 1st, 2008.

Sistersong adds: “We understand that submitting a manuscript can be a daunting and often intimidating process. We would like to extend our help in putting together your contribution for this anthology. If you have an idea, a sketch of ideas, or a rough draft for consideration please feel free to contact any one of us so that we can help you through the process. For questions about your submission, please contact one of the co-editors below.” Send submissions to one of the following addresses:

Lynn Roberts, PhD, Co-Editor Or Loretta Ross, Co-Editor
Urban Public Health Program SisterSong Women of Color
Hunter College of the Reproductive Health Collective
City University of New York 1237 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., SW
425 East 25th Street, Box 766 Atlanta, GA 30310
New York, NY 10010 (404) 756-2680
(212) 481-5110 (404) 756-2684 fax
(212) 481-5260 fax Loretta@sistersong.net
lroberts@hunter.cuny.edu

This is my very young friend Charlie Zachar, checking out his Easter basket in my sweet hometown Chicago. Couldn’t resist!

On April 14 BUST Magazine will be throwing “The Hysterical Festival Fundraiser”, at Comix Comedy Club, 353 W 14 St (9th Ave) @ 8PM. The cost is $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Buy tix here.

The event will include performances by:

Heather Lawless (Be Kind Rewind, Variety SHAC, HBO’s Flight of the Conchords)
Mel and El (New York Musical Theatre Festival Concert Series at Ars Nova)
Rachel Feinstein (Comedy Central’s “Premium Blend”, Montreal Just for Laughs Festival)
Bridget Everett (At Least It’s Pink at Ars Nova)
Adira Amram (Upright Citizens Brigade, Jane Magazine)
Ophira Eisenberg (Comedy Central’s “Premium Blend”, US Weekly Fashion Police, VH1)

For media inquiries, contact Hillary Buckholtz at: 301-806-5519 or email mshbuck@gmail.com.

Join me, if nearby, for: “The Personal and the Political: Three Generations of Feminism,” an intergenerational panel co-sponsored by the Women’s Studies Program, the History Department, and FMLA.

Monday, March 24, 2008, 5:00-7:00pm, Honors Center, College Hall

Here’s the description:

How have feminists across generations understood the relationship between personal transformation and political activism? What tensions and insights surface from the intersections of personal life and social change? What visions and projects do women share across generations? How is our understanding of the second and third waves of feminism evolving, and what is feminism’s future? Come join three generations of feminists in a discussion about the relationship between personal life and political activism during the last fifty years of the women’s movement!

The panel will feature writer Deborah Siegel, Ph.D., author of Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild (Palgrave Macmillan 2007). Siegel is at the forefront of reexamining the feminist movement and the ways in which younger women are reinventing feminism. [WOW! THAT’S SO NICE OF THEM TO SAY! -A HUMBLED GWP] Contrary to those who have proclaimed the women’s movement dead, or too divided between older and younger generations, Siegel has brought attention to the continuities that cross generational lines. In Sisterhood, Interrupted, Siegel examines how the relationship between individual change and collective action has emerged as a recurring theme for both the second and third waves of feminism. Siegel will be joined by Amy Kesselman, Professor of Women’s Studies at SUNY New Paltz, a historian of second-wave feminism, and one of the founders of the women’s liberation movement of the late 1960’s. Our third panelist, Elizabeth Gross, president of the SUNY New Paltz chapter of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, will join them in what we hope will be a lively discussion that brings together intellectual inquiry, personal reflection and intergenerational understanding.

A bizillion thanks to the hard-working and brilliant Heather Hewett for making this happen. I’m really excited–I write about Amy Kesselman in my book. It’s truly humbling to be on panels with these women, and I’m totally looking forward to meeting Elizabeth, and to the conversation.

Thrilled to announce that a handful of previous GWP guest posters will soon be guest blogging on a regular monthly basis over here. The regulars will include the venerable young’un of WomenGirlsLadies, Courtney Martin, and my feminist dude Marco Acevedo. If you’re interested in being a monthly guest blogger (Virginia? Rebecca? Cathy? Heather? Elizabeth? Jackie? Mel? Elline? Others?), please contact me and we’ll go from there!

When I came home from Michigan this week, a beautiful book–a gift from a publisher in hope of a review–awaited me, to my surprise. It’s called HER STORY: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America, by Charlotte S. Waisman and Jill S. Tietjen, and it’s coming out in April. A rockin Mother’s Day gift for sure.

An illustrated timeline featuring the lives of almost 900 women, with color photos and brief summaries highlighting their achievements, the book highlights women you expect and women you don’t. “Sometimes we chose a woman because her influence and values touched a great number of people; sometimes we picked her because of the reverberations of her accomplishment.” Madeleine Albright wrote the foreword. Thank you, HarperCollins, for sending. I covet this book. I tell you, blogging has its perks.

We had this amazing realization on our tour launch about the book The Bluest Eye by the always deep, complicated, and imaginative novelist Toni Morrison. It turns out that it had a huge impact on three out of the four of us (we’ve charged Gloria with reading it immediately) and our paths towards feminism(s). Here’s a reflection I did on Morrison, her work, and its interaction with feminism over at feministing.
Our realization is complicated, as even Morrison herself doesn’t identify with the feminist label and, in fact, loathes it.

Gorgeous shot of Gloria asking Courtney a tough question about women’s voting power on our panel this week! Lindsay Knake of the Central Michigan Life newspaper wrote a great article about the event (though please note that I said “economic opportunities”; not sure what “racial opportunities,” as the reporter writes, actually means!) The piece begins:

Writer Deborah Siegel and the other panelists of “WomenGirlsLadies” are looking to change the way people view feminism.

And as Courtney notes over at our group blog (WomenGirlsLadies), “Knake’s article was a great improvement over the pre-event coverage which lead with the cringe-worthy: ‘Students can take part in a university-sponsored ‘girl talk’ tonight.’ Pass the nail polish and don’t you dare freeze my underwear girlies!”

But seriously, a thousand thanks to everyone at CMU, especially Jill Taft-Kaufman who made it all happen. It was an absolute pleasure! We’ll soon have a podcast version of the panel, and I promise to post it when we do.