Coming this week on HuffPo: I just sent off a post, “Sex Wars Old and New,” commenting on the 103 (!) comments posted in response to Courtney Martin’s interview with me on AlterNet last week (“Why Feminists Fight”). Let me know what you think. It should be up soon.

Also this week: Watch for an excerpt of Sisterhood, Interrupted in the next edition Mothers Movement Online!

If I weren’t going to be in Illinois at the National Women’s Studies conference on June 29, I’d be at the Knitting Factory in NYC that night, here:

Rock for Young Women will feature musical performances by Bouva, Boyskout, Tamara Fishman, Frank Hoier, and Receptor. Molly Kelleher and Maryann Schaub of Broad Comedy will present “It’s Great To Wait,” written by Katie Goodman. The evening will also include several spoken word performances.

Tickets at the door will be $20 with half of the proceeds going to GEMS (an organization that provides preventive and transitional services to young women, ages 12-21 years, who are at risk for or involved in sexual exploitation and violence) and the other half to the New York metro chapter of the Younger Women’s Task Force (which does great work on reproductive rights, voter education, and other issues important to young women in New York City). Doors open at 7 p.m. at the Knitting Factory (74 Leonard Street). Purchase advance tickets from the Knitting Factory for $15.

Thanks to Patti Binder for passing it on. And to someone named Nathan, whose graphic (above) I stole. I’m very into hot pink today – I’m doing my first bookstore reading for Sisterhood, Interrupted, which has a hot pink cover. Fashion advice needed: Is it tacky to wear a dress that matches your book?

It’s real – and I’m jazzed. Starting this fall, I’ll be touring campuses and elsewhere as part of an intergenerational panel with three AMAZING fellow writers/speakers:

Courtney Martin (author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters)

Kristal Brent Zook (author of Black Women’s Lives: Stories of Pain and Power)

Gloria Feldt (author of The War on Choice and former president of Planned Parenthood)

Together, we feel it’s time that women of all ages talked and listened to one another instead of rehashing the same complaints in isolation. We want to reopen the dialogue about women’s lives, power, entitlement, and the future of feminism, but this time, with a rich, cross-generational understanding. If you’re connected to a campus or organization and are interested in bringing us your way, please contact Taryn at taryn.kutujian@gmail.com.

As much fun as I’m having over here, I hate it that geography and book tour are keeping me from being with Dadio (pictured left, with yours truly) on Father’s Day this year. To ease my angst, I’ve been soaking up a bit of the bloggy goodness going on around Dad’s Day this year as I get ready to hit the road. A few highlights:

With trademark savvyness, Cali Yost at Work + Life Fit blog reminds us work/life negotiations are an “everyone issue” and reports on a just-released Monster.com survey where 58% of fathers felt their employers should be more considerate of their needs as working dads, and a majority appreciate having a flexible work schedule.

Lovely piece via Women’s eNews on the evolution of the father-daughter bond…

Interesting “resource kit” page for journalists covering same-sex parents, over at G.L.A.A.D.’s website, via Pseudo-Adrienne over at Liberal Feminist Bias…

Congrats to Feminist Dad on the birth of Edie Andrew, and kudos to him in general! I love this guy. You’ve gotta check it out…

And P.S. Heartfelt congratulations to Michael Heller on becoming a dad this week!

I’m so excited to go for dinner with the women of NOW before my reading at Border’s in Jersey on Monday! Judith Glick Buckman, one of the founders of the Alice Paul Chapter – which is one of the oldest and largest chapters, I believe – wrote a very moving letter about intergenerational issues, and her experiences. Here’s Judy:

When I was 7 months pregnant I attended a National NOW conference. My daughter, who is now 31, literally got feminism with her mother’s milk and attended many demonstrations in her stroller holding a picket sign.

My greatest fear is that she, like so many women of her generation, assume the battles have been won and due to this complacence, their tenuous right to choose will be pulled out from under them before they know what hit them, much less have the skills or the willingness to counter attack.

I’ve been an activist with South Jersey NOW—Alice Paul chapter for more than 30 years. The good news AND the bad news, is that we are a multi-generational group of women and men from the teen-aged years to the 80s. While we do our best to work together to ensure equal rights, sometimes that goal seems more difficult to achieve than our ongoing battles against the conservative forces in this country.

Based on Deborah Siegel’s insight into this situation and her determination to serve as an interpreter between the second and third waves of feminism, I am excited and confident that her book will be an invaluable guide enabling us to bridge that divide.

When I was the age my daughter is now, I had no idea what gifts awaited me through my women’s right activism–nothing else in my life has given me the same sense of power, accomplishment, sisterhood and satisfaction, which I quite literally could not have imagined in my 20’s. Apart from the great changes to society that the second wave has accomplished, the act of fighting the battles has been one of the most positive and enriching forces in my life.

Deborah Siegel’s message is one that all who care about women’s rights, regardless of age, needs to hear. As well as alerting my daughter’s generation that we need to fight the rest of the battles together, my most fervent wish is that Ms. Siegel’s book will teach those of us in the second wave, how to pass the torch in a way that will not extinguish the flame.

Thank you, Judy! How I loves me that metaphor – passing the torch without extinguishing the flame….Much food for thought. Readers, your thoughts?

Coming up for air (still high on cloud nine) to catch up on this and that and reality for a moment! I’m reading at Border’s in Marlton New Jersey on Monday at an event sponsored by the South Jersey Alice Paul Chapter of NOW. then heading to DC on Weds for a PBS taping and a reading at Olsson’s (1 DuPont Circle) on Weds night, so if you’re in Jersey, Philly, or DC, I would SO LOVE to see ya. More info bout upcoming events on my website.

So this just in from my hometown paper, The Chicago Tribune, sent via Laura over at Catalyst:

Like bickering relatives at the end of a long holiday dinner, women have been arguing about whether the gender revolution is over and more mothers are choosing to leave work and stay home with the children.

Now experts who shared their latest research at [the Council on Contemporary Families] conference in May say that far from reverting to more traditional sex roles, women and men are becoming more alike in their attitudes toward balancing life at home and at work.

Not crazyloving the bickering relatives bit, but, well, I can’t say it ain’t so. The article, by the very savvy Patricia Cohen, goes on to discuss how men’s and women’s desires when it comes to work/life negotiations are more similar than different, debunking the old Venus/Mars theory of gender that still dominate popular culture on this front. Explains Cohen,

Of course, most people recognize that mothers are working more and doing less housework, and men are working less and doing more housework and child care than a generation ago. But what much of the recent research has tried to tease out is more information on attitudes and desires. And so far, the evidence points toward men and women having increasingly similar goals.

Let’s hope this evidence, this reality, keeps making headline news. Glad it’s made its way, for instance, from the Times to the Trib of my heartland. As for the bickering, I know I’m not alone in longing for the day when women stop fighting each other, pop culture stops polarizing gender roles, and we all start fighting together for things like paid leave and subsidized childcare and eldercare and better healthcare and all that good shit. I mean, stuff.

The article originally appeared on May 31 in The New York Times. In case you missed it the first time, check the rest out here.

I am so excitedly overwhelmed at the response yesterday. Profound gratitude to all who have sent me such kind words of enthusiasm and support! People are starting to ask how I think we might foster better and rich conversations across generations of feminists. So here is my initial response:

1. Host or gather a group of women, girls, and grrls across the generations and use the DISCUSSION GUIDE in the back of the back of Sisterhood, Interrupted to spark conversations about our differences, our similarities, the unfinished business of feminism, and how we move forward from here.

2. Take a younger/older feminist to LUNCH! Do it today. Connections are far best when they’re one-on-one.

3. If you’re an academic wanting to join the more popular conversation about feminism and add nuance and you have a book that you think could go trade, take my online course this fall, “MAKING IT POP: TRANSLATING YOUR IDEAS FOR TRADE“ (more details on that soon, via Girl w/Pen email list)

4. If you can, participate in a LEADERSHIP RETREAT at the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership. I’m a Fellow there, and we offer leadership retreats for women in their 20s/30s, another one for women over 50, and many, of course, that are intergenerational. (Scholarships are available.)

5. Stay current and in touch by reading FEMINIST BLOGS (if unfamiliar, check out my blogroll, for a gateway). They provide to-the-minute coverage on wide-ranging topics and are places where rich intergenerational discussion, ideally, can begin.

6. Send me suggestions of your own and I promise to post them here. Or join my Facebook group and start dialogue there.

Thank you again, and happy reading!! I look forward to continuing the conversation.

Ok, I’m more than a little psyched – PUB DAY IS HERE!! This morning I was carrying a copy of Sisterhood, Interrupted (which Marco has started to refer to for some reason as “Sisterrupted”) as I was waiting in line at Starbucks and the woman behind me asked “Is that book good? I like the title” and I got to say, “I wrote it!” Very fun way to start the day. That, and with a link to the awesome Courtney Martin’s piece on my book in AlterNet today. Also going live today is an interview by the amazing ladies over at the Center for New Words.

I forgot to mention yesterday how inspired I was by the Annual Spring Reading I went to on Sunday for Girls Write Now. Those girls have got it going on. The store (B&N at Astor Place) was jam packed, and the girls–all in their teens–read their heartfelt, beautiful, painful, poignant, courageous writing to the crowd. The fearless and ever-inspiring Jessica Valenti kicked it off. Congrats Patti and Maya and all the others over at GWN on such a stupendous event! And thank you for giving this grown up girl renewed energy and inspiration as I launch into this week!

Sadly, I can’t make this reading (hey Marco, when it’s comics, is it a showing?) tonight at Bluestockings Book Store down there on the Lower East Side. But I urge those who can and are looking for fun to go. Congratulations, Mikhaela & Masheka! I can’t wait to get my hands on your new books.

My book Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild officially goes on sale tomorrow (gulp) and people have been asking (bless their hearts!) how they can help. Here are some suggestions:

1. BUY THE BOOK!

2. Tell someone else to buy the book, or buy it for your mother / daughter / sister / friend (it might make a strange Father’s Day present, but hey, why not! Hey Dad – guess what you’re getting this year!)

3. Write about it – on your blog, in a note to your mother/daughter, on the bathroom wall…

4. Come out to a reading, or tell friends, sisters, and aunts about a reading in the cities I’m going to (events posted here)

5. Host or gather a group of women, girls, and grrls across the generations and use the discussion guide in the back of the book to spark conversations about our differences, our similarities, the unfinished business of feminism, and what we all can do…!

And thank you, Girl with Pen readers, for all your support. It means the world to me that people are excited to read the book! You bigtime make my day. You do. I really mean that.