Please help me welcome an awesome new addition to the feminist blogosphere: Laura Sundstrom, who just recently graduated from Beloit College in May 2009 with a B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies, can now be found musing at: Adventures of a Young Feminist.
I’m always psyched to see more young feminism out there online. And hey, Laura just joined SHE WRITES, so extra props for her! There’s now a few different bloggers groups over there and I’m jazzed….
You may have noticed that it’s been a little quiet over here. I’m finally resurfacing–breathlessly!–to tell you why.
On Monday, Kamy Wicoff, Nancy Miller, and I launched a new social networking site for women writers called SHE WRITES. You can find us at: www.shewrites.com. OMG. I’m struck with how fast this is catching on. We just hit 400 members and it’s only been 48 hours!!!!!
If you are a woman who writes (and that means MANY of you!!!), please join. It’s easy, it’s free, and it’s an enactment of the philosophy that I’ve always subscribed to here at Girl w/Pen: a woman writing need not write alone.
I’ll be migrating much of the consulting I’ve been doing — writing coaching, workshop leading, etc — to SHE WRITES. Look for future workshops under the SHE NEEDS HELP tab. The site is changing every minute, as more and more people sign on and get active over there. I hope you’ll join us and come see what it’s all about. The GWP community has been so sustaining for me over the years it’s been here, and in so many ways, YOU, the GWP community, are what led me to want to throw my all into the creation of an even wider community of women writers.
There’s so much more to say about this exciting new project, and I’ll share it all soon, but in the meantime, let’s just say I’ll see you there! Â And, of course, here at GWP.
I will look for some of ya’ll there! Where you can find me:
Everything You Need to Know about Blogging and Why
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
CUNY Graduate Center, Room 9206
NYC
After teaching another fab group of writers up at the Woodhull Institute (welcome, Writers 10!), and whooping it up in Princeton with my WomenGirlsLadies panel last week (thank you Amada! thank you Chloe!), I’m ready to announce the next gig. Here tis:
Everything You Need to Know about Blogging and Why: Do you want a more interactive online presence for your organization or your own work?  Interested in attracting new (and younger!) audiences to your cause? This interactive workshop will demystify the blogosphere, explain why blogging is central to one’s digital platform these days, and teach you how to start a blog of your own.
The workshop will be offered as part of the National Council for Research on Women’s Annual Conference. More info on all that right here.
Slate’s new online magazine “written mostly by women, but not just for them,” Double X, is launched! Do check it out:
An article in the Business section of today’s NYTimes notes that “Although the editors describe the site as a savvy, intellectual, feminist antidote to glossy, celebrity-obsessed women’s magazines, it will not turn away male readers, which they say have made up 40 percent of the blog’s readership.”
Um, maybe that’s because men can be feminists too? For more on THAT topic, run, don’t walk, to go get your copy of our very own Shira Tarrant’s Men and Feminism
Happy reading, all around 🙂
I’m here setting up for my workshop, Blogging Demystified, with Courtney Martin, waiting for participants to walk in and testing the Interwebs. Looks like it works!
Meanwhile, here’s a pic from dinner last night. From left to right: Courtney, Jacki Zehner, Barbara Dobkin, Lynda Goldstein, and Chris Grumm. What a group…!
More on all this when I return, I promise. Off to start the show.
It’s conference season!
I’m giving a blogging workshop next Thursday at the Women’s Funding Network conference in Atlanta (“Investing in Women: Worldwide Returns”) along with Courtney Martin, and another one (solo) at the National Conference for Research on Women conference on June 12th most likely… More bout that one as it gets closer. In the meantime, here’s info on the NCRW conference — there’s still time to sign up!
IGNITING CHANGE: ACTIVATING ALLIANCES FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
WHEN: June 10-12, 2009
WHERE: CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York City
WHY: Join leaders from business, academia, philanthropy, advocacy, and policy communities to devise collective strategies for leadership and change.
Space is limited! To register, click here
Hosted by: The Center for the Study of Women and Society CUNY Graduate Center
See you there!
(Sorry bout all the crazy fonts here…)
We’re in the first panel, organized by Kathleen Gerson. Panelists are Bob Drago, Shirley Hill, Jennifer Glass, and Erin Kelly.
For a blow by blow of who’s saying what in real time, check out Veronica (who is sitting right in front of me!) over at Viva la Feminista. She’s using this very cool software called Cover It Live. (Man, that lady teaches me EVERYTHING!)
What a serendipitous day for feminism this is turning out to be.
As I was being prepped in the green room at Rockefeller Center for this morning’s Today Show appearance (and stuffing myself with donuts and potato chips), I saw friend/mentor/icon Suzanne Braun Levine in the next chair over! Suzanne was there to do the segment just before mine, in connection with her hot new book Fifty is the New Fifty. Then, between Suzanne’s segment and mine, Kathie Lee bade a happy 75th birthday to our mutual friend (again for me, make that friend/mentor/icon) Gloria Steinem. And now today, in honor of Gloria’s birthday, the Ms. Foundation for Women has launched an online social change campaign called Outrageous Acts for Simple Justice, a project designed to share and support outrageous acts in the cause of simple justice for women, families and communities.
How much better could this day get?!
Well check it out: Outrageous Acts is already catching on. Kymberly Blackstock of Alaska used Facebook to organize a rally protesting Governor Palin’s rejection of federal economic stimulus money; in a video, Claire Tran of FIERCE, a Ms. Foundation grantee in New York City, suggests that viewers commit an outrageous act by signing onto their white paper advocating for access to public space on the Hudson River Park for LGBTQ youth of color; and Jacki Zehner, a women’s leadership and workplace commentator brought her outrageous act to CNN when she appeared to discuss the impact of the economic crisis on women while wearing a Wonder Woman t-shirt. (That’s my Jacki – go Purse Pundit go!)
I feel like so many of us are experiencing the current crisis as, among other things, opportunity. Says Ms. Foundation prez Sara Gould, “The times demand this kind of creative action….[P]eople are poised to create change from the grassroots. And on the heels of an historic presidential election, we’re reminded of just how effective outrageous acts — from bake sales and buttons to signatures and songs — can be.â€
For Gloria’s take on it all, watch the video, here.
And for a celebratory piece on Gloria’s birthday, see here (Thanks to my other favorite Gloria–Fedlt–for the heads up!)
Carol Jenkins of the Women’s Media Center introduces Laura Flanders. Here are snippets from Laura:
Laura Flanders: “The second anniversary of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: Every word of that merits celebrating! How many institutions do we have in NYC with a woman’s name? (Applause)
You can learn a lot from women’s history. I did a column recently on obituaries. Did you read the one for Conchita Cintron. She was a bullfighter who died last week at age 86. She was once described as ‘a timid blue-eyed girl but she kills bulls without a cringe’. Lesson 1: Don’t cringe when there are 12,000 pounds of BULL coming at you! I was recently reading an article in The New Yorker by Ariel Levy about Lamar Van Dyke and the lesbian separatist movement. Van Dyke herself is a woman who is doing what she pleases for as long as she remembers. Now, that’s not easy to come by. But wasn’t that the idea?
In the rest of today’s program, we’ll talk about what we’ve learned, how far we’ve come, what are the challenges, and what is THE IDEA today. Two ‘sparkers’ will help set us off in this conversation: Esther Broner, and Ai-jen Poo….
