Flier by Daniela Capistrano

We’re so excited for our next event, co-organized with POC Zine Project & Barnard Zine Library on Wednesday, November 16th. You can RSVP on Facebook.

Wednesday, November 16 · 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Barnard College
307 Milbank Hall (3rd floor)
North end of campus
3009 Broadway
New York, NY 10027

The People of Color (POC) Zine Project, Barnard Zine Library and For The Birds Collective are excited to announce a zine reading/community event featuring poc zinesters with diverse backgrounds in zine culture and activism. This is an ALL AGES event, so spread widely!

We’ll be adding more details to this event listing, but here are the confirmed readers and details:

MIMI THI NGUYEN (EVOLUTION OF A RACE RIOT)
http://mimithinguyen.com/home.html

OSA ATOE (SHOTGUN SEAMSTRESS)
http://wemakezines.ning.com/profile/ShotgunSeamstress

JAMIE VARRIALE VELEZ (ROCK AND THE SINGLE GIRL)
http://rockandthesinglegirl.blogspot.com/

DANIELA CAPISTRANO (BAD MEXICAN)
http://www.danielacapistrano.com/

MARIAM BASTANI (MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL)
http://maximumrocknroll.com/

JORDAN ALAM
http://thecowation.blogspot.com/

BRING YOUR ZINES!
We are encouraging folks to bring any zines they want to share, sell or trade. We’ll have space to do that.

LIVETWEET: #poczines
We’ll be sharing details in real time on Twitter @poczineproject, so feel free to follow along and send us your questions and comments with #poczines!

VENUE INFORMATION

Milkbank Hall is on the north end of the Barnard College campus. There
will be signs posted to guide you to the 3rd floor location.

Barnard College information:
http://www.diigo.com/user/barnardlibjenna/barnard%20directions

RELATED LINKS

Barnard Zine Libary: http://zines.barnard.edu/
Barnard’s zines are written by women (cis- and transgender) with an emphasis on zines by women of color. We collect zines on feminism and femme identity by people of all genders. The zines are personal and political publications on activism, anarchism, body image, third wave feminism, gender, parenting, queer community, riot grrrl, sexual assault, trans experience, and other topics.

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

POC ZINE PROJECT: https://www.facebook.com/pages/POC-Zine-Project/304152466201
We want to make it easier for POC (People of Color) zine fans and their supporters to find a diverse selection of zines made by POC. Zines are a vital component in the long tradition of self-publication. They share knowledge and experiences that supplement (and often contradict) the information that other sources distribute, encouraging free thought. There are many valuable zine collections in the United States (many accessible online) but none that are devoted to curating POC zines. POC Zine Project’s mission is to makes ALL zines by POC easy to find, share, and distribute.

ANY QUESTIONS, COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS
info@poczineproject.org

FTB would like to announce the next event in the Birds of Summer Series: A benefit show to celebrate “The Worst”–a compilation zine exploring contributors’ experiences with grief and loss from radical, D.I.Y., and alternative viewpoints.  The show will help to raise money to cover printing costs for the zine, which has sold nearly 1500 copies since its inception in 2008.  There will be music, readings, snacks, awesome raffle items, and even a puppet show!  Provided that by Saturday, September 3rd, everyone is safe, dry, and mobile again after the hurricane, we’d love to welcome everyone to come out and have a good time supporting a zine which seeks to build community around the universal (and often difficult) experience of loss.

Details below:

“Who’d ya lose & How ya Dealin’?”:
A benefit show for The Worst: Compilation Zine on Grief and Loss

Saturday September 3, 2011
Death by Audio // 49 S. 2nd St. between Kent & Wythe
L to Bedford or B62 to Driggs/S. 2nd
ALL AGES // NO BYOB
$6-10 Sliding Scale
Doors @ 8pm

FEATURING:
Bands:
Bridge and Tunnel
Worriers
Slingshot Dakota

Readings by:
Cynthia Schemmer
Tommy Pico
Maria Arettines
Sarah Hanks
Kathleen McIntyre
and more!

Tabling by:
For the Birds Collective
Birdsong Collective

Puppetry by:
Geppetta Whimsy-Core Puppet Theater

Why discuss grief processing on a feminist blog? For me, working towards an authentic, community-based model of grief processing is an inherently feminist act.  On a basic level, radical feminism seeks empowerment for those who are subjugated or harmed by the patriarchal capitalist mainstream.  As we are socialized into this system, we are often taught to suppress or contain our emotions and feelings lest we be labeled “hysterical,” “bitchy,” “weak,” or “too much.”  And yet, racism, sexism, homophobia, able-ism and other structural inequalities in our society justifiably invoke outrage in anyone who dares to expose or work against injustice.  We are told, as usual, that we cannot trust our own voices, feelings, and experiences of the everyday losses that those holding power in our society depend upon to maintain control.

Often, our reactions to the deaths of important people in our lives are forced into specific templates or time frames that don’t always reflect our true needs.  We may experience few instances of genuine support amidst the hospitals, Hallmark cards, and “Stages of Grief” we are supposedly moving through.  This repression and denial of grief inhibits authentic communications from occurring around the universal experience of loss and alienates us from one another during times when we may need other people the most.  To claim our grief—to claim that our relationships with each other matter–within this climate of isolation and denial is feminism in action.  Any method by which we can reclaim our authentic selves results in empowerment and creates a space for more of us at the collective table (yes, even we who grieve, we who struggle with illness and chronic pain, who have survived sexual assault, addiction, intimate partner violence, the list goes on. . . )

In her book, Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World, the wise eco-anarcha-feminist Pattrice Jones explains that feelings must be spoken in order for healing to occur.  Noting that language is an inherently social activity by which we communicate meaning to others, she concludes: “one general principle of good emotional health is to talk about your experiences and feelings” (38).   The Worst seeks to provide a space for us to practice making meaning out of chaos by trying to find words for what we have lived.  The process of writing or speaking our truths is itself a healing process, and enacts our feminist refusal to collude with the denial of our emotions.

The dual purpose of the zine is to help us become more comfortable with providing support for those who are grieving, something we are rarely taught.  Words are not only spoken and written but also heard and read.  Jones continues: “one way to help create a healthy . . . community is to listen with empathy when other people talk about their experiences and feelings” (38).   Becoming an active witness to other’s loss narratives is an essential part of community healing.  This entails welcoming conversations about loss that are usually deemed taboo: transforming our “worst” experiences into something from which we can and will recover together.

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS ON ADDICTION AND RECOVERY

Substance: On Addiction and Recovery is a collection of people’s experiences with addiction and recovery in radical and/or marginalized communities. Not just a text to break the silence, Substance is an opportunity for those affected by substance abuse to make meaning of our lives and create opportunities for lasting social change. Substance: On Addiction and Recovery will be a book that transcends the mainstream discourse regarding addiction and recovery and forges new pathways towards healing and the reclamation of our lives.

I am open to essays, poetry, personal narratives, photography, art, comics, collage, and more.

Please be in touch with questions and submission ideas: substancebook at gmail dot com!

Potential topics:

• personal narratives of addiction and/or recovery  •  support groups • radical sobriety • harm reduction • silence and stigma • withdrawal and detoxification • the intersections of race/class/sexual orientation/gender identity/disability status and addiction • creating and sustaining community support networks • how addiction intersects with activism, sexuality, health, sexual and intimate partner violence, mental illness, privilege, oppression, identity, capitalism, the state, work, and creativity • current or historic examples of community-based groups that focus on the politics of addiction or support of community members • healing from addiction • self-medication • overdose and death • incarceration and criminalization

In addition to pieces by individuals, I’d like to include a few pieces about the work that community-based groups have done to address the politics of addiction and recovery and to support those dealing with substance abuse. If you are a member of such a group, please feel free to write.

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS MARCH 7, 2011

Additionally, if you know anyone who would like to donate funds of any amount to support the printing of this book, please have them contact substancebook at gmail dot com!

Please forward this message on, and spread the word!

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Please submit a sex ed comic to the 4th Issue of Not Your Mothers’ Meatloaf!

Also visit our blog, sexedcomicproject.blogspot.com where you can download all three past issues of the comic for FREE!
as well as view updates on the project, our goals and history, and more.

The theme of this issue is: Health
**NEW** Deadline: November 1st
Guidelines: 8 1/2 x 11, black ink, 1-4 pages

We try to provide themes that will help get you started.  But, it is are just a suggestion and we encourage you to write about anything you feel inspired to share.  And please interpret our new theme broadly; sexual health can range from mental to physical to emotional, from prescription drugs to homeopathic or herbal remedies, from the hospital or the doctor’s office to the bathroom and bedroom.
Remember: Our primary focus is educating youth and each other about important issues surrounding sexuality, safer sex, consent, gender, etc.
Also: Submissions are anonymous unless you put your name on the comic itself.
Email scanned copies to: notyourmothersmeatloaf@gmail.com
Let us know if you need to snail mail hard copies and we will provide you with an address.

Thanks so much! We can’t do it without your incredible stories.
-Saiya and Liza
NYMM editors

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“It’s Down to This” is a new zine compilation that aims to give space to step back, take a deep breath and reflect on where we’re at.

Reflecting on our experiences with community accountability processes, survivor support, or general efforts to cultivate community response to sexual violence- this is a space to talk about our experiences with this work, what we have learned, where we want to go from here, what we feel, what we want others to be able to hear, see, think about, engage with.

It is an attempt to further give voice to our efforts and experiences in doing this work, to give space and voice to silence. To know and hear how we have survived in this work, how we have sustained this work, or why we burned out. To further document our attempts at figuring out what community accountability looks like, or what it even is. To be able to reflect and grow from our mistakes and epiphanies.

SEEKING: stories, essays, interviews, comics, artwork and thoughts reflecting on working around accountability and community response to sexual violence:

What has it looked like? What has it entailed? What could it look like? Who does it involve? In what ways? How is a community responsible? How is a community involved?  What can an accountability process look like? What has it looked like? What works? What doesn’t? What were the fuck-ups, the successes?

*These questions are asked with the assumption that confidentiality will be respected and that stories will not be shared if they are not yours to share.

*The word ‘community’ is used with the awareness that it is often used problematically.

Looking for submissions that:

- explore the importance of accountability and support work as an act of community building and collective liberation, that express the importance of this work within social justice movements.

-reflect on the support, empowerment, recovery and growth that have come out of this work

-reflect on the pain, trauma and frustration of this work or which is inherent in this work.

-develop ideas and methods of sustainability around this work

-look at the social and political contexts in which community accountability and response to sexual violence and partner abuse grows and exists.

-share our stories

Anonymity and confidentiality will be respected.

DEADLINE: extended to December 15th!

For info and submissions contact: responsezine@gmail.com

Feel free to send in ideas/proposals and ask for feedback!

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CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Breaking Boundaries:
Body Politics and the Dynamics of Difference

a Conference at Sarah Lawrence College
Bronxville, New York
March 4-5, 2011

Keynote Speaker:
Marilyn Wann
Fat Activist and Author, Fat!So?

When it comes to “the body,” the definition of normal is fluid and changes across cultures and time. In each context, there are those who have been exploited and oppressed because they do not fit prevailing notions of beauty. This conference will explore the body politics around those with “deviant” bodies.

This conference will address these and other questions:  What are the dominant narratives and perceptions about beauty and bodies? How do these perceptions affect public policy around issues of health, civil rights, education, and accessibility? How do those whose bodies do not fit into the “proper” cultural norms challenge attitudes, laws and perceptions?  How have they negotiated for and found power in unwelcoming environments, both now and in the past? How do the categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, age and disability complicate prevailing ideas about embodiment?  Are there and have there been communities and cultures that have welcomed those whose bodies are currently perceived as deviant in dominant popular discourse?  And, what is the relationship between promoting and continuing the dominant discourse and capitalist consumer culture?

We invite activists, scholars and artists in all fields to propose papers, panels, workshops, performances, and exhibits. Proposals for panels are especially welcomed, but individual papers will also be considered.

Specific topics may include, but are not limited to:
Representations of deviant bodies in popular culture
Social justice and fat and disability activism
Intersectionality:  race, gender, class, sexuality and the body
HAES: Health at Every Size
Stigma
Feminism and the body
Social construction of disability
Objectification and commodification of the deviant body
Fiction and the deviant body
Language and the body
Deviant bodies across cultures and time

DEADLINE DECEMBER 3, 2010

Please email a brief abstract and c.v./resume to:
Tara James
Email: tjames@sarahlawrence.edu
Phone: 914-395-2405

Back in April, I had the pleasure of interviewing Daniela Capistrano, Jane-of-all-trades and founding member of the POC Zine Project for an online publication I edit called RE/VISIONIST. As if I hadn’t loved POC Zine Project and Daniela’s mission enough, I learned even more about her/their rich history of activism through the interview. Recently, at the screening of Afro-Punk we co-hosted with POC Zine Project, Daniela debuted her new zine, BAD MEXICAN!! #1.

Bad Mexican is about Daniela’s family, upbringing, and how her history affects her life now. She gracefully touches on issues like abuse, racism, and being a woman of color with white privilege – all while maintaining her sense of humor. She brings her own experience to the table and sprinkles each story with advice gleaned from her life. Her advice is both for us as individual people and as witnesses within a racist culture. Bad Mexican is in the lineage of perzines by women of color that are at once personal yet have larger implications for the ways we view history and the world around us.

I really love the way that Daniela incorporates family, history (personal and political), and her own life into one telling document; it is a reminder that these experiences are not separate, that in actuality, they are really fluid.

Bad Mexican is available for purchase directly from the author. Daniela is capping this release at 100 copies, so get yours while it’s hot at her Etsy store!

This scholarly attention is a giant step forward for Riot Grrrl as a movement, and to read about this news on The New Yorker’s blog The Book Bench was a real brain bomb. Author of the blog entry, Macy Halford, posits that archiving these papers means Riot Grrrl has passed into history, bringing sad news with the good news. I beg to differ! Something’s been aflutter in the girl punk scene, especially in our very own Brooklyn, NY, for sometime now, as collective bird Kate writes in her article Girls Germs: A Brooklyn Scene Report, printed in the October Issue of Maximum Rocknroll.

As if NYU hadn’t already won our (speed) hearts with this important archival, NYU Press also recently published Alison Piepmeier’s book, Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism. The book is the first of its kind to fully explore the connection between zines and feminism for the past two decades as well as their joint role in our future. Piepmeier is the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the College of Charleston, South Carolina.

IN BIRD NEWS: We will be tabling with our distro at the Anti-Valentines Riot Grrl Cover Band Show!

No, seriously, we’re not going anywhere.