Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY (20 minutes from midtown Manhattan)

Black Power, Black Feminism: Black Women’s Activism and Development of Womanist/Feminist Consciousness in the Era Black Power.

This Conference is FREE and open to the public.

Register at:http://www.slc.edu/womens-history/conference/index.php

Traditionally scholarship on the Black Power era has characterized this time of renewed cultural and political nationalism and activism as an almost exclusively male domain.

This has begun to change. Not only have scholars uncovered a long tradition of black women’s activism before and during the Black Power era, but they have begun reevaluating the entire era as a result. Part and parcel with this period of activism has been the development of a Black feminist consciousness. If scholars have seen the seeds of this consciousness far earlier, the sixties and seventies were notable for organizing that recognized inextricable and complicated ties between categories of race, class, and gender.

This conference seeks to sustain and enhance new scholarship that redefines the era, bringing the work and effort of women to the center.
Friday-Saturday March 7-8, 2008

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Preliminary Schedule (subject to change)
Friday March 7, 2008
4:30-8:00pm: Registration in Heimbold Lobby
6:00-8:00pm – Heimbold 202

Opening Plenary
Welcome – Tara James, Associate Director, Graduate Program in Women’s History, Sarah Lawrence College

Keynote Address – Chana Kai Lee, Associate Professor of History and Women’s Studies at the University of Georgia, and author of For Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
8:00pm-9:00pm: Slonim House Living Room

Opening Reception, sponsored by the Graduate Student Senate
9:00pm-10:30pm: Slonim House Living Room
Poetry Readings, hosted by Maria James, Central Pennsylvania College
Saturday March 8, 2008
8:00-3:00pm: Registration in Heimbold Lobby
8:00-9:00am: Breakfast Reception in Heimbold Lobby
9:00-10:15am: Plenary Session in Heimbold 202

Opening Remarks: Lyde Sizer, Co-Director, Graduate Program in Women’s History, Sarah Lawrence College

Plenary Panel:

Warrior Womyn: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on black Power and Grassroots Feminism
Safiya Bandele – Medgar Evers College CUNY

Sisterhood is Local: Feminist Organizing in Brooklyn, NY from the 1970′s – Present
Mae Jackson – Caring for Change

Aging Political Activists: Where are Our Sisters?
Robyn Spencer – The Pennsylvania State University

In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Black Feminist Community Organizing in New York
10:30am-12:30pm: Breakout Session I

Panel: Movement Mamas “Transgressive and Transnational Traditions of Black Female Activism
Brittney Cooper – Emory University

Pauli Murray’s Black Female Braintrust: Towards a Hermeneutic of Elasticity in Black Power/Black Feminism Scholarship
Elizabeth Jones – Georgetown University Law Center

Activist Mothers: Diasporic Models of Female Leadership in the Black Power Movement
Brenda Tindal – Emory University

Beyond “Revolutionary Glamour”: A Critical Essay on Angela Davis as Cause Cèlébre of American Radicalism

Panel:

Precursors and Legacies
Natanya K. Duncan -University of Florida

Women of the Universal Negro Improvement Association: A Way toward Understanding Black Nationalism in the 1920′s
Juandalynn Jones-Hunt and April Ruffin – University of NC-Greensboro

The ‘F’ Word of Feminist Scholarship: FACADE, What Feminist Theory Taught Us About the Harlem Renaissance
Ageenah A. Saleem -University of Cincinnati

Unsung Woes: A Brief Analysis of Contemporary Feminist Involvement in the Prison Industrial Complex
Panel:

Black Women’s Body Politics: Health and Sexuality
Evan Hart -University of Cincinnati

“Guerrillas in the Midst”: The National Black Women’s Health Project
Yvonne, V. Wells -Suffolk University

How the Feminism of Michele Wallace Speaks to the Current Disintegration of Sexual Health in African American Women
White, John Gavin -New Jersey City University “What’s Weighing Our Our Black Superwomen Down?”: Exploring the Correspondence Between Deviant Womanhood and Weight

Panel:

“Separate Yourself and Deal With One Issue At A Time”: The Intersection of Race and Class in Black Women’s Activism
Christy Garrison Harrison – Georgia State University.

“They Were Black Nationalists and They Didn’t Even Know It”: Ella Mae Brayboy; The First Black Deputy Voter Registrar in Atlanta, Georgia and Dorothy Bolden, founder of the National Domestic Worker’s Union
Premilla Nadasen -Queens College

Johnnie Tillmon: Black Visionary for Welfare
Rickie Solinger – Independent Scholar

The First Welfare Case: Challenging the Meaning of Marriage, the Meaning of Money and the Meanings of History after the Voting Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama
Workshop:

Love Sex and Power: The Impact of Religion and the Bible on Black Women’s Sexuality
Presenters: Lakeisha R. Harrison and Rev. Penny Willis – Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
12:30-1:15pm: Lunch Break

1:30-3:00pm: Breakout Session II
Film and Discussion:

“Hey. Shorty!” Film produced by Girls for Gender Equity’s Sisters in Strength program and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

Mandy Van Deven -Community Organizing Coordinator Girls for Gender Equity, Inc.

Ashley Lewis -Director of film

Joanne Smith -GGE Executive Director

Emily May -Co-founder Hollaback NYC
Panel:

“Our Prison Is This Whole Society”: The Power of Rhetoric in Black Power Activism
Angela D. Coleman – Sisterhood Agenda

The Black is Beautiful Movement
Christina Greene -University of Wisconsin “Power to the Ice Pick!”: Gender and Black Power Rhetoric in the Joan Little Sexual Assault-Murder Case
Heather Ostman – Westchester Community College

The Rhetoric of Womanhood in Angela Davis: An Autobiography

Roundtable Discussion:

For Assata: The Power of Intergenerational Black Feminist Practice
Ebony Golden -New York University

Nia (Nancy)Wilson -Spirit House

Alexis Pauline Gumbs – Duke University
Panel:

“Why Can’t We Rightfully Claim Our Place in the World?”: Exploring Black Feminist Activism and Womanism
Rose Afriyie -National Organization for Women

Black Feminist Movement Building
Carol Giardina -Queens College Revolutionary Black Feminism
Sherie Randolph -University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Florynce Kennedy and the Creation of a Black Nationalist Multiracial Feminist Alliance
Jonathon Stone -Northern Kentucky University

The Women of the Black Panther Party
Panel: “I Am So Hip Even My Errors Are Correct!”: Women and the Black Arts Movement
Takiyah Nur Amin – Temple University

A Change is Gonna Come: First Steps in Examining the Contributions of African-American Female Choreographers to the Black Power/Black Arts Movement, 1960-1970
LaShonda Barnett – Sarah Lawrence College

“You Took My Teeth!”: Black Women & Black Power Musical Discourse
Nikki Skies -Performance Artist

Women in BlackArts Movement, Hip Hop & Slam: The Legacy, The Demise, The Repetition
3:15-5:00pm: Breakout Session III
Panel:

The Few and The Furious: Black Panther Women and the Revolution

Mary Frances Phillips – Michigan State University Black Women’s Language Patterns in the Protest Writings of PantherWomen

Kenya C. Ramey – Temple University” Revolution Has No Gender”: The Women of the Black Panther Party
Brittney Yancy -University of Connecticut

“Sisters! Revolution Is Here!”: Women’s Leadership and The Black Power Movement
Panel:

“If Justice is to Prevail, There Must be a Struggle”: Black Women’s Resistance and Self Defense
Phyllis Lynne Burns – Otterbein College

“Let’s Worry the Line”: Ending the Service of Black Women
Jacqueline Lynch -Benedict College

Ramona Africa: A Defiant Warrior
Shannen Dee Williams – Rutgers University

“Liberation is Our First Priority”: Black Nuns, Soul Politics, and the Modern African-American Freedom Struggle
Panel:

“I Cannot Be Comprehended Except By My Permission”: African American Women’s Identitiesin the Era of Black Power
Maria D. Davidson -University of Oklahoma

Black Feminist Subjectivity: A Deleuzian Approach

Nzadi M. Keita -Poet-in-Residence/Visiting Assistant Professor, Ursinus College Ursinus College “Lucille Clifton and Sonia Sanchez: Naming and Renaming the Self
Nicole A. Watson -NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study

Black Art? Black Power?: Adrienne Kennedy’s theater and (re)presentations of African-American Identity
Panel: “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants”: Black Women Activist as Icons
Joseph R. Fitzgerald – Gloucester County College

“Gloria Richardson: Midwife of Black Power”
Evelyn Simien -University of Connecticut Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender in the Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
Claudia Fatimah Smith – Cincinnati Union Bethel Early Childhood Education Department The Life and Times of Queen Mother Moore (1898-1996): Encounters with a Female Icon of the Black Power Movement
Linda Tomlinson -Clark Atlanta University

“The Fight is On”: Juanita Jewel Craft and the Dallas NAACP Youth Council
5:00-5:30pm: Reception, Heimbold Lobby
5:30 – 6:30pm: Closing Plenary
Play Reading:
“Living Sacrifice” Written by Rhone Fraser, WBAI, Co-producer of Tuesday Arts Magazine

Featuring Rhone Fraser and Tonya Edmonds
This documentary play is based on the collected speeches, writings, and interviews of Fannie Lou Hamer, and her autobiography, To Praise Our Bridges, as well as the two biographies, For Freedom’s Sake by Chana Kai Lee and This Little Light of Mine by Kay Mills. It traces in chronological order the scenes that most completely characterize her experience of struggle first as a Mississippi sharecropper and later as civil rights activist.

Brooklyn College is co-sponsoring the women’s history conference this year with Sarah Lawrence College. On March 5 and 6th, Brooklyn College will hold a pre-conference symposium on women in the Black Freedom Struggle. For more information about the symposium, contact Jean Theoharis at JTheoharis@brooklyn.cuny.edu. Below is the schedule:

Women in the Black Freedom Struggle Spring Symposium Series

The Brooklyn College Women in the Black Revolt mini-conference-
March 5-6, 2008
(co-sponsored with Sarah Lawrence College’s Black Power/Black Feminism women’s history conference on March 7-8)

Wednesday March 5: 4:30-6:00 Black Power/Black Feminism

Joy James (Williams College)

Sherie Randolph (Hofstra) James Smethhurst (U-Mass,Amherst)

Thursday March 6: 12:15-1:30 Women in the Black Panther Party

Angela LeBlanc-Ernest (independent scholar)

Ericka Huggins (former BPP member)

Robyn Spencer (Lehman)

Thursday March 6: 3:30-4:45 Women and Black Radicalism

Eric McDuffie (University of Illinois-Champagne)

Dayo Gore (U-Mass, Amherst)

Komozi Woodard (Sarah Lawrence College)

Premilla Nadasen (Queens College)
The Graduate Program in Women History thanks the following co-sponsors:

Susan Guma and the Office of Graduate Studies

Mary Spellman and the Office of Student Affairs
The Graduate Student Senate
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Tara Elise James
Associate Director
Women’s History Program

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Join us for our 10th Annual Women’s History Conference on Friday and Saturday March 7&8,
2008.

The theme this year is: Black Power, Black Feminism: Black Women’s Activism and Development of Womanist/Feminist Consciousness in the Eraof Black Power. This conference is free and open to the public.

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Register at:http://www.slc.edu/womens-history/conference/index.php

1. International women’s day and trans women
2. Asian Women Blog Carnival
3. History is Erased by the Victors

This November 12, DigitalFemme will be moderating a fantastic panel attended by three wonderful women cartoonists that you should know about.

Alitha E. Martinez, who has worked on Marvel’s Thor and Iron Man, will be on hand to discuss her time at Marvel and her latest independent project Yume and Ever.

Jenny Gonzalez, indie and ‘zine maven and all-around arbitrator of awesome, will be present to talk about her series Too Negative and her work on the House of 12 anthologies.

Rashida Lewis, creator of the comic Sand Storm and artist of the upcoming School Bell series, will discuss her work in the independent comics arena and her experiences moving into the realm of animation.

The panel will take place on November 12 at 7:00pm at the renowned Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, which is located at 594 Broadway (Suite 401). Admission? Pay what you wish! Hope to see NYC/NJ come out and represent!

http://www.digitalfemme.com/journal/index.php?itemid=577

1. Film Review – Watchmen
2. 20 on the 20th — Gina Biggs from Red String
3. 20 on the 20th — Starline X. Hodge!

I can’t count how many female friends and acquaintences have told me this over the years. What’s interesting is that having cute little small delicate hands is in my opinion closer to a problem than something to be prized.

• Things meant to fit in your grip (soda cans, drinking glasses, etc.) require more stretching and caution for me than for larger-handed people, or else I drop them because it’s certainly not my grip they’re intended to fit.
• It limits my handspan in piano playing.
• I wanted to learn to play the bass, but that was right out since my finger reach made it impossible for me to apply any pressure to the strings once I’d managed to stretch my cute little delicate hands around the guitar neck.
• Don’t get me started on what a handicap it is for working clay.
• I’m pathetic at farm work – yes, I know from experience – because a lot of the tools and tasks require or greatly benefit from a better and bigger grip than I have.
• It limits how many things I can carry, and sometimes forces me to make two trips.

None of these things are what I’d call “real problems” in the grand scope of things – no single human body is perfect for every activity, after all, and fortunately my living doesn’t rely on any of these tasks (in which case it would be a “real problem”). My point is that my hands are less functional than larger hands, and yet I’m apparently to be congratulated on this lack of functionality. Because it’s feminine to have tiny hands.

Or is it feminine to be underequipped for functionality? Is that where the appearance preference is really coming from?

1. Open thread: chiding women for turning men down
2. International women’s day and trans women
3. The Women of Metal Gear Solid (Part 1)

• Whose calves are "too big", thanks to natural muscle you’d have to surgically remove to alter?
• Whose legs are "too short", according to some random fantasy standard?
• Who don’t have "white features", regardless of their skin color?
• Who don’t look young enough to get carded at a bar?
• Whose noses have bumps, or aren’t small, narrow and upturned?
• Who aren’t at a minimum 3 inches above average height for women?

I’m sure you guys can come up with more "standards" for female models.

Because if they don’t include these women, we’re just going to have the same body type in several sizes. If the women don’t stand next to each other, we won’t even be able to tell the difference.

1. Don’t expect much of yourself, sweetie
2. Commercials I Hate
3. Nationwide is sort of on the side of African-Americans now, too

John Lewis spokesman Mark Forsyth said last night that although the chain would not necessarily stop using size 8 models, it would include more variety. ‘What Dove [the skincare manufacturer] has done, promoting the very diverse aspects of women, different shapes and sizes, is very positive,’ he said. ‘It’s about health and promoting diversity. We are hoping that this will stimulate a debate about the use of fashion imagery.’

In addition:

The company has recruited Britain’s leading campaigner on how the media and fashion industry influence eating disorders to advise it how to switch to its new, ‘more responsible’ policy. Susan Ringwood, chief executive of Beat, the eating disorders association, will next month address a group of staff, including designers, public relations executives and those involved in devising John Lewis’s marketing activities. She will tell them that while advertising involving very skinny models does not itself cause eating disorders, it can damage the health of some young women by making those at risk of developing anorexia or bulimia think that such shapes are normal or desirable.

The part I bolded is important. All too often, those of us who point out negative images of women in media are accused of blaming those images for eating disorders, violence against women, etc. Or of wanting to censor the media and control what is shown. What I and every pop culture critique I read are really after is a greater variety of representation. There is nothing wrong with featuring very slim women in ads – some women are naturally very slim without even trying. But when that’s all we’re shown of women – when its portrayed verbally and visually as the way a woman should look – we can’t help but think, "What the… is there something wrong with me that I don’t look like that?" Of course, while we’re wasting time learning to overcome those messages and regain self-esteem we never should have lost, men are busy doing things and accomplishing stuff. Sometimes I wonder if that’s what it’s all about – eliminating the competition by keeping them demoralized and worried about trivia. Or maybe it’s just about control: the need for every man to rest secure in the knowledge that no matter how low he is on the male monkey hierarchy, there’s always someone lower than him – a woman.

1. Sizes are shrinking again; brace your self-esteem
2. Charlotte Lewis alleges Polanski assaulted her, too
3. “Health of the Mother”?

Men looked female faces first, and then the genitals, while women’s eyes went pretty much straight to the male genitals.

Could this be why “pornface” was invented – you know, those vapid expressionless faces women in dirty pictures and pornography are required to wear for the camera? Because if the men had facial expressions to look at, they’d get distracted from the T&A?

I dunno. It’s enough to make you question the patriarchy’s assertions that all men are by nature insensitive pigs, because looking at faces is a way to, you know, figure out if someone’s happy or not.

1. Do men belong in the corridors of power, or zoos?
2. Open thread: heteronormativity’s effects on all women and men
3. Two and a Half Men, Men, Men, Men, Manly Men

Salient points:

• Blonde Judy questions how it can cost thousands of pounds to “shave your leg”. Oh, Judy, do please try to think outside your own experience. The guest was not white: she looked Pakistani or Persian. But even among white women, there are those of us who do not have blond body hair. At a millionth of an inch long, our “stubble” is visible. Sometimes that hair is very coarse and hard and painful to the skin. Sometimes it’s curly and tends to ingrow and cause disgusting cysts under the skin. Sometimes it’s on arms, bellies, even chests and so on. You have no idea what we go through trying to remove this hair. So do shut up. Aw, I know I’m being mean, but if I have one more blonde insist that I’m being melodramatic when I tell her I have to shave every two days or I can’t sleep because the stubble’s so rough, I won’t be responsible for my actions. If you lack the life experience, please assume you don’t know what you’re talking about instead of that the other person is making up stories. Thank you.
• Man Richard explains that leg hair on women makes him nauseous. When pressed, he describes a woman who used to cram long leg hairs under nylons. Okay, now I’ll admit that is something I can understand finding repulsive. But naked leg hair without the nylons? He was too repulsed to touch the guest’s leg when she invited him to. It was a beautifully shaped calf, too, with lovely medium brown skin. The hair was hardly darker than the skin, and it lay flat. It really wasn’t unattractive at all. But to Richard, it was gross.

Which means that Richard doesn’t actually like women. He’s not truly heterosexual because he only likes women who’ve been altered in certain ways, and that deserves an orientation category all its own. It’s like being oriented only toward women who used to be men before a sex change operation. Would you call that straight? Gay? Bi? Or just a sick fetish?

That’s what this shaving thing has become. A man is no more or less a man depending on whether he shaves his face. A woman is no longer a woman if she lets her hair grow like nature designed it.

Personally, I detest body hair on both genders. If it were up to me, men would shave everything below the eyebrows until they were as aerodynamic as a squirt of toothpaste. But that’s just me, and somehow I manage to accept that bodies grow hair, and no one has a duty to remove theirs to please me.

I do appreciate Richard’s honesty, though. I suspect he’s expressing something many (perhaps most?) men feel, which enables us to get it out in the open and talk about it. Men should be expected to cope with the female body as nature made it, since women are expected to cope with the male. And since it only makes sense, really.

On a side note, I wonder how lesbians and bi-sexual women feel about body hair on women? If they echo Richard’s revulsion, I wonder if they think that’s a true, natural preference of their own or something they’ve inherited from society?

1. Don’t advise pregnant women unless you’re a doctor
2. So that’s why men (and women) are afraid of me
3. Shave Your Legs, Or The World Will Be Destroyed