24 May 2013
Kristen E. Nelson is the author of Write, Dad (Unthinkable Creatures Press, 2012). She has recently published work in The Volta, Denver Quarterly Drunken Boat, Tarpaulin Sky Journal, Trickhouse, and Everyday Genius, among others. She is a founder and the Executive Director of Casa Libre en la Solana, a non-profit writing center in Tucson, Arizona; a production editor for Tarpaulin [...]
22 May 2013
By Elizabeth Dorssom I first started referring to myself as a feminist when I was 17. Even though I didn’t identify as a feminist until I was older I was definitely a feminist from a very young age. When I was in elementary school I enjoyed playing with Hot Wheels cars instead [...]
20 May 2013
By Molly Baker On April 23, University of Arizona student Dean Saxton, better known as Brother Dean, stood on a bench brandishing a sign that bluntly stated in bold, black letters “You Deserve Rape.” Saxton proceeded to verbally harass many women that walked by on their way to class, calling them [...]
15 May 2013
By Mohadesa Najumi When I think about what modesty means in today’s political, cultural and religious environment, I am inclined to believe that the concept itself does not involve choice, or any dimension of freedom or independent thought. Rather, modesty constitutes a dictatorial concept forced upon women whether they agree [...]
7 May 2013
*Trigger warning* Sometimes I feel like the NRA is actively just trying to lose all the credibility it has left in this world. Just when you thought the NRA’s annual convention in Houston this weekend couldn’t draw any more negative attention, it goes out and casually promotes a company selling a product [...]
29 Mar 2013
By Monica Torres When I sign my name, it’s Monica, not Mónica. When I order pupusas at my favorite restaurant, the waiter will give my accent an approving nod, as if to say, you’re one of us. But it will only take a harder question for me to reveal the [...]
18 Mar 2013
By Alexa Lambertis At an early age, I was exposed to a woman who essentially changed my life. A sweet lady with a southern background, she was introduced to me as a family friend. I met her in her own home, where we would spend a majority of our time [...]
By Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons I am a practicing Muslim and an Islamic scholar who received my Ph.D. with a focus on Islamic law and women from Temple University in 2002. I came into the tradition via Sufism, the Mystical Stream in Islam. It was my great fortune to meet and study with a Sufi Master from Sri Lanka, M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen who I met here in the United States...
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By Josh Cerretti I am neither a Muslim nor a woman; however, I am attempting to enact feminism and social justice in the age of the ‘War on Terror’. Consequently, I see the necessity of thinking and acting as an ally to Muslim women. This is obviously an incomplete, challenging, and humbling process, but it is necessary because Muslim women have become increasingly important symbols in struggles over war,...
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By Shaista Patel For the last several years, I have identified myself as a Muslim feminist in my activist and grad school circle(s). However, as I sat down to write this article, I suddenly felt quite nervous. I realized that I did not know if I would be recognized as a Muslim feminist by others. After all, my feminist politics are not specifically related to confronting anti-Muslim violence, nor are...
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By Dana Olwan and Sophia Azeb Nearly 1.8 billion people around the world annually celebrate Ramadan, the ninth and holiest month of the Islamic (Hijri) calendar. For many, this means we abstain from food, water, and sex and from cursing, pridefulness, anger, jealousy, and other selfish temptations all month long, from sunrise to sunset. For others – the poor, elderly, sick, children, pregnant women, and others who cannot fast...
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By Evette Dionne Last week, the Twitterverse was gifted a priceless nugget when film director Ava DuVernay and her guild, AFFRM, released the trailer for her anticipated movie, Middle of Nowhere. The acclaimed project, which highlights the women and families that mass incarceration leaves behind, earned DuVernay the coveted Sundance Film Festival award for Best Director. Around the globe, women rejoiced; in a male-dominated industry, it is rare for...
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By Paul Burns In the last few years, there has been a significant shift in the sensibilities and outlooks of Americans as it relates to the inclusion of gays and lesbians in mainstream society and the procurement of legal rights and social rites. A recent Pew Research Center study showed that 47% of Americans support gay marriage, an increase of 19% since 1996. While Black (39%) support of gay marriage...
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By Kima Jones Patrisse Cullors, a multi-faceted performance artist, shared her installation piece, “Stained,” Saturday night at Highways Performance Space and Gallery in Santa Monica, California. “Stained” is described by the artist as a “way Blackness is on the one hand exploited, imprisoned and stretched.” Executive Director of Highways, Leo Garcia, introduced the audience to the space while marveling at the crowd of nearly 100 folk who came out...
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By Willa Kirsch-Stancliff and Mason Casper-Milam Merida is the main character in the new Disney Pixar movie Brave. She is a strong-willed female lead and an amazing archer. However, as good as these traits may sound for that time period, girls and women could not fight and did not have much choice in family matters. As a female, Merida is required to marry someone from one of the other...
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The American death industry pimps heaven hard, squeals like a stuck pig about redemption, then tasks the faithful with collecting the bloody dividends. For the believer the death of an atheist or agnostic loved one is a theological crap shoot. It invariably inspires fantasy, creative license, and outright bullshit betrayal of the dearly departed’s principles. Such was the case with my friend “Miguel,” who tragically collapsed during a basketball...
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At least once year, the media highlights the issue of sexual harassment within the sport world. Often focusing on an athlete harassing a member of the media or someone within the organization, the narrative plays upon sensationalism, often depicting sexual harassment as the result of the confluence of highly sexualized male athletes, products of the über-masculine world of words, with an increasingly integrated sports world. In other words, the...
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By Amy Hodges Hamilton I rushed into the classroom, organizing my books and notes while welcoming students to class. As I placed my bag under the desk and began the day’s writing exercise, I remembered I hadn’t silenced my cell phone. So I pushed one button and began teaching. After class ended, I wished everyone a happy spring break and raced upstairs to my office where I was meeting...
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By Nicholas Brady Those African persons in “Middle Passage” were literally suspended in the “oceanic”… these captive persons, without names that their captors would recognize, were in movement across the Atlantic, but they were also nowhere at all. Inasmuch as, on any given day, we might imagine, the captive personality did not know where s/he was, we could say that they were the culturally “unmade,” thrown in the midst...
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By David J. Malebranche Last week, social media was set ablaze when Frank Ocean publicly released a letter describing a love experience he had during the summer of his 20th year of life. When he dared to not change the pronoun of his exquisitely described love interest from “he” to “she” in said letter, droves of people celebrated this young brother’s brave “coming out” as nothing short of a...
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22 May 2013
By Aditi Rao Dear Mr. Yadav, I too am an Indian Woman “Referring to the recent ‘Slut Walk’ held in the Capital, Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav said we had naked women walking down the streets with tattoos on their cheeks, whereas Indian women did not even look up while [...]
17 May 2013
Assata do not dry like dissipated plums under castro’s bronzing sun you mural fortress you live memorial spirited artifice rouged sea salt that marinates america’s wound Assata you like stripped bone road unaware of which exit is free birth brown coagulated rhythm redefined reborn rumba queen Assata dusk breath [...]
16 May 2013
“Affirmation” by Assata Shakur* ___ I believe in living. I believe in the spectrum of Beta days and Gamma people. I believe in sunshine. In windmills and waterfalls, tricycles and rocking chairs. And i believe that seeds grow into sprouts. And sprouts grow into trees. I believe in the magic [...]
7 May 2013
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