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 Nancy Kricorian Back when I earned my MFA in Poetry at Columbia, the majority of the students were women, and nearly all of our teachers were men. They were a distinguished lot, and most took their teaching seriously. They were also, collectively, typically sexist. Work produced by male poets nearly always merited more serious consideration than that of the women. If the reigning ethos among the poetry faculty...
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“There is no such thing as a single issue struggle because we do not live single issue lives.” – Audre Lorde Dear Mainstream LGBT Movement, In a recent advertisement for a local “Give Out Day” event, the organization, South Carolina Equality, asserted that only five percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons give money to LGBT causes. As an LGBTQ-identified person and a white ally within anti-racism...
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By Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz Have you read Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis and Movement Building Strategy by Chris Crass yet? Well, if you haven’t gotten around to it, put it on your reading list STAT! I don’t often agree to do book reviews. Because I have dyslexia, it takes me a long time to make my way through a book. Then when I get around to writing a...
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You might already know that a series of racist behaviors toward Black people recently brought national attention to University of California, Irvine’s (UCI) campus. A recent video by Lambda Theta Delta (LTD), UCI’s oldest Asian American interest fraternity, showed its members participating in a party involving racist blackface. The video was used for rush recruitment, briefly introducing the fraternity to people the fraternity wanted to impress. It was a...
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By Jawahara Saidullah “Kya maal hai.” What good stuff. “Bilkul sahi cheez yaar.” Absolutely, great stuff, man. Maal means, stuff, thing, or merchandise. So does cheez. This common male conversation on the streets of North India is usually conducted over-loudly so that the ‘stuff’ being talked about can hear it. It is almost always accompanied by laughter, a leer, perhaps some touching. For the stuff being talked about is...
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High stakes test question: A female science student conducts an experiment with chemicals that explodes in a classroom, causes no damage and no injuries. Who gets to be the adventurous teenage genius mad scientist and who gets to be the criminal led away in handcuffs facing two felonies to juvenile hall? If you’re a white girl check Box A, if you’re an intellectually curious black girl with good grades...
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By Kimberly Dark I had a moment of judgment toward my potential seatmate as I walked up the airplane aisle and saw him. I wasn’t pleased to be having that feeling and there it was – immediate and unbidden. I was concerned I’d be uncomfortable sitting next to such a big guy on the airplane. Well, it was a short flight – Hilo to Maui. No need to get...
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By Tanwi Nandini Islam Let’s begin with a riddle: What’s something that exhausts itself, yet never disappears? A few answers: Self. Others. Identity. Love. I’m channeling the Sphinx, posing a riddle to reveal matters of livelihood and death, the necessity of sifting through the ways our identities brush up against one another, inevitably hurting, teaching, and transforming consciousness. Our personal articulations of self are constantly mediated by our own actions,...
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By Brooke Elise Axtell with Monica J. Casper, Heather Laine Talley, and Aishah Shahidah Simmons As we offer this closing statement on our recent Race, Racism, and Anti-Racism Within Feminisms forum, it is essential to consider the embodied consequences of white privilege and how such privilege shapes politics, policy, cultural narratives, and lives. In her insightful article, Moving the Margins to the Centre: Shifting From Anti-Racist to Pro-Black, Hanna...
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By Hana Riaz For many Women of Colour feminists globally and in the West, our struggle with mainstream feminism remains an arduous and painful one. Despite the great body of work that Women of Colour have created – speaking to diverse experiences of race, gender, class, ethnicity, religion, disability and sexuality –mainstream feminism remains hegemonically white and middle-class, and often colonialist and racist (amongst many other –isms). Its exclusion...
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By Juliana Britto Schwartz “You Americans, why are you so obsessed with labels?” The way my Brazilian cousin looks at me, she might as well replace the term “labels” with “chains,” or “torture.” And she’s not the first person to have asked me this during my stay in Brazil. Brazilian students always seem to find it strange when I describe myself with words like “Brazilian-American,” or a “feminist.” I...
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By James Bliss And I wonder what I may be risking as I become more and more committed to telling whatever truth comes across my eyes my tongue my pen… ‘A Burst of Light: Living with Cancer’ I want to write about Audre Lorde. Because this is a forum on what to do about the recalcitrance of ‘feminism’ unmodified, its desire not to engage or be concerned with the lives...
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On Friday, April 26, TFW published Part I of a conversation between myself and Dr. Connie Ruzich about all things feminism, race, socioeconomic status, religion, and age, just to name a few! Connie and I contributed our conversation to the Race & Feminisms forum, because we believe it models just one of the many ways in which feminists across various backgrounds and ideals can appreciate and reconcile their differences in...
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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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