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 Aishah Shahidah Simmons Gloria Steinem is a Second Wave White Feminist pioneer who, for over 40 years and counting, has been at the forefront and often a spokesperson for women’s rights in the United States and globally. Since the late 1960s, Steinem has either founded or co-founded several women-led organizations, which have impacted the lives of millions of women across this country and internationally. These organizations include the...
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We join millions of Americans in expressing our profound sorrow tonight that despite recantations and substantial doubt concerning his guilt, the state of Georgia has proceeded with the execution of Troy Anthony Davis. But we must also wonder what amount of damage has been done to the idea of justice and freedom, both for the individual and in the abstract, when the Supreme Court of the United States is...
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By Aimee Meredith Cox, Ph.D. Retrograde I was on my way to Santa Fe last summer marveling at the technology that allowed me to be online in flight. I slept through the first leg from JFK to Minneapolis, struggling with how to finish the piece I was writing on the esteemed anthropologist, choreographer, and bad-ass Black woman, Katherine Dunham. Dunham was in my dreams. I woke up as the...
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Editor’s Note: In light of the most recent examples of resistance and protest in Egypt, we offer this reminder and analysis of events earlier in the year. Let us keep in mind as much of the larger picture as possible. By Zillah Eisenstein A fresh wind blows from North Africa. People across the globe await the full expression of this Arab spring. After the toppling of Mubarak the people of Egypt voted in a...
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The recent ruling in favor of gays and lesbians in New York has had unintended consequences. And I don’t mean that the global wellbeing of gay New Yorkers is demonstrably greater or that sales of nuptial paraphernalia have increased, though to be sure New York’s Marriage Equality Act has produced both effects. I’m referring to an entirely different set of outcomes resulting from the extension of “marriage rights” to...
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Elegy in which the film degrades —————————1 She has seen the angle a man shudders into. / The slab of haunch a promise. This woman / whose face opens like a butchers’ knot. / “Both my daughters know how to grieve,” / she says, but something beats against / this. Past the window, a blind of rain and dirtier. / If tonight I flatten to a list. “Shabby and hot” / is what she called...
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I should have been grading papers yesterday. In fact, I missed my own assignments, watching coverage that I know nearly as well as the digits on my hands and feet; ten years ago, I woke up on that Tuesday morning—a teaching day most of my career—and, contrary to hundreds of days exactly like it, did not turn over in the early morning and reach for the on button of...
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We wish to express our sincere sympathies for all of the victims of September 11, 2001, now ten years ago. The tragedy of that day still resounds throughout the United States, and we still bear the wound. Yet, let us not forget, today, the people who lost their lives, responded with bravery, and have sealed forever in their memory first-hand accounts of those painful events. -The Editors _________________________________________________________________ Where...
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By Zillah Eisenstein These are strange times. Rupert Murdoch and his media empire are finally exposed for hacking and deception and there is some accounting to be done. Yet, the final exposure of those who have formerly done the exposing seems a bit cheap to me. After all, the revelations of wrong-doing remain contained while much of this illegal activity was known before it was officially exposed. Strangely, the...
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By Darnell Moore “Sakia Latona Gunn: We Will Remember Her Name” (2008). Charles B. Brack (Producer) and Co-Produced with Third World Newsreel. Color; 58 minutes; US; English. Fifteen year-old Sakia Latona Gunn was stabbed to death by an adult male perpetrator on Newark’s busiest intersection. Since Sakia’s murder in 2003, activists within Newark—and beyond—have worked to ensure that her name and story be remembered despite mass media’s invariable disavowal...
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In one of my favorite songs by Afro Beat progenitor Fela Kuti, he exclaims: If you call woman African woman no go ‘gree She go say I be Lady o Fela is recounting the age-old resistance by African women to their circumscribed roles in traditional societies. This resistance is an often ignored, but very essential, chapter in African women’s “her-story.” In Sudan, resistance to patriarchy, tradition, and narrowly defined...
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As the 2012 Presidential election draws nearer, political observers and frontrunners alike are sure to begin reconstructing new and old partisan paradigms, with hopes of appealing to even the most cooperative of political enthusiasts. To be sure, many grammars of political principle and reason are already underway. Of particular interest are those structured around women, namely, who and how women are or ought to be, and what women want...
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My decision to go to Beijing, China for a summer literature institute provoked a variety of responses in those with whom I shared my plans. My family, adviser, and a sprinkling of friends enthusiastically congratulated me, and collectively foresaw a trip filled with adventure and experiences to reshape me. Others furrowed their brows and searched their memories for words of not-too-discouragement. “Isn’t it polluted, there?” “Will you be able...
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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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The Guardian