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Posted by Carissa Morrison
We’re back from spring break. Midterms are over. Graduation, which will steal away far too many of our beloved members, is a mere 2 months from us! I’d say it’s about time to have some serious fun. Who’s with me?
GREAT! Then in that case -FSU is glad to announce that we will be hosting renowned poet & activist Andrea Gibson!
AND you are cordially invited to join us on March 21, 2012 in the Stone Center Auditorium for what is bound to be an unforgettable spoken word experience. I’ve sampled a bit from her bio (which you can read in its entirety HERE ) to give you an idea of what to expect if you are unfamiliar with her work:
Andrea Gibson is not gentle with her truths. It is this raw fearlessness that has led her to the forefront of the spoken word movement– the first winner of the Women’s World Poetry Slam –Gibson has headlined prestigious performance venues coast to coast with powerful readings on war, class, gender, bullying, white privilege, sexuality, love, and spirituality.
“Gibson is among the nation’s most admired and emulated poets. Her verse is at once personal and political, feminist and universal, filled with incinerating verbs and metaphor, and delivered with gut punching urgency.”
— Metaphor Media
“Andrea Gibson is a truly American poet, or rather, she represents the America I want to live in. Her work lights a candle to lead us where we need to go.”
— Cristin O’ Keefe Aptowicz
Thursday, following this performance (3/22), Andrea Gibson will be leading us in workshop focused on the poet’s responsibility in the current political climate. We will read and discuss poems by contemporary writers focusing on issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, patriarchy, and capitalism, after which we will use the shared poems as writing prompts to inspire our own radical voice. 12:30pm in Student Union Room 2518A-B
Space for the workshop is limited, so if you are interested, please register immediately. The first 48 to register will receive an email confirmation within 24 hours of the workshop.
Register here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFZfb2kwaXZPaXQzNjdwd1FjYTNIQXc6MQ
There is also a link here on our site. Look. Upper left-hand corner. See? Great.
Tickets are available this Thurs (3/15) at no charge through the Union Box Office. Space is limited, so act now (or Thursday)!!
Doors open @7:00pm and opening performances by spoken word group EROT will commence @7:30pm. At 8:00pm any remaining seating will be opened up to non-ticket holders.
For more details you can check out our Facebook Event Page
This event is sponsored by Feminist Students United! and The LGBTQ Center!!
Join VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Feminist Students United, the LGBTQ Center, and Interactive Theatre Carolina for a day long workshop on reproductive justice!
The goal of this training is to allow participants to gain an understanding of what reproductive justice in the US means, the roles and services of Planned Parenthood, the conflicting messages that pregnant people face when confronted with the possibility of abortion, and the specific challenges that LGBTIQ individuals in the US face in the arena of reproductive justice.
Free lunch will be provided!
We would greatly prefer if you would register for this event so that we can know how much food to order, but if you show up without registering, we won’t turn you away!
To Register for this workshop: Click Here
For more information, check out our Facebook Event Page
Posted by Carissa Morrison
In her acceptance speech for this award, Kleinman reminds us of the work that remains and the women who are deprived of opportunities to advance:
I’d like to thank everyone who nominated me for this award, especially
students, former and current, who work against sexism and ALL systems of
privilege and oppression in this society.
The description of the award states that it “recognizes contributions to the
advancement of women at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.” It
is crucial for us to recognize that many women at the university do not have
the same opportunities to advance as others.
I started working at the university as a professor in a tenure-track position,
with the possibility of promotions and job security. Lecturers do not have the
same opportunities; they usually teach more courses per semester than
tenure-track or tenured professors, for less pay, and without the
possibility of tenure. Women are overrepresented among the fixed-term
faculty and underrepresented among tenure-stream and tenured professors. On our campus, women make up only 34% of tenured and tenure-track professors,but 56% of fixed-term appointments. And only 25.6% of faculty in the higher ranked category of full professor are women.
There are women in staff positions who are paid so little that they must
have 2 or more jobs to make ends meet. Under these conditions, conditions
faced by many of the housekeepers here at UNC, there is little opportunity
to advance.
I like to think I’ve played a part in communicating the feminist idea that
every decision we make has consequences for others, and that we should work *together* for justice rather than focus exclusively on individual career
advancement. Working with others continues to be a meaningful and moving
experience for me at UNC, Chapel Hill, and I thank everyone who has been a
part of the struggles and joys of this ongoing journey.
These days, all sides of the political spectrum attempt to claim mothers as a demographic they represent. When it comes to Democrats and Republicans, it seems the mothers they speak of have “mom haircuts”, are white, “middle-class”, Christian, married, and around 40 years old. But what about the hip, new moms? What about working-class, single moms who educate themselves and raise a family? What about black, feminist women? Or young moms, who may still be in high school or college?
Screech. Hold the phone. Now it’s gettin’ sticky. Most articles/pictures/sociological studies about young mamas end up shaming the women, how the public school systems/government has failed them, whether or not they should have the choice to terminate the pregnancy. But what about celebrating these mamas? On this Mother’s Day I ask that viewers watch the above video, and think of one of the kickass young mamas in my life: Cathey Stanley.
Cathey is 23 years old, and just finished her first year of a Master’s program in teaching. She aspires to teach secondary-level english, she is a gifted poet and writer, and she did her undergraduate degree in English at Carolina too. She is one of the first FSU members I remember meeting, with her ponytail and her grace, she was a staple of meetings for me when I was an undergraduate myself. About two and a half years ago, Cathey gave birth to a beautiful young boy, Jaiden. Jaiden is a fun toddler, who likes monkeys and trains, babbles in the English and Spanish that Cathey taught him to speak, and is a proud little Tarheel. Cathey is now a single mom, she is a student-teacher, ie she is in the classrooms almost full-time at Carrboro High School, but still has her graduate classes and exams, and an activist. She is in the Coordinating Committee for FIST, a local socialist youth organization, where she fights for equal access for quality education. She is working on her official candidacy for joining Worker’s World Party. There have definitely been difficult times for Cathey, including not always having a reliable source of childcare, raising a multiracial child as a white woman, having to explain again and again why/how she is a pro-choice mama, and working on battling depression and taking time for self-care. But she remains an inspiration to our feminist community, and is a great mom to J, on top of everything. J is another leftist regular at meetings, rallies, and protests.
Here are some links to check out
– Feminist Mother’s Day Gift Guide from Viva la Feminista, a blog about motherhood and feminism written by a Latina woman.
– Feminist Mothering Advice from the megablog Feministing
On Tuesday, April 13th from 4:30 to 5:30pm, about twenty people attended an action organized by Feminist Students United, to oppose the existence, federal funding and false advertising of a local Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC), or Fake Abortion Clinic. This included UNC-Chapel Hill students from Feminist Students United, the Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Trans, Straight Alliance, VOX- Voices for Planned Parenthood and some people from Young Democrats.
We sat at a picnic table in front of the Chamber of Commerce to finish up some signs and a man came out and told us that the CPC people weren’t in today (who knows how he knew, bc they are in a different building) and that the police had been following our action on facebook. I guess that was his way of threatening us not to do anything.
Anyway, we stood at the big intersection of East Franklin and Estes and down West Estes toward the CPC holding signs that said:
FAKE ABORTION CLINIC ===>, Federally Funded Fake Clinic, Keep Abortion Legal (VOX brought these), HONK if you heart reproductive rights, Government control of women’s bodies is government control of human bodies
We chanted “Not the church! Not the state! Women must decide our fate!” and “Women’s rights are under attack! What do we do? Stand up! Fight back!”
The two people holding the four part FAKE ABORTION CLINIC ===> sign went all around the four way intersection ensuring that traffic going any direction saw the sign.
Hundreds of women young and old, men young and old, workers, couples, parents with their kids saw the signs and honked and raised fists in support. Aside from regular traffic, we got honks and good responses from bus drivers, postal workers and even an ambulance!
After an hour during traffic time, we wrapped up and folks caught the bus back to campus.
Overall we got a really positive response from passersby.
Every week, check feministstudentsunited.org for our This Week in Feminism post – a list of the most current strides in feminism and instances of sexism and racism and class inequality, from a rotating round of co-collaborators. Do you have a link you think would be appropriate for this section? Please feel free to leave it in the comments.Right on the tails of our event last night on Crisis Pregnancy Centers, many of this week’s links are about reproductive rights being cut across the country and world.
– Jessica & Eva
LOCAL
This Saturday is HKonJ – Historic Thousands on Jones St – a huge rally in Raleigh, NC put together by the NAACP and attended by progressive activists across the State.
Apex mayor’s op-ed piece on why the Town Council unanimously voted to stop coverage for abortions in town employee’s insurance plans.
NATIONAL
Project HOPE publishes a new study with findings confirming that “…immigrants are not contributing disproportionately to high health care costs in public programs such as Medicaid.”
Eviction has become typical in the lives of poor black women – a piece on this new reality for people in lower income neighborhoods.
A Camarillo, CA hospital has banned midwives from delivering babies – are women-centered practices not welcome?
A proposed bill in Utah will make it a crime for a woman to have a miscarriage, and make induced abortion a crime in some instances.
Lousiana ordered to issue a birth certificate naming a same-sex couple as the parents of their adopted child.
New anti-abortion billboards in Atlanta boldy proclaim “Black Children Are An Endangered Species”.
INTERNATIONAL
Marjan Kahlor is the first woman to represent Iran in the Winter Olympics.
Kenya poised to constitutionally ban abortion.
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