[Herstory] January CWLU Herstory E-Zine

Tue Jan 7 23:58:14 EST 2003

Hello: Welcome to the January issue of the CWLU Herstory E-Zine. 
Please send us news tips about upcoming events you know about. Also, 
don't be shy. Send us news about yourself and what you are doing. 
Feminist networking is part of what we are about. Forward our E-Zine 
to colleagues and friends who may want to subscribe.

Remember: Buy online from Women and Children First Books or the 
History Channel.com using the links from our homepage. The links are 
the History Channel.com and Women and Children First logos. It's a 
great way to buy holiday gifts like books, videos, music or other 
items. We will earn a small but much needed commission.

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CWLU Herstory Project will be participating in the UIC Women's Month 
activities for March 2003

At the invitation of Judith Keegan Gardiner, Interim Director of the 
Center for Research on Women and Gender, the Herstory Project will be 
collecting materials for a visual exhibit at the Library of the 
Health Sciences on the women's health movement in Chicago. If you 
have appropriate materials to loan for the exhibit or to donate for a 
permanent collection (books, buttons, fliers, posters, pamphlets. . 
.) please contact Judith at gardiner at uic.edu.

Among the events planned are  talks by Judy Norsigian of the original 
Boston Women's Health Book Collective and labor historian Dorothy Sue 
Cobble.

See our Feminist Events and Action Calendar below for more details.

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Veteran Feminists of America (VFA) is assembling a directory of 
Second Wave activists

The Veteran Feminists of America is an organization devoted to 
passing down the the history of second-wave feminism. As part of 
their work, they are assembling a directory of feminists who were 
active from 1963-1975. If you qualify and would like to be included 
in their directory, you may download an application form from the 
Herstory site at http://www.cwluherstory.com/weblog.php . 
Instructions are included in the form.

For more info about VFA, visit their website at http://www.vfa.us/

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Remembering  Irene Peslikis 1943-2002

Irene Peslikis was a feminist artist who was one of the principal 
founders and organizers of the  women's art movement. She organized 
the first show of second-wave women artists, taught the first Women & 
Art course on a college campus, at the State University of New York 
at Old Westbury, and was a founder of the first feminist art school, 
the Feminist Art Institute, which ran a full-time radical feminist 
art education program for women for years.

Irene was a founding member of Redstockings and one of the organizers 
of the Redstocking Speak out on Abortion in NYC , a key event in the 
struggle to legalize abortion.

We have a more detailed remembrance of Irene's life written by Roz 
Baxandall that is posted on our Feminist Salon. We join Irene's 
family and friends in mourning her death.

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CWLU Herstory Project volunteers attend a special pre-release showing 
of the "The Hours"

The film "The Hours" is a complex film that interweaves  the lives of 
three different women living in three different eras. The film is 
built around the English writer Virginia Woolf (Nichole Kidman) who 
is struggling to write her novel Mrs. Dalloway as she tries keep the 
demons of insanity at bay. Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is a post 
WWII California suburban housewife reading the novel in the midst of 
the cultural desert where she is slowly suffocating. Clarissa (Meryl 
Streep) is ferociously trying to hold on to the life of a dying poet 
in contemporary NY.

These three lives are woven together by the character of Virginia 
Woolf whose sheer intensity is at once awe inspiring and even 
terrifying. All of the actors earned their paychecks, but Nichole 
Kidman was especially impressive as Virginia Woolf.  Her movements 
and expressions are sharp and angular as if she were always somewhere 
else, being jerked back into our world against her will.

The Herstory volunteers who attended the showing generally gave it 
high marks in our thoroughly unscientific poll. See it for yourself 
and then comment on the film at our Feminist Salon-- 
http://www.cwluherstory.org/phpweb/

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How is our web site traffic these days?

We had a busy month in December with nearly 32,000 pages viewed. Site 
traffic dropped off as we approached Christmas and students began 
focusing on family and personal time.

Some of the search terms people used to find us were:

women's liberation movement
women's liberation
abortion rights
rock band photos
feminist music
feminist posters
post feminism
grand coolie dam
abortion story
why i want a wife
socialist feminism
feminist quotations
jeanette rankin
political buttons
national black feminist organization
poems about abortion
female psychology
inducing miscarriage

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This month's Feminist Salon poll

We have a new poll up on our Feminist Salon, so please vote. The 
question is: If abortion is outlawed, should feminists organize a new 
underground movement to provide safe abortions? You may vote at 
http://www.cwluherstory.org/phpweb/

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The Herstory Project still needs interns. Volunteer now!

Graduate and undergraduate students are needed to write, edit, 
research, interview, do audio/video, add documents, do publicity and 
lots more. Our projects are exciting and challenging.  You can pretty 
much design your own project or work with our suggestions.

If you need academic credit, you will have to work that out with your 
professors, but we're willing to help. We are a project of the UIC 
Center for Research on Women and Gender. Dr. Margaret "Peg" Strobel 
is our primary academic contact person.

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SO WHAT'S NEW ON THE HERSTORY SITE?

We added the history of the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health to 
the Archives section. Former CWLUer Jenny Knauss was its executive 
director for many years.  The Caucus is a good example of how a 
successful project can be build on the principles of grassroots 
organizing pioneered by the women's  health movement.
______________________________________

We added new entries to our timeline of feminist history from 1960 to 
the present. The timeline is an ongoing project and we welcome help 
from anyone who wants to help us expand it. We have some major gaps 
to fill. Please visit 
http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUAbout/timeline.html
______________________________________

Based on the interest that our Jane Special Feature generates among 
students doing projects, we reorganized  the pages for easier 
navigation.

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BOOK!

Into our Hands: The Women's Health Movement in the United States by 
Sandra Morgen (Rutgers)

Health was one of the core issues that propelled the modern feminist 
movement. This book is an excellent introduction to the  women's 
health movement with sections on Chicago's Abortion Counseling 
Service, Iowa City's Emma Goldman Clinic, Boston's Our Bodies- Our 
Selves , the dark days of the Reagan era and much, much more.

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WEB SURFIN' WITH THE HERSTORY PROJECT

Here are some web links of interest to feminists. Please send us your 
favorite links. The Internet is a huge place and it's easy to miss 
the buried feminist treasures.
_____________________________________
http://www.lesbian.com/

Lesbian.com is a lesbian centered web portal that includes 
everything from astrology to activism. If you can't find it here, it 
probably doesn't exist.
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http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/women/womensbook.html

The Internet Women's History Sourcebook has links to a number of 
primary and secondary sources on women's history. It has a strong 
global focus.
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http://www.slwisenberg.com/

S.L. Weisenberg is a local Chicago writer whose newest work focuses 
on what it means to be a Jewish woman in America. Her latest book, 
Holocaust Girls: History, Memory & Other Obsessions looks at the 
modern Jewish experience with rich irony.

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FEMINIST EVENTS AND ACTION CALENDAR

Rally for Abortion Rights

Wednesday January 22, 2003
Noon at the Federal Building
Adams and Dearborn in Chicago

Chicago NOW will hold a rally to commemorate the 30th anniversary of 
Roe V Wade, giving women the right to abortion.

______________________________________
Sisters in Struggle: Honoring Women Veterans of the Modern Civil 
Rights Movement

Fifth Annual Women's History Month Conference
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY
Friday - Saturday, March 7 - March 8, 2003
Keynote Speaker: Gloria Richardson

The Little Rock Nine and The Cambridge Movement are only a sample of 
movements in the Civil Rights Movement orchestrated and led by women. 
The 5th Annual Women's History Conference at Sarah Lawrence College 
will celebrate Women's History month by honoring the unsung heroes of 
the modern Civil Rights Movement. Our keynote speaker will be Gloria 
Richardson, leader of the Cambridge movement. We welcome papers, 
panels, workshops, and performances with themes that explore the 
issue of women in the Civil Rights Movement. Civil Rights Veterans 
are especially invited to participate.

Contact info
Tara James, Associate Director
Women's History Graduate Program
Sarah Lawrence College
Bronxville, NY 10708
Phone: 914-395-2405 Fax: 914-395-2663
Email: tjames at slc.edu

______________________________________
UIC Center for Research on Women and Gender sponsors two exciting 
events in March

--Conference: Our Bodies, Ourselves and the Future of Women's Health
Wednesday, March 26, 2003, 3-6 pm
UIC School of Public Health
1601 W. Taylor St in Chicago

Judy Norsigian of the original Boston Women's Health Book Collective 
will be the keynote speaker followed by a panel of current Chicago 
area health activists and a reception.

--Series on Stress and Gender
Monday, March 31, 3 p.m.
Institute for the Humanities at UIC

Labor historian Dorothy Sue Cobble will be speaking on the history of 
women's work.

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LOOKING FOR A JOB?

Community Organizers Wanted

The Direct Action & Research Training (DART) Network is seeking 
socially aware people with a passion for justice to participate in 
their Organizers Institute. DART trainees will receive a stipend 
while at the Institute. Upon completion, DART will assist graduates 
in finding full time positions as organizers. The national 
application deadline is January 15, 2003.

Visit http://www.thedartcenter.org for more info.

______________________________________

The Feminist Majority Foundation maintains a constantly updated 
database of employers looking for feminists. Visit 
http://www.feminist.org and look for "Career Center" on their 
homepage. They also have a place to post your resume if you are 
looking for a job. They have recently upgraded their career section 
with some very useful features, so check it out if you are on a job 
search.

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Well that's it for this month. Please send us any news about former 
CWLUers, upcoming events and feminist happenings. We depend on you to 
be our eyes and ears. Do you need research assistance? Do you provide 
a service? Do you need a service? Do you have a cool project you need 
help with? Are you looking for a job? Do you have a job to offer? Let 
us know and we'll try to include it. Feminist networking is part of 
what we are about. E-mail infogal at cwluherstory.org with your 
contribution.

CWLU Herstory Website Project
http://www.cwluherstory.org
PO Box 548
Oak Park, IL 60303-0548
708-386-7197
A Project of the University of Illinois
Center for Research on Women and Gender

"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is:
I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express 
sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat."- Rebecca West