[Herstory] May CWLU Herstory E-Zine

herstory-admin at cwluherstory.org herstory-admin at cwluherstory.org
Wed May 28 22:09:55 EDT 2003


Hello: Welcome to the May 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 using the 
links from our homepage or the Book section of the Marketplace. Look 
for the  Women and Children First logo. It's a great way to buy gifts 
and we'll will earn a small but much needed commission.

****************************
DIANE HORWITZ AND TERRY DAVIS
to speak at Women and Children First Bookstore

Growing numbers of women who have worked their entire lives are 
retiring. What are the challenges of retiring from socially useful 
work?

Terry, a former union organizer, and Diane, a former community 
college teacher, are contributors to the newly published book, "Women 
Confronting Retirement". If you're thinking about retirement or are 
already retired, come to share your experiences and your hopes for 
this new stage of life. They'll explore issues of aging, family, 
finances, and what replaces full-time work.

Both Diane and Terry are former CWLU members.

Time: Thursday, June 19, 2003 7:30 PM
Location: 5233 N. Clark

***************************
VIDEO TAPES OF 'OUR BODIES, OURSELVES'
conference featuring Judy Norsigian will soon be available

The "Our Bodies, Ourselves" conference",  held March 26th,  was a 
showcase of the women's health movement, both past and present. The 
UIC Center for Research on Women and Gender along with other sponsors 
held the  conference to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the 
ground breaking women's health book, "Our Bodies, Ourselves". 
Originally stapled together on cheap newsprint at 35 cents a copy, 
the book has been revised countless times and is currently translated 
into 19 languages.

Keynote speaker Judy Norsigian was one of the original members of the 
Boston Women's Health Collective (now called Our Bodies Ourselves) 
which first published the book. A video of the event will soon be 
available for an estimated cost of $20. Contact  Pat Newton at 
patrnewt at uic.edu or at 312-413-1924 if you'd like to order a tape of 
the whole program or just Judy Norsigian's talk, and if you'd prefer 
a DVD format.

***************************
HELP IDENTIFY JO FREEMEN'S PHOTOS

Longtime feminist writer Jo Freeman has posted 3 sets of photos she 
took of Chicago events circa 1969-1970. She is asking E-Zine readers 
to look at the photos and provide  information on the events, 
including exact dates and identifications of participants and 
organizers. Reports from actual participants are especially welcome. 
She would like to write historical essays about all three and any 
personal recollections, press clippings, leaflets etc. would be very 
helpful.

The three photo sets are:

1- The Chicago ERA march
http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/futurephotos/ChiERA/ 
There are photos of several  people and a nice picture of former 
CWLUer Heather Booth holding  her baby . A CWLU banner is clearly 
visible in several photos and one participant is proudly displaying a 
Graphics Collective poster. Can you identify the other people in 
these photos? When was the march held? Who organized it?

2- The protest at the American Medical Association: Who? What? When? 
Why? 
http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/futurephotos/AMAweb/

3- WITCH (Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell)
at the University of Chicago 
http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/futurephotos/WITCHweb/ 
What was being hexed at UC? Former CWLUer Coral Norris may be seen 
peeking through her WITCH makeup at a WITCH hex. Do you recognize 
anyone else in these photos?

You may contact Jo directly at jfrbc at hotmail.com if you have info to 
share with her.

Please visit her main web site at http://www.jofreeman.com. Jo is a 
prolific and original writer and is constantly adding new material. 
If you were involved in any of these events whose photos appear on 
her web site, you are invited to write your personal recollections 
and submit them for possible posting.

*********************************
JUDITH ARCANA NEEDS HELP FINDING A PUBLISHER

Judith Arcana was a member of Jane, the Abortion Counseling Service. 
She is now living in the Pacific Northwest and is the author of 
several books.  Here is Judith in her own words:

Hello CWLU people ..... I'm writing to say that I'm looking for a 
publisher for a book called Maternal Instinct: poems and monologues 
about abortion, adoption, the biotechnology of birth and related 
issues ..... a good number of these pieces have already been 
published in journals, anthologies and a couple of international 
women's health newsletters; one long piece about Jane, now published 
several times, was part of an off-off Broadway performance 
celebrating the 30th anniversary of Roe in January ...... one section 
of the book is drawn directly from my work as a Jane -- which is, of 
course, the foundation of the consciousness and knowledge that made 
it both possible and necessary for me to write this book now ...

I got lots of help with the manuscript (grants, residencies, critical 
feedback from other writers) for which I am enormously grateful, and 
am now eager to get the book out .... I read from the manuscript at 
all the organizations/events where I am a speaker, as well as at gigs 
where I appear simply as a writer, and the response is always intense 
- because, I believe, people want so much to think and talk about 
these issues in serious ways, not in polarized sound-bites ....

Naturally I'm sending queries out in the usual way (I've even played 
the now-common po-biz game of entering contests, and have copped a 
few "finalists") ... but, reading the most recent CWLU email 
newsletter made me think to ask if any of you - also out there 
reading this newsletter, have any suggestions - or connections! I'm 
thinking a Chicago or Illinois press might be especially interested, 
but who knows? Maybe it'll get published first in Italy or Ireland, 
and then come back .... we'll see..... My thanks for your 
consideration and attention ... Judith Arcana (jarcana at earthlink.net; 
503.736.1136 in the Pacific time zone)


***************************
WOMEN'S GRAPHICS COLLECTIVE POSTER
to be in a British graphic design book

RotoVision  in the UK is publishing a book called Conscientious 
Objectives, a guide about graphic design for ethical projects. They 
chose the Graphics Collective poster, "Abortion is a Personal 
Decision, not a Legal Debate" to add to their timeline of milestones 
in ethical design.

Estelle Carol directed this poster when she was an undergraduate at 
the University of Chicago. It was her first project for the then 
fledging Chicago Women's Graphics Collective.

***********************************
SUNNY CHAPMAN quoted in the Orlando (Fla) Weekly

Sunny Chapman is a NY based reproductive choice activist and 
documentary film maker. She also appeared in the 1995 film Jane: An 
Abortion Service.

Sunny was quoted in an article called "Choose Lies" about the 
so-called "pregnancy counseling centers". You may read the entire 
article at http://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/story.asp?ID=3906 .

Sunny has two documentary films  on the same subject available on her 
web site at http://www.sunnychapman.com. These "centers" are actually 
a front for the anti-abortion movement and often have ties with with 
extreme right-wing fundamentalist groups.

*************************************
CHICAGO WOMEN'S HEALTH MOVEMENT HISTORY GROUP

For the past several months a small group of former CWLU health 
activists and their supporters have been meeting to develop a history 
of the Chicago women's health movement.  They have been busy 
cataloging  numerous documents and have conducted taped interviews of 
former CWLUer Jenny Knauss.There are plans to transfer these tapes to 
digital format so they can be edited and then transcribed. The group 
is also building a collaborative web  site where they share their 
document listings, audio files and writing projects for review and 
critiques.

***************************
SO WHAT'S NEW ON THE HERSTORY SITE?

We added the January 1969 issue of "Voice of the Women's Liberation 
Movement." Edited by Jo Freeman, this was the first national women's 
liberation periodical. We have 4 issues up and 2 more in our paper 
files, but we are missing the June 1969 Issue #7. If you  can send us 
a clear xerox of that issue or are willing to trust us with an 
original (we'll return  it after we scan it), we would be deeply 
appreciative. E-mail infogal at cwluherstory.org if you can help. Please 
visit http://www.cwluherstory.org/CWLUArchive/voice.html

We added "View from the Loop",  an excellent introduction to the 
Second Wave women's health movement in Chicago. Written in the late 
1970's ( e-mail infogal at cwluherstory.org if you can pin down the 
exact date), it covers  many of the CWLU health projects of the time. 
Please visit http://www.cwluherstory.org/CWLUArchive/loop.html

We added  a description of the diverse organizations who attended one 
of the earliest national  women's liberation conferences. We think it 
was the Lake Villa conference in November of 1969. E-mail 
infogal at cwluherstory.org if you can help us confirm that.
http://www.cwluherstory.org/CWLUArchive/natconference.html

We also added more books and improved the navigation to our online 
book catalog at http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUMarket/books.html. If 
you know of any cool books by former CWLUers,  books that mention the 
CWLU, or Chicago women's histories that we should include, please 
contact us with the info.

We updated our Feminist Salon at http://www.cwluherstory.com/phpweb/ 
with several new articles including:

- a review by Thomas Jepson of "Women, Power and ATT"
- an editorial on why Iraqi reconstruction must include women
- a discussion of  modern feminism by punkerslut
- a remembrance of Nina Simone
- an article on the sex discrimination suit against Walmart

Our Feminist Salon spotlights modern feminism. We urge you to 
contribute news, essays, poems, reviews, editorials and fiction that 
you may have written. You may submit them right on the Feminist Salon 
page or send them via e-mail attachment to infogal at cwluherstory.org. 
We're open to just about anything feminist related. We get a modest, 
but steady stream of visitors. Here are our Top 5 most read articles:

1. Disney's Dead Moms  by Kristin Lems
2. In Memorium: Ginni Clemmens-  assembled from various news sources
3. Bush & Hager: Danger to American Women by the Feminist Majority
4. The Hours Opens This Christmas- from the film's publicity material
5. In Memorium: Irene Peslikis-  assembled from e-mail correspondence


***************************
BOOK!

Game Face: What Does A Female Athlete Look Like? by Jane Gottesman is 
a  collection of photos and text about women who do sports. It covers 
not only the stars, but everyday girls and women.  Jane Gottesman 
will be appearing at Women and Children First Bookstore on June 5th. 
Visit http://www.womenandchildrenfirst.com for more info.


***************************
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.hinodoc.com/
Teresa Foley takes an innovative approach to the question of domestic abuse.
______________________________________
http://www.codepink4peace.org/
Code Pink continues  to mobilize women for peace. Check this site for 
their latest campaigns
______________________________________
http://www.feminist.com/
An eclectic feminist site with action alerts, thoughtful articles and 
a variety of resources.

***************************
FEMINIST EVENTS AND ACTION CALENDAR

Women and Children First Bookstore has some fine events scheduled for 
June including  appearances by Isabel Allende, Maria de los Angeles 
Torres, Jane Gottesman, le the diem thuy, Carla Trujillo, Christina 
Garcia, Barbara Ransby, Terry Davis and Diane Horwitz, Carleen Brice 
and two Pride  poetry readings. Please visit 
http://www.womenandchildrenfirst.com for a complete schedule.

______________________________________
Erica Jong talks about her new book: "Sappho's  Leap"

The author  of  "Fear of Flying" has  written an imaginative 
fictional account of Sappho, the Greek poet who wrote achingly 
beautiful lyrics  2600 years ago.  Little is known about the life of 
the real Sappho, which gives Erica Jong plenty of room to work. The 
early reviews look very good.

June 4, 7:30
Barbara's Bookstore,
1100 Lake St., Oak Park.
(708) 848-9140
______________________________________
Women's Issues and the Media

A discussion of  how a group of mostly small women's organizations 
overcame the challenges they faced in gaining media attention. Their 
experience and insights will be shared so other women's organizations 
can gain media attention also.

Thursday, June 5
1:30-3:00 pm
Malcolm X College
1900 W. Van Buren
Chicago, Illinois

Visit http://www.newstips.org  for more info and free registration.

______________________________________
Resourceful Women: Researching and Interpreting American Women's History

The event will showcase the Library of Congress multi-format holdings 
in American women's history and highlight current research in this 
field of study by historians, film makers, children's book authors, 
and others involved in presenting this information to a variety of 
audiences. The symposium is free and open to the public. The Library 
of Congress actually has a small holding of CWLU materials.

June 9-10
Library of Congress
Madison Building
Washington DC

Please visit http://www.loc.gov/rr/women/  for more info and free registration.

______________________________________
Cirque du Sweat

Chicago's acclaimed Sweat Girls announce their new show- Cirque du 
Sweat  The Sun Times calls them "witty and intelligent" and the 
Tribune says they are "consistently funny!" Now, in Cirque du Sweat, 
these distinctive solo monologuists bring you true life stories 
blended with live music, dance, and intriguing freak show 
characters!!!

National Pastime Theater
4139 N. Broadway
RESERVATIONS: (773) 868-4620

DATES & TIMES -	      
June 5, 6, 7, 8 (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) 8PM	 

June 12, 13, 14 (Thurs, Fri, Sat) 8PM  

Tickets are $17

For more info visit http://www.sweatgirls.org  


***************************
LOOKING FOR A JOB OR INTERNSHIP?

Midwives for Midwives (MFM), is seeking two new staff members

One position  involves training midwives in Guatemala. Experienced 
clinicians with fluency in Spanish and a teaching background are 
encouraged to apply. For complete details  on the midwife training 
position, contact Jennifer Houston at Womanway at aol.com .

The other position is for a fundraiser here in the US. This is a 
part-time position with the option of telecommuting. A  BA degree and 
3-7 years experience in fundraising is required. For complete details 
on the fundraising position, contact  Nell Whitman at 
nellwhitman at hotmail.com .

Visit http://www.midwivesformidwives.org for more info about Midwives 
for Midwives.

______________________________________
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.

***************************
LOOKING FOR A SERVICE?

Nancy Hulse produces live multimedia programs about women's issues. 
She currently has two main shows in production: "That Ain't No Way to 
Treat a Lady", which deals with relationship violence and, "A Rose by 
Any Other Name", which illustrates the impact of rape on women in our 
society. Recently she developed two new "SPOKEN WORD" versions of her 
shows to  reach the widest possible audience with this important 
message. Same content, same impact, but less technical and more 
intimate in nature.

She has appeared at many colleges and universities across America.

Contact her at:
Nancy Hulse
Womynkind Productions
http://www.womynkind.org
1-888-578-9847


***************************
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






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