Musical Interlude

Here are three random songs that I've been loving and listening to recently. See if you can find the way that they're tied together...

Lifesavas - Hellohihey

Macy Gray - I'm So Glad You're Here

Blue Scholars - Back Home

Check out the Musical Interlude series for more great music.

On Location: Stand Up for Women's Health! Rally

Check out more pictures at my DeviantArt gallery

Today a band of Barnard students, including myself, ventured down to lower Manhattan to voice our support for women's reproductive health care. It was extremely encouraging to see the large turnout completely engulfing Foley Square and the steps of the Manhattan courthouse, waving signs large and small, and showing their support for women's health care. There were men, women, genderqueer people, and many a person with dog in tow. As I believe is the purpose of a rally, people from very different organizations and backgrounds were brought on stage and united the people with their message. Overall, it was a peaceful and positive rally that brought me new hope in our grave situation.
Yet there were some dissenters - one man with an anti-choice sign was parading around the area, showing off a grotesque doctored image of a dead fetus. This time, however, the tables were turned. Planned Parenthood supporters with tambourines and large signs tailed the guy, jeering at him with good-natured smiles and obvious enthusiasm. Eventually the police came and escorted him away from the area; this simply wasn't the place for him.
Now why was this rally called, you may ask. Put simply, the reproductive rights of women have been put under attack in recent months.
I think that if you are unaware of the current situation, Feministing has done a great job of covering Congress' vested attempts at taking away our reproductive rights through a number of bills - the most insulting of which, I believe, is the proposal to cut all funding from Planned Parenthood.What many of these proposals fail to recognize is that reproductive rights does not amount solely to accessing abortions. While safe access is a very important part of reproductive health, there are many others that Planned Parenthood addresses and that these proposals plan to take away. These include basic health care for the uninsured, sex education, affordable contraceptives, and STI testing. The ramifications of taking away reproductive health care, especially women's health care, is a reduction in the rights of all people to access information and services about one of the most important aspects of life: health.
So, I ask you to sign the petition for Planned Parenthood and read up on the proposals that Congress is attempting to pass. As Senator Schumer told the crowd today, they want to take us back to the 1950's with this legislation. But, in the words of Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, "we ain't goin' out like that!"

You may also be interested in reading my opinion piece Single Sex Education for Women and Girls.

Breaking New Work: RtS Post

All throughout this school year, I have been blogging for Refuse the Silence, a website dedicated to women of color at elite liberal arts colleges, but I haven't as of yet posted anything about this connection here.
That time is no more.
Go check out my recent post: Encouragement for Participators (and read through the older entries as well!).

DIY Interlude: Cookie Dough

 

There's not much left in this batch... I wonder who's been eating it all...

As my life has been taken over by theorizing how the body works in society and reading Nabokov, you can imagine that I've been caught up in the cerebral a lot these days.
Yet, whenever I spend too much time reading or working on an essay or doing something academically stimulating, my hands start itching to be used in some other way.
And that's where cookie dough comes in.
Courtesy of this wonderful recipe blog post by Joy the Baker, I have an outlet for my 1. constant need to do something domestic, and 2. leftover Greek yogurt.
Mine is pictured above, but you should definitely try making this recipe for yourself - it's eggless so there's no fear of salmonella and if you use peanut butter instead of yogurt, it becomes a dairy free treat! Enjoy!

Project x Project: Coming to a Mailbox Near You

Now that this website re-vamping business is finished and I am slowly but steadily working myself back into a regular balance of life and school work, I have realized my complete lack of something I've craved since I was a child: real mail.
I thought about why people don't write letters as often anymore and all the myriad reasons why the internet and other forms of communication are used... but it still gives me infinite joy to open up my pathetic little campus mailbox and receive a letter or a zine or even just a flyer (when I'm desperate).
So, taking on the personal initiative, I have decided to start sending little bits of mail far and wide in the hopes of reviving that old school art of postcard/letter sending. Be prepared, friends and family, for the upcoming onslaught of mysterious envelopes and flashy pieces of paper coming your way.
And don't be alarmed if I ask you for your address.

Check out some of the other creative projects I've been working on.

Thoughtful Return & The Website Re-vamp

So, things are looking a bit different around here at The Cowation. When I returned to the United States last month, I decided that I needed some goals (other than the ones I had already set, of course), and that included making my online presence more cohesive and regular. Thus, a website re-vamp was in store!
I've decided to lighten it up, add some more doo-dads on the main page, and make sure that the links and buttons are front and center. I will also be committing myself to a pretty regular posting schedule that will be revealed day by day as the weeks pass on. Plus, now that everything is interconnected, I will be directing you lovely readers to my other various pages strewn about the internet - especially my DeviantArt and my soon-to-be-opened Etsy store! Speaking of which, I have put up all the artistic and family photographs from my trip to Bangladesh and my Basic Drawing class artwork on my DeviantArt page - check it out! Some things are also in the "Scraps" category, so be sure to see both.
Anyway, let me know what you think of the changes (and the new vexel banner - I had to recreate it since the tragedy of hard-drive death besot my poor computer last month).

Check out some of the interesting new work I have done since the re-vamp, including my DIY Interlude series.

Working On It

It's been pretty quiet on the blog front these days. But never fear! I am just in the process of updating my blog space to something fantastic and cool. See you when it finally premiers!