A Playlist for the 2014 Feminist Zine Fest (in NYC this Saturday!)

And now, for an announcement:

This weekend is the NYC 2014 Feminist Zine Fest! I am a proud planner and schemer (the Pressure Cooker on our team), and I would love to see y'all out there.

Come out to the James Room (4th Floor, Barnard Hall) at Barnard College on 116th and Broadway between 1-6pm this Saturday, March 1st to trade zines, listen to zinesters read their work, and just be old school rad with us!

And, to pump you up even further, I created a mixtape in partnership with Homoground to get us charged for the fest! Check it out by clicking the picture above or this link right here.

See you Saturday!

Posts from Memory Lane: How Feminists Can (and Should) Use Righteous Anger

These posts were written during the summer while I was in Bangladesh, in preparation for the upcoming academic year. Long story short: when I looked back at the archive, I didn't have the desire or the time to put them up. But now, since I'm coming back to the blog, I decided that some of them aren't half bad. Read on!

In the newspaper while I was in Bangladesh, a health official claimed that women who requested maternity leave would just "keep on making more babies" and that they should just leave their jobs because it wasn't what they needed to be doing anyway. They were, as he put it, baby-making machines. As you can imagine, we were more than a little upset.

From this article, my sister and I had a (loud) conversation over lunch about how feminism looks in Bangladesh. We know how sexism looks, clearly, but what about the response to it?

A Week in Pictures: The Domestic

I've always had in my heart a special spot for the domestic arts. I've tried my hand at most of what we would now call leisure activities - sewing, knitting, crafts, cooking, etc. Often these activities are ragged on as being somehow privileged and un-feminist. While I'll own up to the fact that the ability to experiment with one's leisure time and resources is indeed privileged, I would like to think of these pursuits as something of an escape from the trials of regular life. For some, cooking is creativity and even if it is in the context of providing a good meal for one's family, it is a form of expression that I find extremely valuable and often ignored in our daily life. If feminism is about choice of pursuits and domestic activities are one's chosen creative or leisure activity, then that's wonderful. On the other hand, it is definitely important to recognize that the enjoyment of these activities is still wrapped up in how much time one can devote to oneself and time/resource-consuming work. Some food for thought the next time you're thinking of taking up some new home-based activity.
  
Check out my adventure with cookie dough for delicious proof of my domestic activities!

On Location: Feminist Zine Fest

I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. I read part of my poetry assignment from the confines of a comforter cave, waiting for the last possible moment before I had to rise, dress myself, and get on the train to the Feminist Zine Fest. It wasn't out of lack of excitement, oh no - rather, I had just arrived back from a psychology conference in DC the night before and I was unwilling to give up the creature comforts of my bed to go anywhere.

But I'm so glad I did.

When I arrived at the Feminist Zine Fest at Brooklyn Commons an hour or so later, the place was just starting to fill in. I set up my zines (including the new one that I put out just in time for the fest, Hairstory - pictured above!) on a table near the door, next to my boss Jenna and her plethora of zine library-related works. My roommate made the rounds to the different tables as I munched on a granola bar, waiting for people to arrive.

And arrive they did - after just a half hour, the place was buzzing with alternative press addicts, all of them displaying amazing fashion sense and a love for zines. By 2pm, they were bottlenecking near the door and there was great excitement as the first zine reading started, featuring the editors and a contributor (Jenna Freedman, my zine library boss extraordinaire!) of a new book on zines in libraries.

Throughout the day, I met all the different zinesters that I knew way too much about due to having read their zines in our library collection. I would see them, my eyes would get wide, and I would shyly say that I loved their work. Also, completely out of the blue, I met Cynosure, the wonderful blogger that I have been reading for the past year. There were Bluestockings employees right across from us and chill people doing artwork and all types of representation. Every few minutes, I would gasp, fangirl-like, at something new and wonderful that came into my view. In a perfect world, I could keep connected with all the people I saw and met that day.

How many people got their hands on my zines, you ask? I started with somewhere around 90 and ended up with just 8 little zines coming home with me that afternoon. Let's call it like it is: an amazing success! I am so glad to have been able to be part of it.

Interested in other zine-related things I've done? Check out the tutorial How to Make a Micro-Mini Zine and the releases of my other zines on Archive.org.

Denim and Black Cloth: Feminism and Female Expression

Last week, I talked about my position on skin-lightening creams. Even as I wrote that post, I was bursting with contradictions. Some include:

Is it a woman's right to do that to her body?*
Are people using these products uninformed about the consequences and the societal expectations informing their choices? If not, what makes them choose to use it?
And, most importantly: Are fashion choices sanctioned by feminism, even when they are considered destructive?

Thinking of fashion from a feminist perspective is a tricky feat. There are feminists on both sides of the burqa debate; there are those that find mini-skirts and booty shorts just as offensive or progressive. In many senses, fashion can be liberating or constricting.

As we go into a season where people come out of their thick layers and begin using their clothing to express all different messages, I want to explore this single question:

How does feminism intersect with fashion and what are the consequences?

More after the jump.

*I know that men also use skin-lightening creams, but for the purposes of this post I would like to restrict it to women.

Caught My Eye: Colonize This!

This week, I read Colonize This!, a book of essays by women of color about their experiences finding - and molding - feminism. I read this book (394 pages) within four days - not just because the library due date was coming up, but because I was absorbed in the stories of these amazing women of color from all different walks of life. Check out my thoughts after the jump!

Book Review - Click: Moments When We Knew We Were Feminists

As part of my Well Women duties for next year, I am duty-bound to read a book from our library - you can imagine how giddy I was to receive this assignment. It's like summer reading, but revamped to suit my feminist and inspirational needs. In keeping with these themes, the first of two books that I chose to read was Click: Moments When We Knew We Were Feminists, which is edited by Courtney Martin (of Barnard and Feministing) and J. Sullivan.

Caught My Eye: Reading Women

Alright, I know that I said that regular posting would resume Friday, but I didn't account for one major thing: sleep. Upon arriving home, I attempted to stay awake, but instead collapsed into an earth-shattering slumber, not to be awoken unless food was available. So, this post that was supposed to be put up Friday is actually coming to you today. My apologies for the delay!

Contrary to popular belief, finals time for me is great for doing all the things I miss out on during the rest of our very busy school year. So, when reading week began and I realized that I actually didn't have anything I needed to catch up on, I dove into this book that had been waiting on my shelf for quite some time: Reading Women by Stephanie Staal.

Snoop Dogg and Shakespeare

Last week, I had the privilege of attending two very different shows on the same day - a Snoop Dogg concert and The Taming of the Shrew. They were both offered at the Columbia campus and I'm sure they've already been talked about to death by our students, but I wanted to add my voice to the mix. So, to start off, I ask you: what do you think Snoop Dogg and Shakespeare have in common?

Take Back the Night, Re-Envisioning Political Participation

I haven't gotten very involved with political activism since I've been at Barnard. I had thought that I would be more inclined to it, having been to a fair number of marches and canvassing missions in my high school years, but my interests have been so all over the map that I haven't had the same concentrated chance to get fired up and ready to go in NYC. One of my friends put it nicely when she said that it's difficult to get involved in NYC politics when you haven't lived here for the majority of your life.

And I suppose that's true: when you move to a new place, the first thing you think about is not who the state reps are, but what kind of friendships you're going to make and where you can get a good meal. It's even harder to feel like you need to participate when you are thrown into a sea of people, some of which seem so outstanding in their motivation that you feel like you can take a backseat.

But, after going to Take Back the Night, I've started to think about it, and this nonchalant attitude has gotten me worried.

Ain't I A Woman? Recap

Since the last few weeks have been so action-packed, I am going to skip my typical "Caught My Eye" post this week to tell you about the Ain't I A Woman? even that I attended on Monday.

First: the background. I am a blogger for Refuse the Silence, an organization headed by the great Morgane Richardson and the people that hosted this event. And, because I am a huge nerd, I got giddy at the idea of seeing some of my favorite bloggers speak at this event about something I really care about: race in the feminist movement.

 Me and Latoya Peterson (editor of Racialicious) after the event! Don't we look chilled out?