On Location: Big Sexy, The John Oliver Show, & Formosa

Last week, I had the amazing privilege to cry, laugh, and learn at three amazing events throughout the city - as I wrote about on Monday, my staycation allowed me to really savor the opportunities of NYC again, and these were three of the best ways I knew how. Here's the recap!

 

Image via Tiffany Bank's website

On Location: Active Minds Conference

Ding-dong! We are now arriving at Union Station, Washington DC. That was my wake-up call en route to the psychology research conference I presented at last Friday. I jerked awake, covered by my giant teal coat, and started fumbling for my bags on the seat beside me, both excited and nervous to be embarking on a completely new experience.

Last Friday, I attended the Active Minds Emerging Scholars Conference to present my preliminary research for a project that I'll be doing until June about college-aged Asian American women and their attitudes towards mental health and counseling. I'm excited to note that there is a blogging component to my project, so all you readers out there will be the first to know as I go further into my work. But for now, I'd like to talk about the conference itself.

On Location: Active Minds Conference & Feminist Zine Fest

This weekend, I will be all over the place.

First, I am going to the Active Minds conference to present my preliminary research on Asian American women in college and their attitudes towards mental health and counseling. The conference is going to be in DC, so I'll be getting up very early and coming back very late from said journey, but it will be a great experience. A full recap (and brief on my research) will come next week!

Then Saturday, I will be tabling with the Barnard Zine Library at the Feminist Zine Fest in Brooklyn! Come say hi and get a zine from me, if you so desire (and are in the NYC area).

Anyway, on that note, regular blogging will resume Monday, when all these things are through. Enjoy your weekend!

An Image from the Womensphere Emerging Leaders Global Summit

(Photo credit: Bernie DeChant via ToshiReagon.com)

There were so many amazing discussions and questions that were brought up at the Womensphere conference last week (some of which I encapsulated in quote form last Saturday), but I want to share today one of the earliest and most impacting images I took away from the conference: 200+ women in business clothes standing up and singing together at the prompting of Toshi Reagon.

After the opening remarks by the conference organizer, Analisa Balares, Toshi was the first guest she brought out. As you can imagine at 9am in the morning, most of us were still groggily saying our hellos to our tablemates and talking about traffic. Little did we know about our upcoming musical debut.

The room stood slowly. There were some early adopters who had bounced up out of their seats, clapping and smiling, while there were those who remained seated for the entire time. We all still sung in somewhat timid voices, not ready to speak above the rest, not at this early juncture where we had all just come together.

I won't blame this timidity entirely on internalized sexism or the incongruity it held with the idea of "professionalism" purported by these high academic conferences. No, I believe that the restraint employed by many of the women (myself included) was simply due to the fear of stepping into a different form of leadership.

On Location: Meet Me at the Race Riot, Sexhibition, & OWS

You know when you're on hyperdrive and you just can't slow down even for a second? For me, that feeling pervaded the tail-end of this last week. This semester, I often feel more real working and attending these events than I do in the classroom. Now that's not to say that I'm going to gallavant off and never finish my degree, but sometimes the activist and creative work that I do really does satisfy me in a way that writing academic papers can never touch. Who says you can't take a break from it once in a while? Here are the highlights.

On Location: Slutwalk NYC

This weekend, I attended SlutWalk NYC. Now, despite my misgivings on the idea of reclaiming the word "slut" (see some great articles on this topic such as this one), I felt like the first message of the SlutWalk was an admirable one: no one should be made to feel they called for sexual violation/violence due to their clothes.

The march was an amazing spectacle - tons of people (including 6+ of our fabulous Well Women) marching through the streets near Union Square shouting chants such as "Yes means yes, no means no!" and "Rape is a felony, even for NYPD!" for all to hear. It was great to feel the vibrant energy of the moment; there were people in all sorts of dress, from conservative to casual to sexy, with as many amazing signs as there were hands. And what was amazing to me is that it felt so... right. So uniting to have the crowd actually take an interest in this issue, not just a few isolated folks.

I will be writing more on the march in the coming week, but for now I'll just let the photos speak for themselves (you can also see all bajillion pictures by liking The Cowation on Facebook!):

CED Round-Up: Summer Writing Camp

This week was all about writing and on-site photography. This week I began writing a novel for Camp National Novel Writing Month, the summer version of November's amazing race to 50,000 words. It is totally nerve-wracking, but what makes it even scarier is that Camp NaNoWriMo goes on for two months! That means that I'll be writing 100,000 words over the course of two months, and I hope to do it all for the same story, so that in and of itself is absolutely terrifying. But I really want to top myself out this summer, so I am going for it. As a result, however, I have suspended work on my serial fiction The Observer until further notice. In the meantime, enjoy the miniature updates about my novel coming at you in the CED posts!
On the other side of things, I got to attend some stellar events this week - namely, Seattle Zombie Walk and the 4th of July at Gasworks Park! Pictures abound.

This is my poor attempt at being a menacing zombie for Seattle Zombie Walk.

Like The Cowation on Facebook to see more of the pics!

On Location: Seattle PRIDE!

For the next two days, I will be attending Seattle Pride supporting queer people as an ally - both the Capitol Hill version in Cal Anderson Park and the citywide version downtown tomorrow. I will be live-Tweeting my escapades and pictures will be forthcoming. If you're in the area, come see me (I'll be in a rainbow chimney hat and makeup that says VOTE)!

On Location: Write-o-Rama

Today, I will live-Tweeting from Write-o-Rama, an all-day writing workshop event that raises money for the Seattle-based writing organization Richard Hugo House. Follow my Tweets (@thecowation) or #writeorama for updates from the workshops and advice for writers!

A Hike is Not Just a Hike

I'm back! Taking a week away has cleared my head a bit and allowed me to do some much-needed research and have some much-needed life experiences. Awesome posts to come, but let's begin with a story for now: last week, I went hiking at Wallace Falls, so today I present you with a few photographs and a free-writing exercise about it. Enjoy!

Writing Live: Nuyorican Poet's Cafe and The Moth

Last week, I had the fabulous opportunity to attend not one, but two literary events in NYC: The Nuyorican Poet's Cafe Friday night slam and The Moth's StorySlam at the Brooklyn Museum. After getting a healthy dose of Snoop Dogg, I took a 180 degree turn in my live entertainment consumption. And, to put it mildly, it was amazing.

As writers everywhere know, most of the time our work will not be read aloud. We will not be asked to come on television or the radio and act out our pieces - nor would most of us want to. The boundary between spoken and written word is not often crossed: we are writers or speakers, but there is an inherent challenge in being both. In these two spaces, however, so many people proved that they could bridge the divide with fantastic results. And - equally amazing - they attracted major crowds! Although it is often said that literature is dying and the printed word is on its way out, you wouldn't know it from the audience at both slams. And that's essentially what I wanted to get before I left for summer - an energizing reminder that writers were and still are appreciated for their work, which is not just for themselves, but for all those listeners and readers out there that appreciate them too. Here is a brief recap of both events and their impact on me.

Breaking New Work: Draw-a-Thon Recap

Oh my, this week has been photo-heavy! Below are two views of the final drawing that I did during the 5 hour Draw-a-thon last weekend. I felt like the first four hours were really a warm-up, consisting of shorter poses and some medium length ones. I am notorious, however, for not being able to adapt myself to very short poses - I need to work on that! So, when the final hour-long post came up, this is what I produced.
As for the Draw-a-thon itself, it was a really great experience! I drank more soda than I have in quite some time that day (perhaps an attempt to stay awake, perhaps because I am a sugar-fiend sometimes). I also decided to take off my headphones and come into the "real" world, which was great because they had a pretty awesome playlist for this shindig. I always enjoy going to Friday Night and Saturday Morning Sketch, but I think this one really fostered a lot of camaraderie between us artists because it was so long. Anyway, enjoy the pictures and check out the rest of my photographic journeys with DIY Interlude and Project x Project this week!

Check out some more of my drawings and photography.

Ain't I A Woman Event Tonight!

Tonight I am attending the Refuse the Silence* event "Ain't I A Woman?" talking about race in the feminist movement. I am very excited to go, but unfortunately that doesn't leave me with a ton of time to post today. Regular posting will resume tomorrow, and expect a fabulous recap by the end of the week! 
Also, if you're in the New York area and can get to Brooklyn between 6pm and midnight, come join us!

*Just in case you didn't know, Refuse the Silence is another blog that I write for that deals with issues facing women of color on college campuses. Check out the link above to learn more!

Read my recap of the Ain't I A Woman? event.

Gearing Up for a Draw-a-thon!

Tonight I am on a mission to draw like I have never drawn... since last semester! The Columbia Artist's Society is having their end-of-the-year Draw-a-thon starting in just a few minutes; that means a five hour figure drawing bonanza like you've never seen before. That also means, unfortunately, I will not be putting up my regular Caught My Eye post tonight. Never fear, however, because I will get it out tomorrow afternoon. "See" you all then!

Check out some of my drawings, including one from this Draw-a-thon!
You can also see some of my photography.

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.

On Location: SOCLR Love (or, Day 3)

(my SOCLR graphic - click to actually read!)

I want to describe my SOCLR experience in a series of experiences, similar to the way I have previously described New York.

1. First day, waiting for the bus, lugging too much stuff, I am aided by a kind (and stronger) hand.
2. I almost cry on multiple occasions from day one to day three.
3. Fig leaf shed; real life coming.
4. Four words: rock, paper, scissors tournament.
5. Interesting insightful conversation even between programs - after an interview, before eating, on the bus...
6. Trippiest and most educational game ever: forks, spoons, knives.
7. Beware the Facebook profile.
8. Working on the intersectionality of identities and how that affects your leadership.
9. Following through on your goals.
10. I met some of the most fantastic people and I have never felt as safe at college than at this retreat.

Thank you so much everyone for the notes, for the support, for the greatness that is SOCLR. Leadership is a promise made in your heart and your head to your peers, and I believe that it comes from all good intentions. Our experiences at SOCLR really voiced our good will and good intentions, which I hope will blossom into greater leadership on campus and a safe community in which people can be as open as possible without fear.

Read the first two posts SOCLR Day 1 and SOCLR Day 2.

On Location: SOCLR Day 2

It occurred to me that anyone outside of the Columbia community (or even most people in the Columbia community) probably don't know what SOCLR is. Allow me to define:
SOCLR = Students of Color Leadership Retreat, which is put on every year to discuss and challenge stereotypes and other racial issues that pertain to personal identity and society at large. This year, we are working towards the idea of leadership, not just for racial issues, but also for all our other interests and identities.
This weekend is all about connecting with a group that you may not have run across on campus and may not necessarily have thought to talk to. We have discussed issues on the intersections between multiple identities, shared personal stories about the hardships of our lives, and laughed until we all felt united in a special and intense way. Basically, my recommendation to anyone and everyone is to go on a retreat (if you have the chance) because you will learn about yourself and you will make connections.
I will have a more comprehensive recap once we get back to campus and have internet and other technological phenomenons, but just know that so far it has been intense and great.

However, I have not been on schedule for my novel this weekend - there's just a lot of other stuff to do!
18,898 words.

Read the first post SOCLR Day 1 and follow-upSOCLR Love.

On Location: SOCLR Day 1

Today I am embarking on a restorative weekend. No cell phone reception, select internet, and a completely different location than my urban Manhattan lifestyle. (I know, quel horreur!)
So, for this weekend, I will probably be putting up posts that are more descriptive than analytical, but we'll see how it goes. Let's get on to the day:

- In the morning, I overpacked my bag with all the things a city girl thinks she'll need at a camp site and almost broke my shoulder hiking it up to Wallach...
- The group trickled in slowly but surely, pizza was served (breakfast of champions)
- We participated in some getting-to-know-you exercises - human bingo reminded me of fourth grade a little bit (for those of you who don't know, you have to find a person that matches the boxes in the room)
- We got on the bus and watched Kick Ass, an enthralling but HORRIBLE movie
- 3 hours, winding roads, deer, cows and some greenery later... we arrived at Frost Valley YMCA!
- It gets dark out here super fast, so we hiked up to our camp building, a great place named Quirk (haha)
- We had our "official opening" and shared some personal fig leaves (a.k.a. where our defenses lie)

Conclusion of the day? I think I'm going to like it here...

Read the follow-up posts SOCLR Day 2 and SOCLR Love.

Project x Project: NaNoWriMo 2010 & On Location: The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

For those of you who don't know, National Novel Writing Month occurs every year in November. It's a time when writers come out of their holes and join in an online race to the finish - 50,000 words written within the month. And I am doing it. Again.
I have "won" for the past two years (which means that I've written two novels) and participated for the past four. I feel like a seasoned veteran when I say that, but I also feel completely new every time I sit down to type out the requisite word count for each day, approximately 1667 words (if I have told you 2500, please forgive me!)
This year I will be busting through a long-held fear of mine: starting on my sci fi trilogy. I have always wanted to bridge the gap between literary fiction and sci fi, because in the Venn diagram of readers, there seems to be very little overlap in those who read each of those categories. A lofty goal? Perhaps. But that's what this month is all about - experimentation and improvement.
And this month I want to tack on another little experiment to this month: daily blogging. Maybe I'm going insane, but my mind is telling me that if I tack on just another hour spent writing (about something completely different, perhaps) in my blog will help me grow as a committed blogger. Which has been on my to-do list of things to become for much too long.
What will I write about? Perhaps a few sentences about how my novel is going. Perhaps about my daily outfits photo shoot (oh yeah, that's still going on). Or perhaps it will be about some amazing rally that I went to over the weekend...

And with that unsubtle segue, we come to how I am spending my fall break: in Washington DC as one of the 150,000 to 200,000 attendees of the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear!
My roommate graciously provided accommodations since her home is located in Alexandria, VA (very near to DC, for those not as knowledgeable about East Coast geography). We took a 6 hour bus ride (that should have been 4 hours) down here on Friday night, and then piled into the subway on Saturday morning for an exciting day of rally fever.
I must admit, the biggest rally I had been to before this one was the MLK Day rallies in Seattle. This rally outclassed them by about 149,000+ people. There was a fever in the air when we got on the subway. The entire Mall was filled up by the start of the rally, and we were fortunate enough to meet up with Mr. Stephen Bronskill and get tickets to go up front.
Here are the conclusions I've drawn from this rally:
1. Subways. New York subways are FAR superior to DC (and no, that's not me just being a snooty New Yorker - if your trains aren't large enough to fill the entire subway platform, you have a problem)
2. Signs. People are really creative when asked to make signs about anything. I was snapping photos of anything and everything I found interesting, and there was a lot!
3. Adam & Jamie As much as I love the Mythbusters, I really don't think they should perform live. Ever again.
4. Public Displays of Affection Perhaps my only complaint about the rally was a pair of teenagers making out in front of me the entire time... I think it was just inappropriate for that situation.
5. Stars The Roots? John Legend? Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)? OZZIE?! My excitement mounted each time they brought out a guest - it was so fantastic!
6. Songs I am going to be singing Love Train and The Greatest, Strongest Country in the World forever now... please look up videos of the rally for the second one, it was a skit by Jon and Stephen that was really addictive.
7. Message. Aside from the hilarity, it was really comforting to know that so many people understand that the media is overblowing the issues and that we shouldn't treat each other poorly based on their opinions.

Overall, I was extremely happy to be able to attend this event and even more excited that Stephen could provide us with such a great position in the crowd. So much thanks to be given to that man!

P.S.
My pictures are available at Deviantart!

Follow me around the world with my other On Location posts!
Check out some more posts featuring my photography.

Spring Break: A Photographic Journey

So, after I uploaded all the Sakuracon photographs, Blogger pretty much crashed. Haha. So this is the second installment of my spring break! Hooray! These photographs are primarily from two locations: a beach in Renton and Bellevue Downtown Park.
I used to do a lot of scenery work, even creating my own website for it, but lately I have been working on learning how to use my camera in a multitude of ways... So, this is a harkening back to an older time that I hope you enjoy!
(also, some of these photographs are courtesy of Joshka. Yay!)

Check out some more posts featuring my photography.