Reminder: BTS Conference this weekend!

* Wheelchair accessible
* Please come as fragrance-free as possible (meaning no perfume/cologne, no strongly scented deoderant, makeup, or styling products, no smoke).  To read up more on multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), sometimes referred to as chemical disability, here’s an article by billie rain on some MCS basics: http://dualpowerproductions.com/2011/05/01/mcs-accessibility-basics/

Documentary Screening: “Blood, Sweat and Berries”

***PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY***

Thursday, May 26th, 2011 @ 12:15 PM, Wyckoff Auditorium, Seattle University

In October 2007, a front page article in The Seattle Times declared blueberries to be “Washington’s blue gold” as the state’s second-most-valuable crop per harvested acre. (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003984712_blues31m.html)

But who is picking the crops?

Join us for the screening of “Blood, Sweat & Berries,” a new documentary directed by a group of college students that portrays the harsh reality under which migrant workers live and work in the state of Washington today.

This event is sponsored by Latin American Studies, the Diversity, Citizenship and Social Justice Track, and Chican@/Xican@ students at Seattle University. It is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Jenny Vlad at vladj@seattleu.edu

PUT THIS ON THE {MAP} Screening with Q&A

May 23rd, 6pm, Pigott Auditorium, Seattle University

PUT THIS ON THE {MAP} Screening with Q&A
Reteaching Gender and Sexuality

Join us on Monday, May 23rd at 6pm in Pigott Auditorium for a presentation of the documentary PUT THIS ON THE {MAP}, followed by Q&A session with the film’s subjects and filmmakers. PUT THIS ON THE{MAP} was awarded best local film in the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film festival in 2010 and is also an official selection for the San Francisco and London LGBT film festivals.

Research indicates that queer and transgender young people are more than four times as likely to have attempted suicide in the past year than their peers, as well as face an increased risk of harassment at school, drug and alcohol use, and of being the victims of physical violence. Queer and transgender youth are also over-represented in the juvenile justice system and in systems of state care, where policies and practices often don’t meet the most basic safeguards. Educators, health providers, service organizations, and state agencies often lack confidence and competency to help or to address structural issues related to gender and sexuality.

This event is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible.  Sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Triangle Club, and Seattle University Counselors for Social Justice. Contact Erin Getchman with questions: getchman@seattleu.edu

RSVP @ http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=221334167877399&pending#!/event.php?eid=221334167877399

Drunk.Naked.Love

Created be Basil Shadid from Dual Power Productions, drunk.naked.love is a web-based talkumentary series. Season one (12 episodes) runs from February 14 to May 2, 2011. individuals, couples and (un)couples get tipsy, get naked, get in bed, and get talking… the question: what does being in love mean to you?

Workshop Recording: 100 Years of Feminist Politics and Our Bodies

Recording #2… check out Pinay Sa Seattle’s workshop “100 Years of Feminist Politics and Our Bodies” facilitated at Break the Silence’s 2010 Creative Resistance conference.

PART 1:

PART 2:

Check out photos from the workshop here (many thanks to the lovely Nicole Kandi for taking photos!)

Workshop description:

March 8, 2010 will mark the centennial of the working class women’s struggle for equity and emancipation from imperialism, feudalism and patriarchy. Since the early 1900’s women have been campaigning for change during a time of great expansion in the booming industrialized world. Millions of women have paved the way for the women’s liberation movement worldwide demanding for better working wages, shorter working hours and voting rights. Women have fought long and hard to protect their families and communities, but in times of economic hardship and wars of aggression, women are often the most impacted.

Post modern and western feminist ideals often neglect to connect the struggle of women to the overall working class people’s struggle against imperialism, the real enemy of women. Reducing the women’s liberation movement to gaining individual rights or to a trivialized gender war against the opposite sex only further advances US imperialism and hides the fact that its real definition of equality is no more than the right to be as exploited and oppressed as the next property-less person or being as mere sex objects of male chauvinism.

Women of the Philippines have had a long standing history of fighting for change not only amongst themselves but for the people of the Philippines. Gabriela Silang, Lorena Barros, Tandang Sora and many others have left behind a legacy militant women fighting for a Philippines free from foreign intervention and exploitation.

This workshop will pay homage to our Filipina heroines as well as the many other women around the world united to advance the revolutionary struggle for women’s liberation. We will dismantle the common notion that the liberation of women is only achieved among and within the ranks of women, but is in fact necessary to work in alliance with all other oppressed and marginalized sectors of society. After all, even women can uphold the very same system that oppresses all other working class people.

We will also examine how our bodies as Filipina women is used and abused throughout the course of history. We will discuss issues ranging from human trafficking, prostitution, rape, labor exploitation and even the idea that the Philippines is often implicated as a female entity to understand the use of the female body within the system of imperialism.

In honor of the centennial of International Women’s Day, we commemorate the historic ties between the women’s movement and the proletarian movement for celebrating women and women’s militant inter-nationalism originated from the working class movement.

Objectives:
** Understand the historical context of the working class women’s liberation movement
** Re-define feminism and feminist politics from an anti-imperialist and working class perspective
** Learn about significant Filipina heroines who have contributed to the advancement the women’s liberation movement in the Philippines
** Dissect the impacts that imperialism, feudalism and patriarchy has on Filipina women’s bodies

More info on Pinay Sa Seattle: http://pinaynews.wordpress.com/

Pinay* sa Seattle is a collective of Pinays celebrating our multifaceted identities, revolutionary history, and rich culture. We work to build a community in the Seattle area invested in educating, defending, and advocating for the human rights of Filipinas globally.

May is national masturbation month!

So get warmed up and head on over to the website of jiz lee, genderqueer pornstar, who has an awesome post that includes a teaser for Sticky: A Documentary on Masturbation, a plug for Gush: Official Guide to the G-spot and Female Ejaculation that jiz appears in, and some sex positive photo sexiness. phew.  NSFW.

and check out the rest of their website while you’re at it, jiz is an awesome wealth of info and hotness on all things sex-positive!

Workshop Recording: Can Feminism Be Sexy?

Last year we had the opportunity to record several of the amazing presentations from Break the Silence’s Creative Resistance conference. First we’d like to share Dr. Julie Harms Cannon’s workshop “Can Feminism Be Sexy?”

Stupid Girls by Pink

About the workshop:

The purpose of this workshop is to discuss sex-positive feminism and to engage in a debate of anti-porn and pro-sex feminist thought.  Dr. Harms Cannon will describe her research on amateur stripping and the difficulties she encountered in the process, relating it both to her identity as a feminist academic and as a mother.  How to initiate sex-positive discussions will be covered, as well as the ways in which the sex-positive paradigm confronts the issue of violence in the community.  These issues will be opened up to the group for discussion.

About Dr. Julie Harms Cannon:

Teaching and Research Interests

• Sex and gender
• Classical and contemporary sociological theory
• Feminist theory and methods
• Multicultural education
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Amateur stripping.

Biography / Key Publications:

• Charlotte Chorn, and Julie Harms Cannon. 2008.  “They’re Still in Control Enough to be in Control: Paradox of Power in Dementia Caregiving” Journal of Aging Studies 22: 45-53.
• Cannon, Julie Harms. 2006. “White, Working-class, and Feminist: Working within the Master’s House and Finding Home Again.” Pp. 101-116 in Stephen L. Muzatti and Vince Samarco (eds.) Reflections from the Wrong Side of the Tracks: Class, Identity, and the Working Class Experience. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Dunham, Charlotte C., Julie Harms Cannon, and Bernadette Dietz. 2004. “Representing the Other in Sociology of the Family Texts.” Teaching Sociology 32(4): 374-384.
• Cannon, Julie Harms and Adrian De La Rosa. 2001. “Utopian Feminism and Feminist Pedagogy: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Everyday Classroom.” Quarterly Journal of Ideology 24(1&2): 41 pages.
• Cannon, Julie Ann Harms, Thomas C. Calhoun, and Rhonda Fisher. 1998. “Amateur Stripping and Gaming Encounters: Fun in Games or Gaming as Fun.” Deviant Behavior 19(4): 317-337.

Save the Date – Reclaiming Spaces: Bodies, Ownership, and Policing BTS Conference 2011

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=199636936740071

Exciting news! Break the Silence proudly presents our third annual conference: “Reclaiming Spaces: Bodies, Ownership, and Policing.” This years format is a little different than years past, but it seemed appropriate as most of BTS’s members will be graduating this year.  This is a student-led research conference. We especially encourage community members to attend. It is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Aldo Reséndiz at resendiz@seattleu.edu. Thank you!

Co-sponsored by the SU Diversity, Citizenship, and Social Justice Track

Time	Saturday, May 28 · 11:00am - 3:00pm
Location	Seattle University Pigott Building, Pigott106 901 12th Ave. Seattle, WA
More Info	The following are descriptions of this year’s presentations: “Keepin’ it Real: Black Women and their Feminist Resistance and Negotiation of Stereotypical Media Representation” by Kendra Ijeoma The research explores the racist and sexist representation of black women in the media that is often perceived by the larger society as the “reality” of black womanhood. These images are detrimental to both the “viewed” and the “viewer”. In the research I look at the ways in which black women have both resisted and negotiated this representation by employing an “oppositional gaze” upon consuming these images. Furthermore, I explore the ways in which black women have engaged in feminist praxis through the production of their own cultural texts as well as the creation of “safe spaces”. Using the work of bell hooks and Dorothy E. Smith in my analysis, I seek to parallel the representation of black women in the media with their representation and resistance within contemporary feminist discourses. “Sex Reassignment Surgery and the Control of Sexual Minorities in Iran” by Aric Lane In 1978 the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa (religious edict) permitting those with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) to have Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) in order to align a person’s internal gender identity with their external sex organs. Currently Iran is leading the world in SRS, however there is concern that Iran is utilizing SRS as a mechanism to control those considered sexual “deviants”. In Iran homosexuality and same-sex activity is illegal and punishable by death, yet the state supports and occasionally subsidizes SRS for those with GID. This research explores the stigma towards sexual minorities in Iran, the evolution of SRS in Iran, reports on the lived experiences of transgendered persons, and the inclination of the Iranian government to seek out scientific resolutions towards social “problems”. The Making of a Hñähñu-MeXican@ (Indigenous mestizo, Mexican-Xican@) Im/migrant Student-Activist: Exported, Repackaged, and Transnationally Active by @ldo ulisses rexéndiz Using autobioethnographic methodology, my research thesis traces the development of my political consciousness as a student-activist at Seattle University in relation to the articulation of my own intersectional identity in terms of race, ethnicity, class, gender, immigration status, language, and sexual orientation within the larger economic and historical context of post-9/11 Mexican migration to the U.S. This autobioethnography also seeks to challenge the concept of the “new social actor” as commonly defined in New Social Movement Theory and to inscribe my experience as a MeXican@ student-activist within larger transnational social movements, particularly in the context of Mexico and the U.S., by transcending the boundaries of the nation/state while also breaking down the binary of the self/Other in social research. “The ‘Anti-’ Rhetoric: Media representation of Japanese-Americans during WWII and Latina/o immigrants post 9/11″ Bree Keaveney and Aldo Reséndiz

SYPP Fundraiser: FamBam!

A Dinner and Celebration of the SYPP Family

-Saturday, May 21st, 5:30-8pm-

Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church

3001 24th Avenue South 

Seattle, WA 98144

Register here: http://bit.ly/syppfambam

What’s a FamBam?

fam·i·ly [fam-uh-lee, fam-lee] noun   +    bam [bam] noun, verb   =  Fam·Bam

-noun

1. a night of sharing, storytelling, eating and laughter with old and new friends.

ex. I can’t wait to go to the fambam tonight so I can eat til I burst and laugh til I cry!

-verb

2. to bring communities together to celebrate the accomplishments of youth organizers with families, community and SYPP supporters.

ex. I’m glad we fambam’d last night. I learned so much about everyone there!

No auction this year? What makes this different? 

• Instead of an emphasis on items and purchases, the focus is on fun and connection between supporters, youth, and their families.
• A creative and unique celebration of how all generations contribute to social change, from our ancestors, to our supporters and alumni, to our current members.
• More diverse and in-depth sharing about who SYPP is and why our work matters.

I want to be there! What do I need to know?

• A delicious dinner is provided and you should be prepared to run for our famously fun dessert dash.
• Come with a spirit of grassroots support for a worthy organization empowering youth in Seattle to fight for social justice. There will be a variety of ways to donate to SYPP and demonstrate support for our work.
• Tickets are $40 for adults, and $20 for youth

Please register yourself as a guest by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/syppfamba

If you have any questions about anything at all please feel free to call us at 206-860-9606 or email sunny@sypp.org or jeremy@sypp.org

Free Aoki Film Screening

FILM SCREENING: Aoki | Saturday, May 14 @ 7pm

AOKI (2010, 94 min.) is a documentary film chronicling the life of Richard Aoki (1938-2009), a third-generation Japanese American who became one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party. Filmed over the last five years of Aoki’s life, this documentary features extensive footage with Aoki and exclusive interviews with comrades, friends, and former students. Question and answer with the filmmakers Ben Wang and Mike Cheng will follow. Presented in collaboration with the Center for Study of the Pacific Northwest and the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington conference on Race, Radicalism, and the Repression on the Pacific Coast and Beyond. Aokifilm.com

Free | In Community Hall at The Wing Luke Museum (719 South King Street, International District)