The Lesbian Tide
Jeanne Cordova, lesbian feminist activist and organizer, was the founder of The Lesbian Tide magazine in 1971. Cordova was one of twelve children born in Germany to a culturally conservative Catholic family. After coming to the US with her family, she attended Catholic High School, where she was involved in sports and the student body organization. After graduating, she entered the convent, fulfilling the desire she had from the age of seven to be a nun. Her exposure to poverty, homosexuality, drugs and the peace movement during her work in the convent led her to seek a career in social work. After leaving the convent and getting her BA in social work in 1970, Cordova became involved in the gay rights movement. She was active in the Gay Liberation Front, Lesbian Feminists, Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), and the Crenshaw Women’s Center and was one of the organizers of the first Gay Women’s West Coast Conference.
On Being Brown, Chronically Ill, An Activist & Surviving:
Chronic illness changes your life. In many ways it takes what you used to have and devours it. It is easy to have it consume everything you once knew, including your passion if you are not careful enough. You are thrown to rebuild a new life and at the same time being a person of color navigating the medical world can be devastating.
Who I am has changed but the core of my being hasn’t. I am still an activist, I am still a writer, queer, brown & beautiful.
Don’t get me wrong. I struggle. A lot.
But over time, (A LOT of time) I have had to learn and truly re-learn extremely important realities; to cement them in to my being in the hardest of times. If you are one amongst the many who have a disability, you may find these truths that I use as mantras, useful:
- I am good enough. My existence and being is good enough. Regardless of what expectations others have of me, they are not me. They are not in my physical body.
- What I contribute is good & a true contribution. Even when I feel it isn’t as good as what someone who can put in physically active hours, what I do makes an impact.
- I know myself best. Navigating the medical world is complex and often times downright discouraging. Even if a doctor looks at you with transparent judgement, there are countless other doctors.
- I am not alone. There are others with similar disabilities. In fact, there are so many people like me that there are communities.
- Self care is not self indulgence or laziness. It is literally a matter of prioritizing my health & life. Remember, you hurt yourself by pushing past what you are physically capable of. And this is very, very real. A reality that others may not be able to see in front of them but you understand daily because it is your existence.
- Pace yourself. Pace what you do even when you feel like you are being slow and you are being judged. Someone’s judgement of you is not worth being sick in bed for days if not weeks because you pushed yourself that hard.
- Friends are understanding and supportive. If someone is not understanding and supportive of your illness/when you are ill, they are not a friend.
I hope this helps anyone who comes across it that needs it.
Much love,
N.H.
Out of the shadows and into the streets!
Tania Chairez and Jessica Hyejin Lee, openly undocumented and unafraid mujeres, block traffic in an act of civil disobedience in front of ICE headquarters in Philadelphia. They risked deportation to free Miguel.
Photo Credit: Jessica Hyejin Lee
Today in the USA, heroes are arrested and nobody notices, while Snooki is a household word. Kali Yuga has a sense of humor, too
Egyptian police have arrested an Australian journalist, a US student and their Egyptian translator on suspicion of paying Egyptians to stage protests against the authorities, a security official said.
Austin Mackell, a freelance reporter, Derek Ludovici and Aliya Alwi were detained in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla on Saturday, the same day activists held student strikes to mark the first anniversary of the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak.
General Mostafa Baz, police chief of the northern Gharbiya province, told reporters the three were suspected of having co-ordinated over the internet to meet in Mahalla, which has a history of labour strikes, to “incite people to protest”.
A security official said people in Mahalla had complained to police that all three were paying people to protest. The authorities have in the past blamed foreigners for plotting unrest.
Alwi said on her Twitter account that they were being charged with inciting protests and vandalism.
“Witnesses have been produced to confirm it,” she wrote. “Report against us, filed now. Many witnesses saw us ‘offering money to youth to vandalise and cause chaos’.”
She tweeted on Saturday evening that they were being handed over to intelligence services. She has not sent any tweets since then, at the time of writing.
Activists and commentators have tweeted developments using the hashtags #freeaustin and #freealiya.
Veteran Egyptian labour activist Kamal al-Fayyumi was also arrested, Baz said, although it was not immediately clear why he had been detained (al-Fayyumi was interviewed by Al Jazeera last April).
The authorities, including the ruling military which took charge after Mubarak’s ouster, have accused foreigners of stirring unrest in Egypt which has seen a spate of deadly protests over the past several months.
In June, security forces arrested a US-Israeli citizen they accused of spying and inciting Egyptians to protest. The man, Illan Grapel, was released in October in a prisoners exchange deal.
they paid for demonstrations of unrest, because none pre-existed. uh huh.
Though far from a familiar face in the United States, the 23-year-old Ms. Vallejo has gained rock-star status among the global activist class. Since June she has led regular street marches of up to 200,000 people through Santiago’s broad avenues—the largest demonstrations since the waning days of the Pinochet regime in the late 1980s. Under her leadership, the mobilization, known as the Chilean Winter, has gained nationwide support; one of its slogans, “We are the 90 percent,” referred to its approval rating in late September.
more.
Pauli Murray 1910 -1985
Dr. Anna Pauline Murray, or Pauli, was a civil rights organizer, feminist, poet and priest. She did so much it was hard to decide what to include here.
Born in 1910 Murray was raised by relatives in Durham after her mother died when she was just 3. Murray credited her family with giving her social justice values and an appreciation of education, however at 15 she turned down a scholarship to study at Wilberforce University in Ohio because she was opposed to segregated education. Moving to New York, Murray supported herself to attend the non-segregated Hunter College instead, completing a degree in English in 1933. She stayed on in NY for several years during the Depression; teaching and publishing her first book Angel of the Dessert.
After returning to Carolina in the late 30’s, three events shaped Murrays’ future politics.
First, in 1938 she was refused entry to the University of North Carolina law school due to her race, then refused again on appeal. In 1940, she was then arrested for breach of segregation statutes and public disturbance while traveling by Greyhound bus with a cousin, and met with lawyers from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NACCP] who suggested that she keep pursing law, after seeing her competence organizing her own case. Finally she was an organizer for the Workers Defense League in the case of an African American sharecropper, Ordell Waller, who was sentenced to death for the murder of a white farmer. When he lost, Murray committed to become a civil rights lawyer.
After finishing a law degree at Howard University first in her year, Murray was awarded a fellowship at Harvard. Harvard refused her admission though on grounds of gender. She graduated with a Masters in Law from the University of California Berkeley instead, writing her thesis on The Right to Equal Opportunity in Employment.
In 1942, she co-founded the Congress For Racial Equality [CORE]. CORE was a pacifist group influenced by Ghandian non-violence, the close connections between it’s members including Murray and Bayrnard Rustion and Dr. Martin Luther King influenced the use of civil disobedience in the movement.
Murray returned to NY to work with the NAACP publishing the “bible for civil rights lawyers” States Laws on Race and Colour in 1951, and contributing to the famous 1954 Brown vs the Board of Education case which ended racial segregation in schools.
She also wrote a successful biography Proud Shoes:the Story of an American Family about her Southern Family in 1956, was appointed to President Kennedy’s Commitee on the Status of Women in 1961 and became the first African American to be awarded a law doctorate from Yale in 1965.
She also campaigned to have sex discrimination in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. When it was passed, she wrote a famous legal article Jane Crow and the Law: Sex Discrimination and Title VII making links between sex discrimination and Jim Crow laws. Then in 1966, she co-founded NOW, the National Organization of Women after convincing Betty Friedan that the US needed a “NAACP for women”
Eventually in 1977, having turned away from the “militancy” of political organizing, she was ordained a Protestant Episcopal Priest. She was able to celebrate her first service at the church in North Carolina where her grandmother had been baptised, as a slave, in 1864.
Three African transgender and intersex rights advocacy organizations have formed an alliance to enhance the trans and intersex movement on the continent. The organizations include South African based Gender DynamiX (GDX), Uganda’s Support Initiative for People with atypical Sexual Development (SIPD) and Transgender and Intersex Africa (TIA).
Ugandan Intersex activist, Julius Kaggwa A press statement issued in Kampala today (February 2) by Julius Kaggwa, the SIPD director, said the partnership “Will concentrate its efforts mainly on advocacy in Sub-Saharan Africa.” …
Kaggwa added, “The main focus of this new entity is to support a growing transgender and intersex movement and to engage regionally in advocacy for the human rights of transgender and intersex people. While forming a platform for all regional work of the three organisations, Transitioning Africa is not a new NGO, but will remain a formal partnership of the three organisations and thus retain autonomy locally and regionally and the capacity for its activities will be provided by the three organisations in the implementation of its activities, such as capacity building workshops, advocacy support to other organisations, exchange programmes and mentorships.”
The vision of Transitioning Africa is to see a strong transgender and intersex movement in sub-Saharan Africa, based on human rights principles, while the mission is to strive for gender recognition within social movements in Africa.
![REVOLUTIONARY WOMAN OF THE DAY: Lucy Parsons (circa 1853 – March 7, 1942) was a labor organizer, socialist, and legendary orator. Lucy was of Native American, Black, and Mexican ancestry, born in Texas as a slave. She moved to Chicago where she was a key organizer in the labor movement and also participated in revolutionary activism on behalf of political prisoners, people of color, the homeless, and women. She said, “We [women] are the slaves of slaves. We are exploited more ruthlessly than men.” We salute Lucy Parsons, known by the Chicago Police Department as “more dangerous than a thousand rioters”. Know your revolutionary women’s history.
via REVOLUTIONARY WOMAN OF THE DAY: Lucy Parsons | AF3IRM](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxxyy74paW1qzoz4do1_400.jpg)
REVOLUTIONARY WOMAN OF THE DAY: Lucy Parsons (circa 1853 – March 7, 1942) was a labor organizer, socialist, and legendary orator. Lucy was of Native American, Black, and Mexican ancestry, born in Texas as a slave. She moved to Chicago where she was a key organizer in the labor movement and also participated in revolutionary activism on behalf of political prisoners, people of color, the homeless, and women. She said, “We [women] are the slaves of slaves. We are exploited more ruthlessly than men.” We salute Lucy Parsons, known by the Chicago Police Department as “more dangerous than a thousand rioters”. Know your revolutionary women’s history.
Extrovert vs. Introvert
There is this common misconception about the natural behaviour of extroverts and introverts; extroverts are often times characterized as being lively and talkative, while introverts are naturally quiet and withdrawn.This isn’t true. It’s correct that when you meet someone shy and quiet they will more likely be and introvert than an extrovert; however, this doesn’t mean that introverts are naturally shy, or that shy people always have to be introverts. On the contrary, introverts can be very talkative and discuss for hours on end about topics that interest them.
The actual definition of an Introvert is someone who draws energy from being alone with their thoughts, while Extroverts draw their energy from being with others.
Introverts are people can who draw energy from being alone with their thoughts. They enjoy, and sometimes even need, a deep conversation with people they trust; they don’t like small talk, or rather often don’t see the point in it. But after a while they will feel the need to be alone again, to recharge and sort out things on their own.
Extroverts on the other hand, are people who draw their energy from being with others. They can enjoy being alone with their ideas and dreams just as an introverts can enjoy being around people, yet after a while they will feel the need to interact with others to fill up their energy.
This is extremely important to consider when practicing self-care.
College—especially student organizing—was particularly unkind to my introvert ways. During my first three years of college, I was consistently answering emails, texting people, attending meetings, and spending time with folks. At Berkeley, I noticed two things about student organizing, interning, or serving as a staff/core member:
- My peers were often 24/7 on the job because our community was convinced that political work never rested. (Often manifested as, “If we don’t do the work, who will?”)
- Building community means face-to-face or direct interaction.
As such, a lot of my friends ended up burning out and stepping back from the community rather than having sustainable investment. This is why for my 4th and 5th year, I opted out of GBMs, town halls, and other community meetings so I could recharge and re-invest in larger impacts/actions.
Now, I tell people not to call me after 5 PM for anything work or organizing related. If it can wait until the morning or wasn’t scheduled before-hand, we can discuss it tomorrow morning. Otherwise, 5 PM and onwards is family time and “me time” (Protip: “Me” time often involves a lot of red wine).
Of course, if there’s an emergency, then I tell folks to contact me.
I also practice introvert self-care in my social life. Large venues like clubs, music festivals, and parties often leave me drained and irritated. I honestly find it exhausting (and sometimes a chore) to get out there, meet new people, and try to engage in meaningful conversation. As such, I’m the person at the party often smoking on the patio, holding a drink, and just enjoying something more than small talk. This is the reason why I detest going to Rage now. It’s honestly not worth the damn 4 hours of driving for me (unless, I have a good group of friends going and it’s a special night).
For my friends and family out there organizing, I highly suggest you tend to your extrovert/introvert ways and also get a good understanding of your enneagrams. It’ll give you a bigger toolbox for knowing how to positively deal with all the cray that happens in your lives.
Your commentary is so on point! And thank you for sharing! I’m in my 5th year in college and I too decided to opt out of GMs, meetings, etc. after years of student organizing. I also dislike going to large venues like Rage and other clubs because of those same reasons (exhaustion). It’s only recently that I found out I’m an introvert and I wished I found out sooner rather than blaming myself for not being as charismatic, outgoing, and social butterflies like my community organizing peers. I wished I found out what introvert means during my K-12 years too.
Yup. I’m still recovering/recharging from activism, even though i’m barely in my third year and i don’t think i did that much organizing…I have known what introvertedness is, but i still can’t help but feel that i’m a bit unequipped to be an activist…
All this commentary ^
this so much - reaching my 20th year of activism while introvert = accepting that the only way to survive is to take this stuff on board, and don’t let extroverts personal habits influence how you work.
Especially if they’re also insecure yet ambitious egotists - which realistically you get a lot in politics. If an organizer like that’s also an extrovert, they probably have the social skills and drive to maintain a great public image, despite creating constant internal organizational drama for factional and personal status gain.
The ennegramme and MBTI types are pretty handy for figuring out how to interpret and approach [or ditch] those extrovert/egotists if you agree on the organizational goals, but their demands for 24/7 personal attention are unsustainable.
SARABAH | Women Make Movies | Trailer (by WMMNYC)
Rapper, singer and activist, Sister Fa is hero to young women in Senegal and an unstoppable force for social change. A childhood victim of female genital cutting (FGC), she decided to tackle the issue by starting a grassroots campaign, “Education Without Excision,” which uses her music and persuasive powers to end the practice. But until 2010 there’s one place she had never brought her message — back home to her own village of Thionck Essyl, where she fears rejection. Sarabah follows Sister Fa on this challenging journey, where she speaks out passionately to female elders and students alike, and stages a rousing concert that has the community on its feet. A portrait of an artist as activist, Sarabah shows the extraordinary resilience, passion and creativity of a woman who boldly challenges gender and cultural norms. It’s an inspiring story of courage, hope and change.
For more information on this film, please visit: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c811.shtml
Grace Lee Boggs speaks to OWS with some really simple advice I don’t think they wanna hear…
Transcript:
I want to say thank your for breaking through the silence. Thank you for starting a movement. But you have a long way to go, this enemy of ours is not just Wall St., it’s a whole culture.
It’s a way of looking at us and valuing ourselves and each other. And how you’re going to move beyond challenging Wall St., how you’re going to move to become part of the solution is not going to be easy.
You have to, gonna have to do, a lot of thinking. You have to look at how you yourselves have become part of this culture. You have to look at how many of you would be happy if you could become part of Wall St. and become part of the corporations if they would give you jobs.
There’s a long road ahead. Because you have the opportunity to create something new, that’s based on completely different values. But you’re going to have to be thinking about values, and not just abuses.
From a doco in progress about Grace Lee Boggs, American Revolutionary. The Kickstarter, with her activist bio at www.indigogo.com American-Revolutionary.
