No Abolition Without Demilitarization: Black and Muslim Solidarity for Ending Policing Worldwide
Visit us at InOtherWords.org
Hi friends and followers of our blog, about a year ago we moved this site’s archives to the blog on our main site: http://inotherwords.org/blog/ and started posting all new content there as well. This site is no longer updated and remains solely as a historical record.
Please follow us at http://inotherwords.org/blog/ and update your RSS feed subscriptions.
And check out our website at http://inotherwords.org and our event calendar at http://inotherwords.org/events
Blackentine’s Day: For Black Feminists and Those They Love
Sunday, February 14, 2016
6pm
In Other Words Feminist Community Center
14 NE Killingsworth St. Portland OR 97211
Black Joy: Blackentine’s Day is about centering Black people, those they love and those that love Black people. Black people, we warmly encourage you to invite people who you love, inclusive of family, friends, partners and more. There will be music, dancing, sisterhood, and light refreshments.
More info available at the following sites:
InOtherWords.org/events
https://www.facebook.com/events/912749895473247/
http://wocpdxzines.com/2016/02/11/blackentines-day-for-black-people-and-those-they-love/
The Official Portland Trans Pride 2015
The Official Portland Trans Pride 2015!
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Starting at 2pm
Park Blocks Near Old Town
The Portland Trans Pride March organizing committee is thrilled to welcome the trans, gender-variant, genderqueer, gender-fabulous and allied communities to celebrate with us on June 13th! We are a diverse and non-hierarchical collective of 25 organizers from across the trans spectrum. This has been a consensus-driven process, designed to centralize the voices of those most impacted by transphobia and racism. We aim to celebrate the incredible gains made by our community, mourn the tragic losses we’ve faced this year, and stand in solidarity with our many brethren in the struggle.Currently, we are endorsed by the following organizations:
- In Other Words
- PFLAG Portland Black Chapter
- Center for Intercultural Organizing (CIO)
- Western States Center
- Portland Fat Yoga
- Portland Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
- OGALLA, Oregon’s Gay and Lesbian Lawyer’s Association
- Portland Two Spirit Society
- Cascade AIDS Project
- Dont Shoot Portland
- Pride at Work Oregon
- Portland International Socialist Organization
- PFLAG
- Portland15 Now
- PDXAssociation of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists
- Basic Rights Oregon
- The Living Room,
- Clackamas County
- NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon
- Q CenterPortland
- Black Pride
- HRC
- PortlandRitual Arts Tattoo and Body Piercing
- Sacred Vessel Natural Medicine
- Transformations Electrolysis, LLC
- Friendly House
- Queering Sacred Spaces
- NorthWest Gender Alliance
- Pride Foundation- LGBTQ Community Foundation
- Pride Northwest
- Portland Jobs with Justice
- Integrity Oregon
- AFL-CIO Pride group
- PFLAG East County
Gather at 2:00 for speakers and a community rally. We will step off at 3:30 and march to the Pride Festival at Waterfront Park!
Hey there Feminists: racial justice is a feminist issue. Call to action on May 21st 2015!
Black Youth Project 100, Ferguson Action, and #BlackLivesMatter have called a
National Day of Action to End State Violence Against Black Women and Girls:
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015
JOIN in mourning the lives of Black women and girls lost to police violence, and in lifting up the voices, experiences and demands of Black women targeted by police!
Black women – queer and not queer, transgender and not transgender – are killed, beaten, profiled, and harassed by police across the country in many of the same ways as Black men, whether it’s “broken windows policing,” “driving while Black,” or the “war on drugs.” For example:
- Racial profiling studies analyzing the experiences of Black women separately from those of men of color conclude “for both men and women there is an identical pattern of stops by race/ethnicity.”
- In New York City, racial disparities in stops are the same for Black women as…
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My Feminism Looks Like… Cindy van Wyk
1. Can you tell me a little about yourself?
I’m Cindy van Wyk, a 24-year-old wondrous writing woman slash professional grammar nazi (aka sub editor) slash columnist from Windhoek, Namibia. I have an Honours Degree in English and Print Media and I have plans to pursue a Masters in Creative Writing at some point. (Hopefully before I’m 30!) I’m passionate about literature, love and red wine. I am an eternal bookworm with hopeful romantic tendencies. Obsessed with all things Vin Diesel and Ireland. I blog at www.sugary-oblivion.blogspot.com and can be found on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as Sugary Oblivion.
2. When did you first identify as a feminist?
I think I’ve always been a feminist at heart, but I only found a name for it in my second year of university (I was 20, 21) when I had a class called Literary Theory by the brilliant Selma Ashikuti. Not only…
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Book Review + Giveaway | Spinster by Kate Bolick
[I received a copy of this book from its Canadian publisher Random House Canada. This does not affect my opinion of the book.]
When you think of the word “spinster,” what comes to mind? In modern language, “spinster” often conjures images of sad women who live alone with perhaps one or more cats. Generally, “spinster” evokes the thought that these women have been unable to find partners. But what about those who willingly choose to be alone? Why is “spinster” associated with “failure?” Why are single men allowed to be called “bachelors.” while single women are labeled “cat ladies?” In Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own, Kate Bolick attempts to reclaim the term, spinning it into an empowering expression that celebrates female independence and self-reliance.
The book is divided into 10 chapters, in which Bolick shares her personal experience with having the “spinster wish” to be alone and self-sufficient…
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Portland Feminist Meet Up: April 2015 recap!
Bring Your Own Brunch (BYOB) Portland Feminist Meet-up is a discussion and community-building gathering for feminists in the Portland Metro Area. Each month is a different discussion topic, and each month brings new refreshing feminist energy to In Other Words. The gatherings have been growing in popularity, and the last one was no different!
Huge round of applause is owed to Susan, who volunteered to take notes. Here are some of the big take-aways from the April 2015 gathering:
- Feminist discussions can act as avenues for activism in the form of community building, mentoring, outreach, healing, and consciousness raising.
- Discussions started here can spread to our work in schools, places of worship, the home, work, and more.
- Feminist literature is a critical grounding point for building a strong foundation for a strong movement. We cannot read enough feminist literature! Intersectional and trans-inclusive feminist literature must be at the center of our discussions.
- Social media can be a very effective platform for feminist discourse: Twitter, YouTube, wordpress, facebook, and more
- General Assemblies at In Other Words are important for local grassroots community coalition building. Community organizing work should also serve to support the sustainability of organizations– we could help raise funds for places like In Other Words, Bitch, Rock Camp, Q Center, etc. very important to remember that all of this runs on volunteer power!
- Let’s spread the word about this meet up and continue to build coalitions across communities!
You heard it, Portland! The feminists from BYOB Portland Feminist Meet Up want you to join the conversation! The next gathering is coming up on Saturday May 9th 12:30PM at In Other Words Feminist Community Center 14 NE Killingsworth St. Portland OR 97211
Letter to a Young Transperson
Well said.
Dear Me in Past Tense,
There you are, kneeling by the cardboard Barbie house dad made between jobs. You there, picking up the washrag upholstered furniture, aspiring to the talent to make a miniature couch out of packing foam, there are a few things I should tell you.
The first one you already know. That girl sitting next to you pulling the homemade plaid pants off of Barbie in favor of the cowboy dress is not only your sister, but your absolute best friend. You will be tempted to think you are in danger of losing her, but you shouldn’t. She is permanent.
The rest isn’t so clear. It won’t ever be. It doesn’t have to be.
You will feel like you are playing by a set of rules no one explained to you – sort of like kindergarten, when you couldn’t make the right handed scissors cut paper. You will correct yourself…
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The Perilously Poetic Women of Dancing Girl Press
What is the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done for your writing? That is what Laura Christina Dunn, author of newly-released Spider Blue, wanted each of her fellow Dancing Girl Press poets to share on Friday night with their packed-house audience at In Other Words. It elicited some very intriguing answers that balanced out a night full of rapture-inducing and powerful poetry with a little bit of silly fun.
Laura Christina Dunn, author of Spider Blue
“Trina Burke does not engage in dangerous activities as a rule, though she has been known to drink alone and trespass on private property for her writing,” said host Laura Hayden as she introduced the first poet. Trina is the author of Wreck Idyll from Dancing Girl Press as well as two other chapbooks and assistant editor of Bone Bouquet, a journal for new and established female poets.
In other feats of danger, Laura Dunn herself has stood in the middle of Powell Boulevard with a taxidermied deer head for the sake of her own writing. We did not get the entire story on that one. One poet said she had mooned the entire writing department at undergrad during parent’s week. Another said that whatever the most dangerous thing was, she had not done it yet, ominously suggesting that it might happen by the end of the night.
Susan Denning, author of She Preferred to Read the Knives and How to Live Forever, touched home when she said that the most dangerous thing she has ever done for her writing is simply to keep writing. To stop would be safe…
Front Row Left to Right: Ally Harris, Amber Nelson, Trina Burke Back Row Left to Right: Jane Wong, Laura Christina Dunn, Susan Denning
The poets that presented at Friday night’s reading ran the spectrum from quiet and contemplative to aggressively outspoken in their poetic voices. And while some pieces were longer or more musical, others were short and terse. But one thing is for sure: as Laura Dunn put it herself, “These are women of immense power.” Ally Harris is the poetry editor of Heavy Feather Review and her Dancing Girl Press chapbook is called Floor Baby. Most recently she has written Your Twin Was After Me. Amber Nelson wrote the incredibly evocative Dutch Baby Combo, a chapbook that musically and creatively carries the reader through the experience of a woman’s abortion. She is also co-founder of Alice Blue Review. Jane Wong is author of Dendochronology and teaches at University of Washington. In Other Words thanks these fabulous poets for bringing so many creative spirits through its doors all at once.
I felt each image released upon me by these incredible Dancing Girl poets Friday night like I had felt each Portland raindrop that same morning. At the moment of impact each one was refreshing and awakening, steady but unpredictable. And as I let them all sink in, it wasn’t long before everything started to feel more lush, more vibrant, and more recklessly alive.
In Other Words 