Announcements Thread - 06-06-2008
Shameless Plug - Latoya
The new issue of Bitch just hit the newsstands (it isn’t on their site yet) and I’m in it! I wrote “Dollars But No Sense” (p. 25) which analyzes the financial messages sent by women’s interest magazines and men’s interest magazines.
I’m not the only one published this month though - Deesha Philyaw, who contributes to Anti-Racist Parent wrote one of the features on why there aren’t more black “momoirs” (mommy memoirs). And, as usual, the whole issue is amazing, covering everything from a feminist interpretation of the bible to a critical feminist analysis of Prince’s career. Go grab a copy!
Girls Write Now Reading
On Sunday, June 8, from 4-6PM, New York City’s most talented teen writers from Girls Write Now, along with celebrity host Amanda Diva (Def Poetry Jam, HipHopNation, MTV2, Floetry), will turn a downtown bookstore into a showcase for a collection of powerful new poems, stories and essays that reflect an electrifying community of girl writers spanning often hard-and-fast lines of race, age, economics and geography in New York City.
Barnes and Noble is located at 97 Warren Street in Tribeca, New York, NY 10007; tel. 212-587-5389
Boston International Film Festival
Boston, MA – BIFF announces the 6th Annual Boston
International Film Festival, beginning June 6, 2008 and
running through June 14, 2008.
The Boston International Film Festival is proud to
encourage and support independent filmmakers from
around the world. The festival strives to promote
international understanding, by bringing a variety of movies
to the diverse Boston community. These films will both
entertain and educate viewers about the world today. The
goal of the festival is to display the passion and unique
visions of the filmmakers in an environment that brings all
cultures together.
The festival will be screening over 100 short and feature films from
30 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brasil, Canada, Cape
Verde, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Haiti, Hongkong,
India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria,
Panama, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Senegal, Singapore, South
Africa, Spain, Thailand, Tibet, UK, Venezuela, and USA.
The festival screenings will take place at the AMC/LOEWS theater,
Boston Common: 175 Tremont St. Boston.
For more information, you can visit our website at
www.bifilmfestival.com or you may contact us via e-mail:
info@bifilmfestival.com or by phone (617) 482 – 3900
Asian American Writers Workshops
-
2008 Short Story Competition
Deadline Friday, July 11, 2008
Hyphen Magazine & The Asian American Writers’ Workshop announce the 2008 Short Story Competition
Asian American writers of short fiction are encouraged to enter the 2008 Short Story Competition jointly sponsored by Hyphen and The Asian American Writers’ Workshop. The winner will receive a $1,000 cash prize, publication in Hyphen magazine, a one-year subscription to Hyphen and a one-year membership to AAWW. Ten finalists shall also receive a one-year membership to AAWW and a one-year subscription to Hyphen. The winner of the 2007 Short Story Competition was Preeta Samarasan, whose debut novel Evening is the Whole Day was recently published by Houghton Mifflin.
Submissions must be unpublished, postmarked by Friday, July 11, 2008 and accompanied by a $10 entry fee per story. Please see full submission guidelines here before entering.
Two Truths and a Lie: Writing Creative Non-Fiction with Bushra Rehman
Tuesdays, July 8 - 29, 7 to 9pm
A workshop on writing drawn from real life, but employing the techniques of poetry and fiction.
Writing from life can be a tricky business. There are people to protect, faulty memories of events, and the pitfalls of self-censorship and self-aggrandizement. This is where creative non-fiction comes in. It’s a form of writing that is drawn from real life, but employs techniques of poetry and fiction. Creative nonfiction recognizes that our lives are too rich not to write about, but that our imaginations are too strong to ignore. In this class, we will write by drawing on memory, family myth, and the truth and lies of our lives. We will cover literary techniques such as character, dialogue, setting and story arc, as well as performance.
Bushra Rehman is the author of a collection of poetry, Marianna’s Beauty Salon (Colorlines Magazine, 2006), and one of the editors of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism (Seal Press, 2002). Bushra has been featured in NY Newsday and her work has appeared in Colorlines, Curve, SAMAR, Bottomfish, and is forthcoming in Writing the Lines of Our Hands: An Anthology of South Asian-American Poetry. She performs her work around the country.
@ The Workshop
16 West 32nd Street, 10th Floor
btwn Broadway & 5th Avenue)
New York City
Cost is $175/$150 for members
Contact Information
email: desk@aaww.org
phone: 212-494-0061
web: http://www.aaww.org
If you are a promoter/publicist/event coordinator, please send us information about your event (preferably with an event flyer) to team@racialicious.com before noon on Thursdays. Please include “Announcements Thread - ____” in the subject line.
If you are a reader and would like to highlight specific blog posts you have written or events that you are attending, please feel free to leave a message in the comments section.
Please note: Racialicious reserves the right to refuse any promotions/delete any comments that we deem are not a good fit for this site or for our audience.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Brigitte wrote:
Thanks for the heads up, I’ll be sure to pick up the new issue.
I have a love/hate thing with Bitch. I stopped my subscription awhile back because I wasn’t into it as much as I used to be. Some of their brand of bitching became annoying.
That said, I picked up the last issue on the newsstand by chance and really enjoyed it.
Posted 06 Jun 2008 at 11:39 am ¶
Joanna wrote:
Do you have any contact info or a website for the Two Truths and a Lie workshop?
Posted 06 Jun 2008 at 12:14 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Sorry about that Joanna, I updated the post.
Posted 06 Jun 2008 at 12:28 pm ¶
Fatemeh wrote:
YAY, Latoya! I’m going to pick up a copy of Bitch ASAP!
Posted 06 Jun 2008 at 2:17 pm ¶
The Cruel Secretary wrote:
Congrats, Latoya and Deesha!
Posted 06 Jun 2008 at 2:56 pm ¶
Joanna wrote:
Thanks! And congrats on your article!!
Posted 06 Jun 2008 at 4:06 pm ¶
jvansteppes wrote:
I have to say that even when certain parts of Bitch aren’t up my alley I’m so glad I can read that instead of Ms Magazine. I can’t wait to read your piece Latoya.
Posted 06 Jun 2008 at 6:03 pm ¶
blackskeptic wrote:
I’m excited about receiving this issue of Bitch in the mail. It’s definitely my favorite magazine! I look forward to reading yours and Deesha’s articles (and all the others … esp. the feminist interpretation of the bible).
I’m SOOO excited!
Posted 07 Jun 2008 at 8:57 am ¶
Patti Binder wrote:
Can’t wait to read your piece and thanks for promoting the Girls Write Now event on Sunday–
Posted 07 Jun 2008 at 9:02 am ¶
Chris Chambers wrote:
Never seen “Bitch” but my sister in law apparently’s a reader (subscriber) and pointed my wife to it. Will have to check it out .
Posted 07 Jun 2008 at 3:16 pm ¶
marge twain wrote:
I already had read your article w/o noticing the byline and I thought it was very clever and relevant. Great suggestions, also, on how a women’s mag can present useful information while still being lighthearted and funny a la Maxim. My issue with the career advice in those magazines has been that they assume eveyone has a white-collar office job and much of it hasn’t been applicable to my blue collar/pink collar life. Now I think it’s significant that they aren’t even relevant to their (narrow)intended audience. I cancelled my Allure subscription and now get GQ every month. They actually write for an intelligent audience.
Posted 11 Jun 2008 at 1:03 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@Marge -
Thanks for the compliment
And that is a good point re: blue/pink collar work. I’ll make sure to touch on that when I talk about the green collar economy and POC.
I find that, in general, men’s magazines assume a higher intelligence level in their readers than women magazines. That includes lad mags like Maxim and (defunct) FHM. Which, I find, really really sad.
I have also noticed this trend in business books geared at women entrepreneurs…waiting to her back from Bitch to see if they want me to investigate that as well.
Posted 11 Jun 2008 at 1:13 pm ¶
meownette wrote:
I just borrowed my mom’s copy of Bitch and really liked your article, Latoya. It was sensible and clear, with a conclusion that made sense. I love Bitch, but sometimes their “love it/shove it” pieces and shorter articles leave me grasping for straws, as in the Dora the Explorer piece in the current issue. But I shouldn’t talk too much shit, because Bitch’s profile of Carmen and Racialicious a few months back is what led me here in the first place! Congrats on the article, and I hope there’s more to come!
Posted 11 Jun 2008 at 2:33 pm ¶
marge twain wrote:
@Latoya: hmm, does everything geared toward women(Bitch, aside) have to be dumbed down?
I picked up a “wine for women” hot pink book once at a bookstore. Being younger and more naive, I was genuinely puzzled at what wine knowledge would be especially pertinent to women and not men. Of course it assumed an extremely dumb and fearful readership with added stereotyping, exhorting me to venture beyond the white zinfandel and try a red wine and made imbecilic analogies about shoe shopping. Bleh. Makes me pessimistic in advance on books for women in business.
Re:women in blue and pink collar fields:Isn’t Wal-Mart the nation’s biggest employer? How does one advance when asking for a raise isn’t allowed? How ’bout tips on identifying pay discrimination when you’re forbidden to ask about other’s pay?
Posted 11 Jun 2008 at 4:59 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@Meownette - Thanks for the compliment! I liked the Dora piece, but I totally see what you’re saying - it isn’t really an action item piece, and not really an informative piece, it’s kind of in between in a weird way. They did make some good points I hadn’t considered about the character though.
@Marge -
Aside from Bitch, it appears so. It is almost as if we are simple children, unable to comprehend the most basic of things.
I’m not opposed to pink itself. The book my yoga studio owner created is pink, which fits with her personality - and it’s a great book. Pink magazine has really stepped their game up in the last few months - they are a must read for women in business, particularly women entreprenuers. And I am working through a breezy book called “Three Black Skirts” - for something intended to be fluffy it has a surprising amount of depth.
But that’s it.
That wine book sounds horrifying - and quite close to some of the business books I picked up. Lots of pink, using feminine wiles to get your way, emphasis on the right clothes - just nonsense. And the skills were so basic, they were embarrassing. If I am running a 3 million dollar business do I really need help understanding fractions?
The best book of this batch is Christine Comaford-Lynch’s Rules for Renegades. She talks a lot about success, failure, and money and finds a way to address fears without pandering to stereotypes. (For example, that stat that women don’t ask for what they want, money wise? Christine has a whole chapter devoted to learning to think in bigger amounts and deal with them without freaking out.) Good balance.
But it is a shame that there are so few articles/books geared to women that I can read aloud to my boyfriend without cringing.
Isn’t Wal-Mart the nation’s biggest employer? How does one advance when asking for a raise isn’t allowed? How ’bout tips on identifying pay discrimination when you’re forbidden to ask about other’s pay?
Seriously. We should spend some time on that.
Posted 11 Jun 2008 at 5:09 pm ¶