Archive for feminist

Femme Day of Action Los Angeles Edition

Posted in Cultural Events, Parties and Club Nights with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2012 by Mommy Fiercest
Los Angeles Femme Day Of Action

Los Angeles Femme Day Of Action

Saturday February 21, at 3:00pm until Sunday at 1:00am

Instigating and Imagining Femme(inine) Community in LA

Calling all self-defined queer folks on femme/inine spectrums to come together for a day of conversation, creativity, and community-building. And a party afterward.

Whether you feel uneasy with the word “femme” but still wonder if it could apply to you, or whether you came out of the womb an 8th level card-carrying high femme, we welcome the wide scope of identities and experiences to contribute to building a smarty-pants good time. We will interrogate and celebrate the definitions, embodiments, and spirits of femme-ness. In this city of such rich diversity and sprawl, let’s intentionally reach across our divisions to imagine and instigate an inclusive, powerful femme community.

And did we mention there’s a dance party?

Saturday Jan 21
Starting at 3 p.m. sharp

Human Resources Gallery
410 Cottage Home Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
(3 blocks from Chinatown stop on the Metro Gold line)

Schedule for the day:

3-4 pm: Meet & Greet
4-6 pm: Facilitated group discussion/workshop time *
6-7 pm: Dinner break (bring something or run out for something)
7-9 pm: Collaborative crafting/party decorating
9 pm on: Dance party**

4-6 pm Group Discussion / Panel:
FACES OF FEMME … Instigating & Imagining Femme(inine) Community in LA

*GROUP DISCUSSION: It’s All About You! Let’s talk about how You identify as femme, tell us when/how you ‘came out’ as femme, and if you could imagine femme community in LA what would it look like?

*PANEL: an amazing group of LA femmes bring perspectives & raise questions about everything including Femme Failure, Trans-femme, Black Femme Identity, Xicana femmes, Body autonomy, and Femme Naked?

-Prof Laura Harris (Pitzer College) co-editor of ‘Femme: lesbians, feminists & bad girls’
-Prof Talia Bettcher (Cal State LA) – co-editor ‘Transgender Studies and Feminism’/Hypatia
-Prof Mignon Moore (UCLA) – Author of ‘Invisible Families: Gay Identities, Relationships and Motherhood Among Black Women’
-Laura Luna Placencia – Queer Fat Femme community activist & ‘Creative Xicana’ blogger
-Lynn Harris Ballen – queer femme(inist), co-founder LEX, host ‘Feminist Magazine’ radio/KPFK

** Dance party is open to everyone. We respectfully request that events from 3 – 9 p.m. are attended only by self-identified femmes (of all genders) and folks exploring their femme/ininity.

This event is FREE. We will provide light snacks and adult beverages by donation

homo-centric: Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore “Why Are Faggots So Afraid Of Faggots?”

Posted in Artist Profiles, Cultural Events, Parties and Club Nights with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 19, 2012 by Mommy Fiercest
Why Are Faggots So Afraid Of Faggots? Mattilda Bernstein Scyamore

Why Are Faggots So Afraid Of Faggots? Mattilda Bernstein Scyamore

homo-centric is super duper excited to smother your January blahs with the only Los Angeles bookstore appearance of Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore! Mattilda is coming to town Sunday January 22nd at 6:30pmto tell you all about/read from/publicize her new book Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots.Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is a writer, editor, activist, artist, filmmaker, critic and troublemaker. Most recently, she is the editor of Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, which will be released on Valentine’s Day 2012 from AK Press. Mattilda is the author of two novels, So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (City Lights 2008) and Pulling Taffy (Suspect Thoughts 2003). She is the editor of four additional nonfiction anthologies, Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity (Seal 2007),That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (Soft Skull 2004; 2008), Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving (Haworth 2004), and Tricks and Treats: Sex Workers Write about Their Clients (Haworth 2000), which now also appears in Italian (Effepi Libri 2007). Mattilda recently finished a soon-to-be-published memoir called The End of San Francisco.Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots challenges not just the violence of straight homophobia but the hypocrisy of mainstream gay norms that say the only way to stay safe is to act straight: get married, join the military, adopt kids! This anthology reinvokes the anger, flamboyance, and subversion once thriving in gay subcultures in order to create something dangerous and lovely: an exploration of the perils of assimilation; a call for accountability; a vision for change.

Rally And March To Demand An End To SCOM/Poli-Migra

Posted in Demonstrations with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 8, 2011 by Mommy Fiercest
Human Rights are (Im)Migrants Rights December 10 NO SCOMM In Los Angeles

Human Rights are (Im)Migrants Rights December 10 NO SCOMM In Los Angeles

March and rally to demand an end to SCOM/Poli-Migra, by LA Sheriffs Baca. This ICE attack detains and deports thousands of working class Mexican and Central American migrants! The march begins at La Placita, we will march to The LA Federal Detention Center to protest Obama’s deportations, then march on the Sheriffs Central Jail to demand a stop to deportations as well as SCOM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stop La Baca! Sheriff Baca stop abusing our people!

 

This is co-organized and endorsed by Hermandad MEXICANA, NDLON, SCIC, IDEPSCA, CSO, UdB, SGV Dream Network, CHIRLA, Carwasheros Campaign, IAC, MAPA, Partido Nacional la Raza Unida and CLAS.

La Plazita Olvera, Los Angeles, CA
Cesar Chavez & Alameda, Los Angeles, CA 31028

Saturday, December 10th 2011 10:00am until 12:30pm

TRANScending Exclusion: A Teach-In on Trans Inclusion & Solidarity in Women’s & LGBQ Spaces in Communities of Color

Posted in Cultural Events, Parties and Club Nights, Projects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 30, 2011 by Mommy Fiercest
Rivers Response

Rivers Response

Please join Rivers Response organizers & allied community activists from SRLP and the Kitchen Table Giving Circle for a community discussion on Trans inclusion and solidarity in women and LGBQ communities of color spaces. Through knowledge sharing, participants are invited from all perspectives to join us in a discussion about expanding inclusivity in community spaces.

With a positive spirit, the organizers hope to generate awareness and spur broad dialogue about gender and sexuality issues faced in the POC LGBTQ NYC arts community and in many other parallel community spaces.  Join us in shared conversation and learning!

For background please visit: http://riversofhoneycommunity.com/

TRANScending Exclusion:
A Teach-In on Trans Inclusion & Solidarity in Women’s & LGBQ Spaces in Communities of ColorWHEN: November 30th 2011
7:00pmWHERE: 147 W.24th Street 4th Floor
New York, NYCOST: FREESpeakers will include:

Naomi Clark, Sylvia Rivera Law Project

Lucia Leandro Gimeno, Social Work student & Trans Organizer in NYC

Members from Kitchen Table Giving Circle

Men and Feminism Panel Discussion

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 29, 2011 by Mommy Fiercest
December 1, 2011 6:30pm until 8:30pm

The Santa Monica College Feminist Majority Feminist Leadership Alliance invites you to join the Men and Feminism panel discussion in Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) 263 as we help promote and facilitate a robust and productive dialogue on men as feminist activists and allies.

The panel will be moderated by Melanie Klein, SMC Associate Faculty and SMC FMLA adviser, and Mary Grace Baldo, SMC student and SMC FMLA member.

Featured panelists, in alphabetical order:

Yashar Ali is a Los Angeles-based blogger, commentator, and political veteran whose writing is showcased on The Current Conscience. http://thecurrentconscience.com/blog/

Kalil Cohen, M.Ed. is a nationally touring educator, performer, speaker, and filmmaker whose work centers on gender with a strong emphasis race and class. His short films have screened in college classes, at academic conferences, and at over 50 LGBT film festivals worldwide. He is the founding director of The Los Angeles Transgender Film Festival. www.kalilcohen.com

Pia Guerrero, Founder + Co-Editor of adiosbarbie.com
Pia is a media literacy expert with a focus on body image, race, privilege, and representation. For over a decade, she has designed and delivered educational workshops across the country to hundreds of teachers, youth workers, and young people. Pia has also worked extensively with boys and young men         around equity, gender bias and dating violence.

hugo schwyzer

hugo schwyzer

Hugo Schwyzer is a professor of gender studies and history at
Pasadena City College, and a nationally recognized speaker and writer
on issues of masculinity, self-image, eating disorders, the beauty
industry, feminism and sexuality. http://www.hugoschwyzer.net/

Jacqueline Sun is a National Campus Organizer with the Feminist Majority Foundation. She specializes in reproductive rights and access, and encouraging youth civic engagement. She is also a Program Manager for imMEDIAte Justice, a reproductive justice film mentorship program that teaches media literacy to young women of color in Los Angeles and empowers them to make their own films about sexuality and sexual health. www.Feministcampus.org

Shira Tarrant, PhD is the author of Men and Feminism (Seal Press) and appears in The Bro Code, a new documentary about sexism and masculinity. She is associate professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at California State University, Long Beach. Read more at http://ShiraTarrant.com/

This event is *free* and open to the public. Again, it begins at 6:30 sharp in HSS263.

fauxlographic by Elle Mehrmand, Opening Reception and Performance Monday, November 21st at 7:00pm

Posted in Artist Profiles, Cultural Events, Parties and Club Nights, Projects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on November 19, 2011 by Mommy Fiercest
fauxlographic elle mehrmand

fauxlographic elle mehrmand

Monday, November 21st at 7:00pm  

Description
fauxlographic
//elle mehrmand

november [21-23] 2011

opening reception monday 11-21-11 @ 6pm
performance @ 7pm

university of california san diego
visual arts facility // performance space

fauxlographic is a performative installation that takes place within an ethno-dysphoric cloning lab, where one can clone themselves in order to analyze their diasporic anxiety. The fauxlographic clones enact sonic rituals in Farsi, English and Perz-ish, based on multiple sources of information including embodied memories, wikileaks cables, and textual references concerning Iran and Persia. The ethno-dysphoric scientist performs a daily computing ritual wearing a neuro-headset, (pars)ing the (fars)e of the clones’ information. When high levels of CO2 are detected by the lab’s sensors, the pixellated flesh of the clones degrade and multiply, reciprocating the affective presence of other bodies. The use of organic sensors transforms the lab into a spatial interface, confusing the somatic architecture of the performance.

gallery hours: tues-wed 12-6
performance @ 3pm

ellemehrmand at gmail dot com

 

Call For Submissions: 2011 Los Angeles Transgender Film Festival

Posted in Cultural Events, Parties and Club Nights, Projects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 19, 2011 by Mommy Fiercest

Call for Submissions

We’re  currently accepting film submissions for the 3rd annual Los Angeles Transgender Film Festival. Please forward widely! Submit your short or feature film today!

Whether you’re dealing with gender-specific issues or not, we will be screen many diverse works made by trans, genderqueer, and intersex artists and our allies, including comedy, dramedy, drama, erotica, experimental, animation, and more!

========
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

1. Accepting Feature Length and Short Films in all genres.
2. Complete the Festival Entry Form below.
3. Submit a DVD (Region 1) preview copy of your film/video. These items will be archived and will not be returned.
4. Include a CD of Stills (300 dpi, high resolution) if possible

DEADLINE: September 15th, no entry fee.

Mail items to:
TG Film Fest
c/o Reel Boi Productions
3504 White House Pl Los Angeles, CA 90004 U.S.A.

Click the link below to download the submission form.

2011 Transgender Film Festival Call For Submissions

Questions? Contact us at info@tgfilmfest.com

========
Who are we?
TG Film Fest: The Los Angeles Transgender Film Festival was founded in 2009 to increase visibility for powerful films by trans and genderqueer filmmakers. Started in response to the lack of transgender people in the media, the TG Film Fest showcases works by established and emerging trans and genderqueer filmmakers. We promote filmmakers to new audiences with encore “best of fest” screenings at colleges and organizations throughout the year.

While you’re at it, submit to the SF trans film fest too! Our friends Shawna Virago and Sean Dorsey run the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival and they’re amazing! Submit to both! 
CALL FOR ENTRIES San Francisco Transgender Film Festival
November 3-6, 2011 San Francisco, CA

The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (SFTGFF) seeks entries for its 2011 Festival (November 3-6, 2011). SFTGFF accepts narrative, documentary, experimental, animated films and music videos. All work should be created by transgender/genderqueer people. All work submitted this year must be 20 minutes or under. Please only submit one film.

The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival, aka Tranny Fest, was founded in 1997 as the nation’s first transgender film festival. In the 14 years since, we have exhibited groundbreaking, provocative, outrageous, courageous, moving and innovative works that show the complexity of lives lived on the transgender/ genderqueer spectrum. The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival is co-presented by Fresh Meat Productions.

DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES: September 1, 2011
Early submissions are encouraged. There is no entry fee.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR FILM
1. Download and complete the Entry Form and print a copy.
2. Send your Entry Form and one copy of your work (DVD only) to:
SF Transgender Film Festival
c/o Fresh Meat Productions
P.O. Box 460670
San Francisco, CA 94146-0670 USA
3. Email a 300-dpi (high resolution) JPG image for your film to freshmeatinfo@gmail.com.
4. We will email you notification when your submission has been received.

GUIDELINES
1. Please include all required materials when submitting your entry – don’t forget to email us a JPG for press purposes (All work must be 20 minutes or less! No exceptions).
2. We cannot return any submitted materials.
3. We will notify you if your work is accepted by September 10th.
4. Once a film is submitted, it may not be withdrawn for any reason.
5. For questions or more information, contact: freshmeatinfo@gmail.com.

Call for Volunteers
The TG Film Fest is working on a fundraiser to support our next festival and could use help with online promotions. We also need help with data entry, contacting sponsors and advertisers for the festival, and promoting the call for submissions to filmmakers.
If you are interested, email info@tgfilmfest.com to learn more.

THE GAY PHOTO SHOOT at ONE Archives Sunday, August 14th

Posted in Cross Posts, Cultural Events, Parties and Club Nights with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 2, 2011 by Mommy Fiercest
Warhol Factory Folks

Warhol Factory Folks

ONE NATIONAL GAY & LESBIAN ARCHIVES         PRESENTS

THE GAY PHOTO SHOOT
           at
ONE Archives

Sunday, August 14th
12:00 noon – 6:00 PM
909 West Adams Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90007

(213) 741-0094

On Sunday, August 14th, be transformed by history and frozen in time as a cherished member of a tableau vivant-style
GAY PHOTO SHOOT at ONE archives.

Calling all haggard bull daggers and baby dykes, saucy queens, bossy bisexuals, telepathic transgenders, ambidextrous allies, leathery leather daddies young and old, interested intersex people, soft butches, closet cases, as well as staff, board members, volunteers and friends of ONE Archives! Join us and strike a pose with an archival object!

Comb the collections of ONE and model a costume, animate an Act-Up protest placard, display a book or painting from the Archives on your body. Bear your teeth, your breasts, your behind or cover your entire head with an overturned archival storage box and remain anonymous! Invent a pseudonym for the day, a dynamic or deadpan persona. Impersonate or channel the spirit of your favorite LGBT mentor with your photogenic gestures and creativity! Practice your poker face, your camera face and be fabulous or discrete.

Above all, BE THERE ON SUNDAY AUGUST 14, 2011.
Light refreshments will be provided
and the shoot is guaranteed to be a hoot!

The final photo will appear as an limited edition full color posters on the inside book jacket of the much anticipated Cruising the Archives catalogue that ONE Archives is publishing for the forthcoming Pacific Standard Time exhibition in conjunction with the Getty Institute. This event is organized by artist and recent USC MFA graduate, Onya Hogan-Finlay.

If you would like to participate please RSVP to Onya Hogan-Finlay: onyahoganfinlay@gmail.com

Hollywood Queer Open Mic And Workshop: Featured Writer: JACK TANGLE Friday, July 29

Posted in Cultural Events, Parties and Club Nights with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 27, 2011 by Mommy Fiercest

 

 

My dear friendRyka Aoki de la Cruz has asked me to run this month’s Hollywood Queer Open Mic & Workshop and I couldn’t be more delighted. We have a stellar line up of featured performers including one of my favorite LA storytellers, Jack Tangle. Also reading is  Christine Beatty, author of Misery Loves Company & Not Your Average American Girl,  Diviana X Ingravallo, Moe Macarow and  author and journalist Jeanne Cordova. Jean Cordova’s books include Kicking the Habit, a Lesbian Nun Story, and Sexism; It’s a Nasty Affair, her work has appeared in numerous anthologies.  

Hollywood Queer Open Mic & Workshop

Hollywood Queer Open Mic & Workshop

The venue, BHS, is humble but I have a strong affection for it: it’s where Ryka started the Trans/Giving shows (by the way if anyone wants to start organizing that show again talk to me, collectives grow and change but there hasn’t been a show in over a year!) began eight years ago.   The Hollywood Queer Open Mic is a fantastic space to workshop new material and I hope you’ll join us either as a reader or a member of the audience.

July Hollywood Queer Open Mic & Workshop |

Featured: JACK TANGLE Friday,

July 29 · 7:30pm - 10:30pm

Behavioral Health Services, Inc.

6838 West Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA

“Fully Functional: A Zine About Fucking Trans Women”

Posted in Cross Posts, Projects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 17, 2011 by Mommy Fiercest

A friend of mine has started an incredible new project called “Fully Functional (Formerly known as “Fucking Trans Women”). Read below to find out about this AMAZING project and how you can become a part of it.

“Fully Functional: A Zine About Fucking Trans Women”

…is a collaborative DIY (Doin’ It Yourself) zine about the sex lives of trans women. It is designed to help trans women and our lovers share information about how we have good sex and what we do when we have sex that works.

The project of Fully Functional is to create an open-ended community resource for trans women and our lovers interested in sharing information about sex and our sex lives.  Published as a digital zine and, beginning with issue #1, a print zine, “Fully Functional” is designed to be an accessible medium for communicating and sharing information with each other.  It is the first and only sex zine dedicated exclusively to the sex lives of trans women and our lovers, and most basically begins with the question “How?”, as in, “how do I have amazing, fulfilling, passionate, hot, toe-curling sex?”  Contributors are invited to discuss the ins and outs of their own sex lives, with no one answer privileged over another. There are as many answers to the question “how do I have good sex?” as there are contributors, and with that in mind “Fully Functional” has been designed as a sort of community cookbook .  Our zine is a community resource for sharing our knowledge, discoveries, and practices with one another and our lovers.

Can You Help Make "Fully Functional" A reality?

Can You Help Make "Fully Functional" A reality?

As we are preparing to publish issue #1 of “Fully Functional” we have reached a dilemma: we are desperately in need of a fully functional computer of our own with which to write, design, create, and publish this issue and issues to come.  The goal of this fundraising campaign is to gather funds to purchase a MacBook that will be the primary computer for “Fully Functional.”

The Impact

“Fully Functional” (formerly “Fucking Trans Women”) was originally written and designed using a broken Dell laptop with a cracked LCD screen, quasi-legitimate software, sharpies, glue sticks, and a copy machine.  Thanks to your donations and purchases of issue #0 of “Fucking Trans Women,” we were able to make some repairs to the Dell and keep it functioning for over six months.  However, this machine is rapidly approaching its deathbed, and now we are asking for your help to purchase the computer that will serve “Fully Functional” for years to come.  Our goal is to purchase a new MacBook, a computer that should serve our writing and publishing needs for the next 3-5 years.

The impact of this purchase will be tremendous: with a working, reliable machine of our own we will be able to write, design, and publish the zine for the next several years,  to expand our current projects, publish more issues, and in general make “Fully Functional” a real zine.  It will allow us to direct sales and donations toward creating print runs of Issue #1 and future issues, thereby also making “Fully Functional” more accessible to readers who may have limited access or no access to computers of their own.  Our new MacBook will also give us the ability to create a stronger online presence, design even more gorgeous and readable articles, and bring you the content and contributions that you’ve enjoyed and continue to ask for.

What We Need & What You Get

What we are asking for is the most tangible and specific of goals: monetary donations to purchase a MacBook laptop computer to help us write, design, and publish “Fully Functional.”  Your donations go directly toward that goal and that laptop, which will be dedicated to creating future issues of our zine.
 The model we have in mind is a standard MacBook with an aluminum case and a few options to maximize its usable lifespan.  Ideally we’d like to purchase some upgrades, like a larger hard drive, bigger screen, faster processor, and some software to make designing and creating the zine as easy and effective as possible for all of our contributors and editors.  We’re purchasing this laptop with the goal of buying a machine that will last at least three years (ideally 5 or more) to ensure that Fully Functional always has a means of producing future issues.  Computers are the most basic and essential tool for publishing today, and we need your help to purchase one of our own.
 We need this computer to make “Fully Functional” a stable, ongoing project that will continue to produce new articles and art for your education and reading pleasure.  Your contribution will help make “Fully Functional” a dependable source of valuable information for trans women, our lovers, and our community.

Can you match Mommy Fiercest’s donation of $5? Donate by clicking this link: Donate to “Fully Functional” 

Other Ways You Can Help

You can help out “Fully Functional” in other ways, too!

Publicity

“Fucking Trans Women” #0 has sold almost 400 copies online and in limited print editions, all publicized via word of mouth and social networking.  Help us spread the word about “Fully Functional” Issue #1 and about our fundraising project!

Donate Materials and Tools

“Fully Functional” is always in need of certain basic supplies: pens, sharpies, paper, glue sticks, rulers, and print cartridges.  We are also desperately in need of a new printer/scanner. These go for about $50 and are equally (if not moreso) necessary to making issues of our zine happen.  Do you have an extra, functional printer/scanner?  Consider donating it!

Your Art, Writing, Creative Contributions

Finally, “Fully Functional” is always in search of art and writing for publication.  We also need help with things like design, copy, publicity, and web design!  Contact us to learn more about how you can help out!

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