This series of posts from the community is in preparation for Paradigm
Shift’s next event, “The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women”
A Discussion with JESSICA VALENTI, Author & Feministing.com
Founder/Editor on TUES, FEB. 23rd, 7pm, NYC. We want to hear your
stories. View call for submissions- deadline 2/19- Click here!
Archive for Events
Sexuality, Virginity & “Purity” Series Part 2: Her Burning Bra
Category: Blog, Co-Sponsored Event /
Sexuality, Virginity & “Purity” Series Part 1: -velation
This series of posts from the community is in preparation for Paradigm
Shift’s next event, “The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women”
A Discussion with JESSICA VALENTI, Author & Feministing.com
Founder/Editor on TUES, FEB. 23rd, 7pm, NYC. We want to hear your
stories. View call for submissions- deadline 2/19- Click here!
by Barrie Kreinik
This poem explores the violence inherent in the language of virginity loss, the coercive power of that language, and the idea that many girls are led to believe that they should allow their virginity to be taken from them forcibly or prematurely, rather than being willing participants in the taking.
-velation
Under meteorelectric blankets, blossoms
burst, ascending to full-on bloom in gobs
of sweat. Bouquets of wishes wash
away in spatters. Water
the flower bed, flour the batter;
bed her – deflower. A battery
of thrusts, a quarter hour
til the sheets pull back to witness.
No -lief, no -pair or -cover. Just
a smatter.
Sex crimes are designs of the Times: page-four
valentines and Hallmark rhymes, ripped
from the heads of latex lines and
-ceptacles. Found in the Park,
the parking lot – we learn from watching, practice
on our prey.
Park here, to punk, to play, to pluck
the strings of stinging hearts, to prick
the pillow and to pop the plush red fruit.
This thing’s been bought, coerced; its price
inflated when the crash of high school hit.
You’ll let me if you love me and some listen,
but the rip is real. That version of a queen
is stuff of stories.
-Cognizing her descent, the cherry -members
what her branches warned, and falls
from graceful pit…then takes her needle up
to sew again; to fix her torn-up hem, to bite the thread,
to nege the re- and make -conciliation.
First base is free, but he stole home too early.
Whatsamatter – dontcha love me, girlie?
Category: Blog, Co-Sponsored Event /
Call for Submissions- Blog/Video/Graphic Art responses- Sexuality, Virginity & “Purity”
Call for guest blog, video, and graphic art submissions in preparation for Paradigm Shift’s next event:
“The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women”
A Discussion with JESSICA VALENTI, Author & Feministing.com Founder/Editor on TUES, FEB. 23rd, 7pm, NYC Buy Tickets Now- click here.
Submission Deadline- Extended: 2/21- Sunday
You can answer any one of the following questions- submissions of any length welcome, including poetry and graphic art:
– How do you define virginity? Where do you think this definition came from (i.e. society, parents, friends)?
– Imagine a world without the concept of virginity and “purity”- what would that look like?
– How has the concept of virginity and “purity” effected your sex and love life?
– Did you attend abstinence-only classes? What did you think?
– Were you brought up to think of female sexuality as “dirty”? How did it effect you?
– What are some tangible ways we can change the culture of virginity?
Submit responses to blog@paradigmshiftnyc.com Please include how you would like to be credited (name, anonymous etc). Video submissions- please submit YouTube private link. Email subject line: Your Name- Blog post- 2/23 Event.
ParadigmShiftNYC.com content is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Category: Blog, Call for Submissions, Events / Tags: abstinence, jessica valenti, sexuality, the purity myth, virginity
Partner Event: New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry
New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry
Committee Against Satanic Panics: Witchhunts in Africa and Asia
Meetup.com invite:
http://www.meetup.com/nyarbb/calendar/11235363/
Malibu Diner
163 W 23rd Street
# 1 (near 7th Avenue)
New York, NY 10011
(212) 691-1369
How to find us
“Near BACK of diner, NYARBB literature on table”
We will discuss the (literal) witchhunts now happening in some countries in Africa and Asia. And we’ll discuss the connections between some African witchhunters and some American religious right wingers (e.g. Sarah Palin). And we’ll discuss ways to raise awareness about the witchhunts here in the West.
In some parts of Africa and Asia today, vast numbers of children are being abandoned or worse – often murdered, tortured, or mutilated – because they are suspected of being witches. Women too are often targeted, more so than men.
Worse yet, there are religious trends based here in the U.S.A. that have exacerbated the witchhunts. For example, Sarah Palin was “annointed,” with a blessing to protect her against witches, by neo-Pentecostal pastor Thomas Muthee, who is also an African witchhunter. Sarah Palin and Thomas Muthee are both part of the New Apostolic Reformation, a fast-growing international movement within Pentecostal Christianity and within “non-denominational” neo-Pentecostal Christianity. This movement’s practices include “strategic level spiritual warfare” (exorcism of “territorial demons”) and “occult level spiritual warfare” (witchhunts, at least in the form of praying against suspected witches, and sometimes worse). Here in the U.S.A., the now-disgraced former megachurch Pastor Ted Haggard once boasted of having driven suspected witches out of town.
In the past, Christian missionaries often discouraged witchhunts. But, today, the fastest-growing forms of Christianity, worldwide, are Pentecostalism and “non-denominational” neo-Pentecostalism, within which a rapidly growing movement is the New Apostolic Reformation, whose beliefs and practices encourage a witchhunt mentality.
Fortunately, there are some indigenous organizations opposing the witchhunts, and there are some indigenous secular charities that help victims of the witchhunts. We will discuss ways to raise awareness here in NYC, with the aim of encouraging various large groups around here to hold fundraisers to benefit indigenous anti-witchhunt activists and charities.
For more information, including links to news stories, see this thread on our message board. If you come across any other news stories about witchhunts (in the literal sense), please post links there.
Location and how to find us: We’ll be meeting at a diner on 23rd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, closer to 7th. (The exact address, and other details, will be visible to you once you join this Meetup group.) The nearest subway stop is 23rd Street on the 1, 2, and 3 lines (7th Avenue). Other nearby subway stops are 23rd Street on the F line (6th Avenue), and 23 Street on the E and C lines (8th Avenue). For those coming from outside the city, the diner is also near the PATH train station at 23rd Street and 6th Avenue, and it is approximately a 10-minute walk from Penn Station.
Ask a waiter for “New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry.”
We’ll be at a table (or possibly a booth) near the BACK of the diner. There will be some NYARBB literature on the table.
For info on Witchhunts in Africa and Asia:
Young Women’s Ethical Leadership Retreat
YOUNG WOMEN’S ETHICAL LEADERSHIP RETREAT
March 12-14, 2010 (NY)
June 11-13, 2010 (CA)
June 18-20, 2010 (NY)
October 22-24, 2010 (NY)
Apply Today!
WHERE:NY Retreat Facility: The Woodhull Retreat Center, Ancramdale, NY 2-1/2 hours north of New York City in the beautiful Berkshire Mountain region.
CA Retreat Facilities: Danville, CA- 40 minutes north of San Francisco.
OVERVIEW: The Woodhull Institute Young Women’s Ethical Leadership Core Training program has been developed to educate young women who exhibit leadership potential in their careers, community or family life. This core training program is designed to educate a small group of women in the practical skill sets that are so necessary to succeed in today’s businesses, political and community environments. Participants in this program will be presented with the concepts of ethical leadership; taught professional development skills; and be directed to networks, mentors and resources that can channel their leadership aspirations into practical and attainable achievements.FORMAT: A team of Woodhull Professionals, Fellows, Associate Fellows and Scholars present basic empowerment skills that prepare young women for leadership roles in their communities and workplaces. The three-day or five-day retreat includes our core program modules: Ethics and Leadership Development, Public Speaking, Negotiation, Financial literacy, Advocacy and Identity/Voice workshops. Ethical leadership retreats may also include additional modules such as ethical and effective writing, mentoring/networking and civic education based on faculty availability and Woodhull participant need assessment. Meditation, hiking, journaling and group discussions are encouraged.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Women, ages 21-early 35, who are interested in increasing their capacity for professional and personal development through training workshops, group discussions and introspective work.
EXPECTED RESULTS OF TRAINING:
Build self-awareness
Build networks with women leaders
Increase skill levels in negotiation, financial literacy, public speaking
Increase tolerance for risk-taking
Deepen understanding of ethics and leadership
COST: Tuition is $395 and there is a fee of $100 a night for room and board.
Apply Now
Democracy 911 Retreat with Naomi Wolf- Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership
DEMOCRACY 911
February 18-February 21st, 2010 (NY)
Click Here to Register
Share Our Flier With Your Colleagues and Friends!
WHERE: NY Retreat Facility: The Woodhull Retreat Center, Ancramdale, NY 2-1/2 hours north of New York City in the beautiful Berkshire Mountain region.
WHY: Most U.S. citizens, even those with the most to offer as citizen leaders, know very little about how this country works and what they can do to make it better.
FORMAT: In a long weekend, a team of professionals will lead a true non-partisan “Democracy 911”. Retreatants will receive a core grounding in the principles of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as well as a refresher on the separation of powers. Furthermore, the retreat will provide participants with intensive modules on how to start a campaign, pressure your representative, create your own media, write op-eds, craft an initiative or referendum, draft a bill, lobby and petition for your most cherished issues, run a protest and excel at public speaking.
Gain the Skills to:
Write Op-Eds; Writing for Change
Draft a Bill
Run a Protest
Excel at Public Speaking
Start a Campaign
Pressure Your Representative
Lobby and Petition for Issues
Craft an Initiative or Referendum
COST: $395 plus $200 lodging, totaling $595. We encourage you to seek scholarship from your institution or place of employment. Limited scholarships are available.
Professionals will Include: Naomi Wolf, Shahid Buttar, Catherine Orenstein, Wende Jager-Hyman, Jacquette Timmons and Sgt. Matthis Chiroux.
TV audience needed: ABC’s Nightline- Body Image
IS IT OKAY TO BE FAT? QUESTION DEBATED IN A “NIGHTLINE FACE OFF”
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN MODERATES LIVE DEBATE AT THE COOPER UNION’S GREAT HALL IN NEW YORK CITY ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5th AT 4:00PM ET
“FACE-OFF” TO AIR ON “NIGHTLINE”
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22nd
Is it Okay to be Fat? “Nightline” tackles this question and other delicate questions related to dieting and obesity and how it relates to health in a “Face Off” to air Monday, February 22. This will be the program’s fifth “Face-Off,” a series launched two years ago that is a debate style format where hot topics get discussed among prominent voices in their field.
The “Face-Off” is scheduled to take place Friday, February 5th at The Cooper Union’s historic Great Hall in New York City. Crystal Renn, model and author of “Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves” and Marianne Kirby, co-author of “Lessons from the Fat-O-Sphere” will face-off against MeMe Roth, president of National Action Against Obesity and Kim Bensen, author of “Finally Thin.” Renn and Kirby advocate against constant dieting and contend that you don’t have to be thin to be healthy while Roth and Bensen advocate against an obese America and believe in the importance of a responsible diet.
The “Face Off” will be moderated by co-anchor Cynthia McFadden and held at The Cooper Union’s Great Hall in New York City on Friday, February 5th at 4:00pmET. For more on the story visit:http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/fat-question-debated-nightline-face-off/story?id=9718202
What: “Nightline Face-Off – Is It Okay to be Fat?”
Who: Crystal Renn, model and author of “Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition, and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves” and Marianne Kirby, author of “Lessons from the “Fat-O-Sphere”, MeMe Roth, President, National Action Against Obesity and Kim Bensen, author of “Finally Thin”
When:
Friday, February 5, 2010 4:00pm-5:30pm ET
Where:
The Cooper Union’s Great Hall, The Foundation Building
7 East 7th Street (btw 3rd and 4th Aves) New York City
Partner Event: RAHA Iranian Women’s Collective hosts a International Women’s Day celebration
SAVE-THE-DATE!
RAHA Iranian Women’s Collective hosts a International Women’s Day celebration
Monday, March 8, 7pm
RAHA Iranian Women’s Collective hosts a International Women’s Day celebration
Monday, March 8, 7pm
Alwan for the Arts
16 Beaver Street, 4L
New York, NY
Join RAHA Iranian Women’s Collective for a community celebration of 100 years of International Women’s Day! We will be screening a *short* documentary of the historic 1979 women’s day march in Tehran that drew women from around the world, followed by a roundtable discussion amongst activists and participants from throughout NYC. Plus cake!
Now more than ever, it is time to build bridges across communities – our celebration will gather folks from across the city to come together in recognition and celebration of one hundred years of strength, solidarity, and struggle.
We hope you can add your voice to this celebration; more details to come!
In solidarity,
RAHA
Partner Event: 30th Annual Susan B. Anthony Awards honoring grassroots activists
Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Tibet House, 22 W. 15th Street (between 5th & 6th Aves.)
The Susan B. Anthony Award honors grassroots activists dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls and advancing equality.
HONORING
Shelby Knox, Sex Education Activist
Lyn Pentecost, Founder, Lower Eastside Girls Club
Venita Pinckney, Anti-Shackling Activist
Rebekah Spicuglia, Noncustodial Parent Advocate
PLEASE RSVP: Online via Donation or 212.627.9895 | contact@nownyc.org
