In the cold
I can feel
my way
right through
and it’s painful
but I’m forced to be near it
to keep warm

In the heat
we’re released
from our weakness
run through denial
like a sprinkler in
summer
but in the cold
in winter
when heat is a
luxury
in the cold
there is
a moment
discovery
and right
before we’re numb
what we feel
is real

You taught me
that even when I’m reeling
writhing in the sharp
suffering of my shortcomings
that in falling I went further
than I was before
you taught me not
to store
my strength
not to
score or rank
myself amongst the
achieved
not to grieve
what I’ve lost
or the casts that
I’ve paid in my efforts to
gain
not to think or act
in strength
in vain

Plain and simple
here, near to the parts of me
misnamed as ugly
my dignified delicate delicacies
that are no more fragile than
they are fancy
being weak
is the courage to speak
through the
short-sighted
survival as synonymous
with strength

vulnerability
is the ability
to feel and be
in fear
insecurity
without worrying if someone will
see

in the coldness of the world
there can be the boldness of a will
of one who doesn’t sell out
for the thrill
of being inspiring

but one who basks
in the glow
of her flame
burning low
of the wind
she faces
that almost erases her
bravery

you taught me
how beautiful and true
how little they knew
of living and dying
of surviving and thriving

cascading down a
window that
has seen more rain
now that I’m here
than it has in years
are our tears

failing
isn’t sailing
away
from control

if we are lucky
it is
life is
letting go
but feeling
but being
while we let go

What if street harassment was a crime? In her multidisciplinary show, writer-performer Leah King examines the distinctly New York experience of the “holla” through four Brooklyn women contemplating a new anti-harassment law. A shy bike mechanic worries that the law will sabotage her ability to meet women; an open mic host and indie rocker explores sexuality in her music career; a poetic 50-something yoga teacher wonders if the days of “hollers” may be behind her; and a sex-blogging burlesque performer dishes on the law during her online talk show. King asks the audience: how do YOU holla?

Sections of the show will be performed and followed by an interactive panel discussion about our societal response to street harassment. For more information, check out http://canigetasmile.tumblr.com/

Can I Get a Smile? premiers Thursday September 16, 2010 at Littlefield (622 Degraw St, Brooklyn). Doors 7pm, Show 7:30pm

Leah King is a multidisciplinary performance artist and youth educator based in Brooklyn, NY, whose work focuses on women’s empowerment, afro-diasporic arts and multicultural identity.As a singer and dancer, Leah has performed with Brown Girls Burlesque, Black Rock Coalition Orchestra and Marc Jacobs, and at venues such as Bowery Poetry Club, Whitney Museum, BAM, B.B. King’s, Le Poisson Rouge, Santos and Galapagos. She has led arts workshops at Rikers Island, Manhattan JCC, Grassroots Media Coalition and numerous educational institutions.

Her one-woman show, Can I Get a Smile?, is funded in part by a grant from the NY Department of Cultural Affairs/Brooklyn Arts Council.

The Brooklyn Boulders Women’s Night is half price
so people can try it out much more cheaply than usual ($13 for
a day pass with gear or $25 to take a lesson).

Check out the facebook page for more information:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=125506380829218

Brooklyn Boulders
575 Degraw St. (btwn 3rd/4th Aves) Brooklyn, NY

unusual
alive
but not
awake
the only
light
glowing in
the narrow sliver
of the moonlight
from my window

I can feel them
even if I keep my eyes shut
they are painfully waiting
to forgive that I’ve
cut them down
kept them with me
leave them every day
and have dared
to return
to apologize
to love them

alive
and I’m
bearing
witness to
their life
someday
a wife
will hold them
in her hair
or her hands
they will bear all
but won’t be
as painfully
open
as they are to me
though they are
closed
now

peeking
peering
out
into the ruin
of my well-organized
room in my living
the vulnerability
so vivid
in my strength

I pull the label
off my beer
I don’t want the petals
to ever fall
on another bed
I don’t want a bed of
roses
to rise
aroused
underneath
or cover me
they are suffocating
not invigorating
like white lilies

they are near
but so far away
they are here
but above
looking down
not with pity
or shame
but pain
they have full reign
of my thoughts
and have always had my heart
and I rain
with my sorrow
with my hope
with my love

I never wanted
to collect
or wreck them

just starting
to warm up here
I hope the heat
from my hell
that makes my small
thin
remains
swell up
at least my eyes might
match my thighs
this way

they sway
swish in the
brown bottle
a swig
a swallow
I swear
I can see
hear
they are breathing
out
open
letting go
but I don’t know
if they are
letting me in

The Women’s Mosaic Semi-Annual Visioning Workshop

Find focus and manifest your dreams!
Feeling a little confused with all that’s going on with your career and the economy? Not sure what to do next with your life? Maybe you’re just a bit unsatisfied overall but can’t exactly pinpoint what it is.

Our Visioning Workshop can help you sort it all out! Come to our popular and powerful semi-annual workshop for a creative, transformative afternoon where you will make a collage to manifest your heart’s desire - you may be surprised as to what that turns out to be! It’s not unusual for participants to start new businesses, relationships, families or career paths as quickly as weeks or months after the workshop. If you are looking for both answers and results to help figure out where you are right now in your life and where you want to go next, this could be thing exact thing you need to push you forward and take you there.

RSVP to hold your spot - these sell out fast!
COST:$75 for TWM Members; $120 for Non-Members
NOTE: Please RSVP to sally@thewomensmosaic.org

Hosted by Cheryl B. & Sinclair Sexsmith

Phoenix Bar
447 East 13th Street
www.queerliterarycarnival.com
Facebook Event

This month’s theme is BACK TO SCHOOL, starring:
Melissa Febos, Theadora Fisher, Loren Krywanczyk, Tanya Paperny, Rachel Simon

Sideshow: The Queer Literary Carnival is a monthly reading/performance series in NYC. Featuring some of the very finest queer (and queer ally) writers, poets,  spoken word performers, storytellers, playwrights and narrative comics out there, Sideshow enthusiastically presents “serious literature for ridiculous times.”

DIRECTIONS

http://www.messiahbrooklyn.org/
129 Russell Street — Brooklyn NY 11222 — 718.389.0854
messiahgreenpoint@gmail.com

SUBWAY:

FROM THE G TRAIN
Take the G to Nassau Ave. Exit near intersection of Nassau Ave. and Manhattan Ave. Walk East on Nassau towards Leonard St. (about 7 blocks), make a Right on Russell St. when you reach McGolrick Park.

FROM THE L TRAIN
Take the L to Lorimer St. Exit near the intersection of Lorimer and Metropolitan Ave. Walk north on Lorimer towards Conselyea Ave. where you will pick up the B48 Bus and take it to the intersection of Nassau and Humboldt Streets.  Walk one block east on Nassau to Russel St and turn right.  Church will be on your right.

BUSES:

The B48 stops at Humboldt and Nassau Aves. Walk one block east on Nassau to Russel St and turn right.  Church will be on your right.

Take the B62 to Manhattan and Nassau Aves.  Walk east on Nassau towards Leonard St. for 7 blocks and make a right on Russel St. when you reach McGolrick Park.

For any further questions or press contact, please contact us at forthebirdscollective@gmail.com

Day of event inquiries: call Kathleen at (717) 725-2176

Here is the line-up:

August 17th - Mike Robbins - Be Who You Are

August 19th - Pamela Yellen - Secrets to Financial Security

August 24th - Deborah King - The Truth Will Set You Free

August 26th - Susun Weed - Green Blessings the Wise Woman Way

August 31st - David Wolfe - The Secrets to Longevity

September 2nd - Dr. Sears - Health for the Whole Family

September 7th - Laurel Clark - Spiritual Healing

September 9th - Judith Orloff - Achieving Emotional Freedom

September 14th - Alexandra Scranton - I am being exposed to what?

September 16th - Robert Ferguson - You Don’t Have to Constantly Diet

Register for the event here: http://bit.ly/WHETMU

Note: You only need to register for the event once (no need to register for each individual call)

Jane Addams was a leading statesperson in an era when such possibilities for women were almost nonexistent. Few people today, however, know the full scope of her work as a political progressive. Join us to commemorate the 150th anniversary of her birth, and to celebrate the release of Jane Addams: Spirit in Action.

In this fresh interpretation, the first full biography of Addams in nearly forty years, Louise W. Knight shows Addams’s boldness, creativity, and tenacity as she sought ways to put the ideals of democracy into action. Starting in Chicago as a co-founder of the nation’s first settlement house, Hull House—a community center where people of all classes and ethnicities could gather—Addams became a grassroots organizer and a partner of trade unionists, women, immigrants, and African Americans seeking social justice. In time, she emerged as an all-around progressive leader: an advocate for women’s suffrage; an advisor to presidents; a co-founder of civil rights organizations, including the NAACP; and a leader for international peace.

Knight’s fast-paced narrative traces how one woman worked with others to make a difference in the world, and how her legacy has contributed to the ideals and policies we strive for today.

Click here to RSVP for this event!

Click here for more information on Demos!

Louise W. Knight is a Visiting Scholar in the Gender Studies Program at Northwestern University and a writer and consultant to nonprofits. The author of Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy, she lives in Evanston, Illinois.

Blanche Wiesen Cook is a bestselling biographer of Eleanor Roosevelt, and Distinguished Professor of History and Women’s Studies at John Jay College.

Are you ready to own your sexuality, to reclaim it, heal it and celebrate it? If you are ready to explore and transform your sexuality, join sexuality educator Amy Jo Goddard and some of the former participants of the Women’s Sexuality Empowerment Apprenticeship program for a free introductory night. Amy Jo will help women to assess where they are currently in their own sexuality and lead them in a guided meditation and interactive discussion. There is no obligation to take the program, and you will definitely walk away with some clarity and action steps about your own sexuality.

“I know there is a deep need for safe spaces where women can study and grow their sexuality, so I’ve carefully constructed a framework where women can learn experientially and share with each other aspects of their sexual selves that have been in hiding. I want to see women be truly empowered sexually. I want to see women support each other. I want women to have the intimate relationships they dream of. I want to support women to take the risks required to become their most authentic, fulfilled sexual selves.”

For more info or to sign up, go to:
http://sexualityintronight.eventbrite.com/

www.amyjogoddard.com
BIO:
Amy Jo Goddard, M.A. is a sexuality educator & trainer, writer, performing artist and activist. She travels to colleges, universities, communities and conferences teaching workshops and speaking about sexuality and maintains a private sex coaching practice. She is co-author of Lesbian Sex Secrets for Men and is a contributing author of All About Sex: A Family Resource Guide on Sex and Sexuality. Her article about queer performance artists and activism was published in 2007 in the Social Justice Journal and she has been published in numerous other publications including LOFT and Bust Magazine. Amy Jo was host of cherrybomb.com’s web stream program “Fresh Advice,” developing, researching, writing and performing over 60 episodes on women’s sexuality. A professional trainer of sexuality professionals, medical students, college students and youth for fifteen years, she has taught courses relating to sexuality at the City University of New York and the University of California at Santa Barbara. Amy Jo has taught breast and pelvic exams to medical/nursing students for 8 years and she is director/producer of the forthcoming documentary, At Your Cervix, a film that depicts this unusual work. She facilitates the Women’s Sexuality Empowerment Apprenticeship in New York City.