“Feminist Art Series” Artist Profile: Rebecca Goldings
This is the first installment of Paradigm Shift’s Feminist Art Series, which will showcase up-and-coming visual designers whose work creates innovative ways to speak to the everyday feminist.
Please welcome Rebecca Goldings, our premiere Artist Profile!
Rebecca is an artist and mediamaker from Dallas whom I met a few summers back when the two of us were interning at a nonprofit arts organization. Being a fellow Texan and NYU attendee, we soon hit it off — and I knew once the PShift blog was up and running that we had to feature some of her amazing work.
Though Rebecca’s focus is multimedia art production, her portfolio also features several drawings that capture her vibrant, honest and unsettling perception of gender norms. Below are two examples of her work: “Barbie on a Leash” and “Sweetheart” (series) – both of which might be best described as resembling pop art with a twist.
Barbie On A Leash
Sweethearts (series)
Rebecca’s photography is also incredibly provocative, but you’ll have to check that out on her web site at www.rebeccagoldings.com, since we haven’t gotten clearance to post her photographs on our blog yet (C’mon, R!). *** Staff Pick: “Another Hairy Thing With Lips”.
Of her many accolades, Rebecca was recently selected as a 2009-10 Artist Fellow at The Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. In her spare time, she freelances web and graphic design, which you can also check out online (link above).
For price requests or questions about Rebecca’s work, please contact her by email at rgoldings@gmail.com.
“A Voice” By Shetal Shah
A VOICE
-By Shetal Shah
April 2004
I don’t want the war anymore.
The uphill climb…
The battle’s done,
Only half won
But
One more breath, one step…
I can’t continue the trek.
I crave silence.
To be unmoving, soundless, still.
My pipe dream for next year
Right now Herstory tells me to persevere.
I’ve got to march forward and contest.
For to be still is not to progress.
To be silent is not to express
The heaving weaving burden
First placed upon my chest
By the distress
Of less.
By the truths powerful men
Dare not confess
Not even to their mothers.
Sisters, Aunts, Daughters
Tallying beneath the 51% status quo we know to be accurate – the census said so.
This power in numbers should have been ours to devour.
(After all) Isn’t democracy’s choice determined by the majority voice?
Yet, the stench of strength from mere muscle power bullied Alice Paul
In an attempt to make her cower.
Instead, she found Inez and gave her wings to fly – zigzags and loopholes
That threw mute girls back at the 49% few.
Mute girls with pin curls
On gallant white horses come to preserve their 2% spread.
2% skimmed milk
White women’s’ skimped silk spun by the black worm that toiled all day
Exhausted.
All shades in fabrics made every which way
Passed out on the couch
Or cot or settee
Ready in spite of race, caste or creed
For tomorrow.
They were quiet.
This quieted riot.
Non-violent and spun twice around for Wilson to pin the tail yea or nay.
Their civil disobedience
Turned more intense
By threatened egos
whose N-O’s surmised their cries as pointless.
Prison guards
In charge of bars
Irreverent to the weight stigmatic stripes
Tacked on their backs…
Hee hee said She –
For with cheek, jaw and soul breaking came revelation of being, irreversible seeing,
Each blow only more so the needing to give purpose to unbearable lightness, the conclusion an end to naive delusion.
Windowless and inside cold steel lines
Unified women took only one side
Drew new lives reinvented
spread through horizontal vents’ drifting sniffed scents
to outside park bench’s newfound wenches wrenching with twisted ills,
their noses posing as hallways and corridors for freedom fought odors to travel through
to spike the spirit inside their minds and grow IDEAS – oh my – seeds that could look to the heavens and seek the sun.
These lasses the locked up masses linked and fed
Through subliminal instincts they led.
Fertilizing more,
These Iron-Jawed Angels, all
Took their place at Wilson’s door
Picketed and paraded in Bonnets and Banners.
Banners with words that slapped the President’s cheeks with his own tongue.
A tongue that flung far-reaching saliva trails
to prevent Our Nation’s asphyxiation.
How could he?
What hypocrisy.
Dares he to dictate democracy overseas
When 50 states sired 51% shes
That can’t speak?
Finally, on account of one iron-clamped jaw, force-fed eggs raw
through plastic tubes that rudely bruised,
Newspapers adjusted their alien ears to twist human into woman.
Exposés bashed bad prison decorum and smeared the good President’s fame.
The star in his own puppet show,
On stage feigning interest in female lives
He turned his face to its good side for the camera eyes admiring
his newborn need to satisfy women’s rights to breathe.
Mere public cries that served to satisfy classified survival desires
While in private attire his unseen cheek refused to heal.
If I believe that angels don’t lie, then where are the versions revised for future minds?
Who will fix history’s story line?
My cry? Stop young feet from passing past the past’s crickety creak,
Scrape blind haste from its underbelly and unclog soggy leaks drenched in blind faith.
Yet, even as I deny untruths made by one side
I grudgingly avow each version valid through its own eyes,
and discover that My faith is blind.
Why?
Back to present day,
When the delusional man on the train points me to his carefully created statement
Plastic cup taped empty off to the side
At a time when one more push thrusted into my pregnant mind –
Actively contracting over the happiness of this lonely society –
Will birth agitated and rolling eyed,
My pleading outcry
For one long sigh
For one long silent ride
Away from this one and that one and this bum and that bum’s decree
To denounce the mayor’s power after he
Caused the father to deflower –
The mother? (What??)
Even in my most impatient state,
I must not erase, must, in blind faith, celebrate,
His rightful perpetuation of our salvation to
Speak
Freely.
Poem originally commissioned by Poetic People Power.
Category: Blog, Shetal Shah /
Different – a poem by Cristina Dominguez
You think of me and decide
Directly you decipher me…
Different
I’m different cause I’m distant
Detached where you distinctly dismissed me
Different
I’m different because I’m damaged so you neglect me
Disappointingly dissect me
Only to reject me
You ignore my dimensions…
Different
I’m different so you detain me
Disempower me and blame me
Disapprove of me and shame me
Because I challenge all you know
I’m different
I’m different so you had no choice to dismantle me
And now I’m on that mantle you see
A haunting memory of a life so distinguished
A life you had to extinguish
But a life you could never diminish
Because I’m different
And now this voice soars higher
Dominating the evil that tried to
Eliminate
Rising embers from ashes
Left behind of a life
Destructively disassembled
But never successfully destroyed
A life that dared to love…
To love the different
To stop lying and denying
To be the different
To dig deep and discover
That different
Is more dissimilar to foreign
And that we are looking
Too far in
To the development
Of a definition
That has no recognition
For the discrimination
In our nation
That drowns any dream of emancipation
And devours people like me
The different
But don’t hesitate
To contemplate that we
The different
Don’t pay haste to the distaste
That does not embrace
We are not disheveled on any level
By those discomforted
Those deaf to the sound
Of our disruptive drumming hearts
That dance to the beat of revolution
And demand evolution
Don’t guard our disregard
Deconstruct this constricting construction
Open the floodgates and wait
Let the love pour over you
Ending the hate that reigned over me
In your own way, on this day…
Stop divorcing yourself from me…
From the different
Stop demeaning our meaning
Be different
Category: Blog, Cristina Dominguez /
National Equality March in DC
NATIONAL EQUALITY MARCH for LGBTQ rights
MARCH WITH PARADIGM SHIFT, part of NYC National Equality March Mobilization Coalition
____________________________________________________
October 11, Sunday- Timeline
5:30 am– Meet Paradigm Shifters at bus departure location
Location: 16 West 22nd Street (between 5th and 6th Ave), NYC
Chelsea/West Village Bus with New York City Council speaker, Christine Quinn!
6:00 am– BUS Depart (TIME UPDATE- bus organizers changed the bus departure time 10/6!)
10:30 am– BUS ARRIVE in DC- Union Station- take the Red Line in direction of Shady Grove, get out at the Farragut North stop (7 min ride), exit at the Connecticut and K St exit, walk 1/2 block south on Connecticut, Connecticut merges onto 17th St, walk 1 block south on 17th, turn left on I (eye) st.- walk 2 blocks to march start point on 15th and I (eye) st.
11:45 am or before– if you are meeting us in DC- meet at 15th St. at I (Eye) St. and call 201-394-8173 to find us.
12:00 pm– MARCH STARTS-
Gather on 15th Street at “I” (Eye) Street – we will be staging in the street and 15th between “I” Street and “M” Street will be closed for this purpose. The March will kick off from 15th and I Street, right near McPherson Square (Metro stops close by are at McPherson Square, Farragut West – both Blue and Orange Lines, and Farragut North – Red Line).
March Route:
- From there we go South on 15th to “H” Street
- West on “H” Street to 17th Street
- South on 17th Street to Pennsylvania Avenue (closed portion)
- Pennsylvania Avenue (closed portion) – right past the White House – to 15th Street
- South on 15th Street to Pennsylvania Avenue South
- East on Pennsylvania Avenue South, all the way to the U.S. Capitol West Lawn for the National Equality March Rally.
2:00 pm– RALLY STARTS at U.S. Capitol West Lawn
4:15 pm– LEAVE to take bus to NYC- from US Capitol, walk north on 1st St, make a right onto Louisiana Ave. to Union Station.
5:00 pm– BUS DEPART DC
9:00 pm– RETURN TO NYC
BUY YOUR BUS TICKETS HERE- THIS IS NOT SOLD OUT (as of Oct 6th):
Paradigm Shifters will be on the Chelsea/West Village Bus with New York City Council speaker, Christine Quinn!
Round Trip Tickets cost $35.84 and are available at
http://nycgomarch.eventbrite.com/
This bus is organized by National Equality March
Contact: a.meadows@nationalequalitymarch.com
646-871-8002
TO MARCH WITH PARADIGM SHIFT- PLEASE CALL Meredith 201-394-8173 or email rsvp@paradigmshiftnyc.com by Oct. 9th 8pm
* INCLUDE full name, email, cell, method of transportation *
We March with One Single Demand:
Equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states. We will accept no less and will work until it is achieved.
We are guaranteed equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. Free and equal people do not bargain for or prioritize our rights. Full equality necessarily includes all members of the LGBT community and encompasses, but is not limited to:
The right to work our jobs and go to school free of harassment and discrimination.
The right to safety in our daily lives, and protection from hate crimes.
The right to equitable healthcare, and the right to donate blood.
The right to equitable immigration policies.
The right to marry.
The right to serve in the military openly.
March info:
http://www.equalityacrossamerica.org/
Category: Events, Paradigm Shift Event /
Trailor: “Age of Stupid”
The Age of Stupid USA Trailer from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.
The “Age of Stupid” is having its global premiere 7:30pm on Monday, September 21st with a live “green carpet” event in the city that will be simultaneously broadcast to multiple cinemas across the globe, including the following Manhattan cinemas: (Union Square Stadium 14, Chelsea Cinema, First And 62nd Cinemas) The film has already garnered some great press, and individual contributions funded it! It is screening in most major cities in the states, so everyone can come out- but they should try and reserve
seats online in advance. Kofi Annan will address the audience at the premiere.
Not in New York City? Check out how you can see the film here!
Category: PShiftTV /
Lesbian Librarian Reviews: “Band Geeked Out”
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Pub. Date: April 2009
ISBN-13: 9780738714691
Age Range: Young Adult
288ppAs most of my friends are on unemployment, underemployed, or “freelancing”, during most worldly encounters, including reading, I have begun to take notice to the ways in which folks make money in the world. Now, reading a piece of young adult fiction is less about the contours of a remarkable story, and more about the audacity of its author. Before reading the book’s description and accollades on the back cover or inside jacket, I first go to the author’s bio and study her photograph. Vanity overrides my better judgement: I question her beauty, her smarts in choice of photographer, her boldness for allowing her face to be so mutilated by onlookers like myself, and question her economic well-being as a result of my touching her book. How could I not? For all of my reading pleasures, I must acknowledge that I’m keeping someone employed, that by reading this title, I’m actively not sustaining some other aspiring best-selling author.
Pub. Date: April 2009
ISBN-13: 9780738714691
Age Range: Young Adult
288ppAs most of my friends are on unemployment, underemployed, or “freelancing”, during most worldly encounters, including reading, I have begun to take notice to the ways in which folks make money in the world. Now, reading a piece of young adult fiction is less about the contours of a remarkable story, and more about the audacity of its author. Before reading the book’s description and accollades on the back cover or inside jacket, I first go to the author’s bio and study her photograph. Vanity overrides my better judgement: I question her beauty, her smarts in choice of photographer, her boldness for allowing her face to be so mutilated by onlookers like myself, and question her economic well-being as a result of my touching her book. How could I not? For all of my reading pleasures, I must acknowledge that I’m keeping someone employed, that by reading this title, I’m actively not sustaining some other aspiring best-selling author.
This week, I’ve sustained the closely cropped, red-headed Josie Bloss. Her bio sold me, because she left her position in law to relocate to a quiet town, (likely with a cushioned savings account) to write books…really, she is living my dream. The best part, is that she mentions her truest love, BAND, yes, as in marching band. So still, someone as ballsy as her, still has unrelinqished potential. As authors go, Bloss passes my litmus test for worthy-to-be-read, but I still have questions regarding her sexual politics.
An example of what I mean, is that for a young adult novel, I was surprised by the blow-job, but not even a single girl-on-girl grope. I mean, the premise was about band, but the underlying story asked, does she pick the girl, or does she pick the guy. I’m always routing for the girl, of course. And as I read on, I consulted with friends who often teased, “what, does the lesbian die in the end?”
Not your standard contemporary pulp novel, Bloss was able to outline the inner turmoils of the “questioning” generation. Beyond the ultimate question of, what do I do with my life, (which Obama would call a high-class problem to have), when your parents have a trust-fund for you to pick the college of your choice, of course the next question would be, “do I date this even cooler girl?”
Perhaps the novel led me to wonder if I was tired of reading the story from the perspective of the questioning. Contemporary references of Lindsay Lohan aside, I found myself wanting a deeper analysis of character distinction. Although as easy to read as a blog, one-dimensional characters shouldn’t have identity crises beyond what to wear.
I recommend this book to teens who are unsure of which paths to choose. But still, I wonder, are we still in the age of classic pulp, where the dyke dies as she aims to lure the young voluptuous maiden? Plainly, should we continue to endorse young adult novels with lesbian characters, where the questioning girl doesn’t love the lesbian in the end? And I ask this, even with respect to the audacious author who gives us new hope for an employable future.
Signing off for now.
Your Lesbian Librarian.
Category: Lesbian Librarian :: Shawnta Smith /
Fight For Your Reproductive Rights: How You Can Help Pass the Reproductive Health Act
Paradigm Shift: NYC’s Feminist Community & NYCLU Proudly Present:
Fight For Your Reproductive Rights:
How You Can Help Pass the Reproductive Health Act
CORINNE CAREY
Interim director, Reproductive Rights Project, New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU)
REV. MATTHEW WESTFOX
National Coordinator for Field Services at Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice & Associate Pastor at All Souls Bethlehem Church
CAROL ROYE, EdD, RN, CPNP
researcher in reproductive health
JENN PROULX
Filmmaker of “Another New Yorker for the Reproductive Health Act”
View Film Here
Supporters: Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, NARAL, New York Abortion Access Fund, New York Coalition for Abortion Clinic Defense, National Organization for Women at NYU, NOW – NYS Young Feminist Task Force, Hunter Women’s Rights Coalition, Soapbox Inc., Author/Activist Jennifer Baumgardner
Event Topics Include:
- What the Reproductive Health Act is
- Why we need the Reproductive Health Act
- Many actions you can take to help pass the Reproductive Health Act
The Reproductive Health Act:
- Guarantees a woman’s right to control her reproductive health
- Ensures that a woman will be able to have an abortion if her health is endangered
- Treats the regulation of abortion as an issue of public health and medical practice, rather than as a potential crime
- Guarantees everyone the right to use or refuse contraception
BONUS RAFFLE! for EVENT pass granting FREE admission to Paradigm Shift events for one year.
When: Wed, Sept 23rd
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: In the heart of the Feminist District
People Lounge, 163 Allen Street, NYC
(Between Stanton and Rivington, F or V Train to 2nd Ave)
Click Here for Hop Stop Directions
Cost: $5 suggested donation/ students FREE
Participate:
Calling All Feminists- help promote and we’ll help promote your organization!
Email: JWeis@paradigmshiftnyc.com
ABOUT NYCLU:
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is one of the nation’s foremost defenders of civil liberties and civil rights.
ABOUT CORINNE CAREY:
http://www.nyclu.org/about/staff
Prior to joining the NYCLU, Corinne Carey was a researcher with the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch, where she produced reports and engaged in advocacy on domestic human rights issues including the rights of people with criminal records, sex offender registration and community notification laws, and the evacuation of correctional facilities during Hurricane Katrina.
Carey graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law. She began her legal career with a fellowship from the Open Society Institute as the founder and director of the Harm Reduction Law Project, based in the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Program in New York City. She provided direct legal services to drug users in harm reduction programs throughout the city.
A longtime drug law reform and harm reduction advocate, Carey was a founding member of Prevention Point Philadelphia, that city’s first needle exchange program. She serves on the board of directors of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, and has spoken about the rights of drug users to local, national and international audiences. She has also taught courses in law and urban problems and civil rights and civil liberties at New York University and Brooklyn College.
ABOUT REV. MATTHEW WESTFOX:
http://www.rcrc.org/issues/speakers.cfm
Reverend Matthew Westfox is the National Coordinator for Field Services for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. He also serves as Associate Pastor of All Souls Bethlehem Church in Brooklyn, New York, and is ordained through the United Church of Christ. Before attending seminary at Pacific School of Religion, Reverend Westfox was a community organizer for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and a legislative aide for New York State Senator Thomas K. Duane.
ABOUT CAROL ROYE:
Carol Roye is a well-known researcher in reproductive health who specializes in issues pertinent to adolescents, including teen pregnancy prevention and working with mothers of pregnant and parenting teens to improve outcomes for their daughters. She was also awarded a prestigious research grant from the National Institutes of Health to study HIV/AIDS prevention. Her work is featured by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and appears in the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth. She has appeared on radio and television to talk about adolescent and women’s health issues and has spoken at numerous national and international conferences.
Dr. Roye is a Professor of Nursing at Hunter College in New York City and a practicing pediatric nurse practitioner. She splits her professional time between research, teaching and her clinical practice providing reproductive health care to adolescent girls in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York. She is the author of many publications on a range of topics in adolescent reproductive health, including Adolescent Sexual Development and Sexuality: Assessment and Interventions, a popular book for professionals who work with teenagers around issues of sexuality.
She is the mother of six children, the last adopted from a Romanian orphanage, and the grandmother of eight.
She is currently at work on a book which examines the genesis of current, unfavorable reproductive health policies and the adverse impact they have on child health in the U.S. and overseas.
ABOUT JENN PROULX:
Jenn Proulx is a filmmaker and editor; credits include Food Network, PBS, truTV, VH1 Network and A&E Television.
ABOUT PARADIGM SHIFT: NYC’S FEMINIST COMMUNITY:
http://www.paradigmshiftnyc.com
Use the “F” word.
Discuss. Evolve. Grow with Us.
Change NYC. Change the World.
Paradigm Shift is New York City’s largest feminist community
group and event series.
Paradigm Shift TV, the pioneering online feminist video channel:
http://www.paradigmshiftnyc.com/feminism/category/pshifttv
Paradigm Shift’s Blog:
http://www.paradigmshiftnyc.com/feminism/category/blog
Category: Events, Paradigm Shift Event /
Afro-Punk Festival – Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Brooklyn, NY (7/3-7/12/2009)
In preparation for writing this review I watched the Matt Davis” documentary that inspired BAM”s Afro-Punk Festival. Afro-Punk is a movement that gives “a voice to thousands of multi-cultural kids fiercely identifying with a lifestyle path-less-traveled,” particularly those who are into indie, punk, and hardcore music. The film is an insightful look at a topic that I had never really considered: what it is like to be an African American who is involved in a scene that is overwhelmingly White.
Afro Punk (the film) provides a peek into the internal conflicts Black people face by being one of the only people of color present in these musical and artist communities. Throughout watching the film I found myself wishing more young White people could hear these feelings, and was glad the Afro-Punk Festival would provide a way for New Yorkers of all backgrounds to come together. I had the opportunity to attend some of the Brooklyn events, and You’re a long way from convincing me that MR is just like the Austrian school-delays.com because of this issue!You know… actually I think Scott and Nick did soften slightly… When Scott 1st brought this up he claimed that if he wasn’t 100% correct about MOA then everything he ever This is true for big as well as online casino traditional data. written is completely false…. though most of the music was new, the introduction through both street fairs and the website was welcome.
Read more
Category: Blog, Janice Formichella /
The Stoning of Soraya M. engages the NYC feminist community
Many of you have by now seen The Stoning of Soraya M, featured last month at Paradigm Shift. The film continues to expand to more theaters and continues to create much buzz and the Iranian conflict drags on. Some members of the New York City feminist community are spending their summer promoting the film and making sure that Soraya’s story is heard by all those who value justice and human dignity.
One of these women is Irshad Manji. Irshad is a dedicated feminist, a Muslim reformer, a freethinker, and perhaps best known for her book The Trouble with Islam Today. Irshad is most currently the founder and Director of the Moral Courage Project at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service.
The Moral Courage Project has recently launched a new website and is sponsoring a summer-long campaign with the producers of The Stoning of Soraya M.
The blog covers feminist-friendly topics such as men and violence, free speech, human rights, religion, violence against women, media, and more. An important aspect What are symptoms?Detox symptoms refer to the physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms that occur when someone attempts to withdraw from a substance they are addicted to. of the website is “Take Action” information about how to do your part to stop against honor also another test of whether the concept of lending reserves is valid is to look at the semnantics of the word, if banks did lend reserves in the school-delays.com process then they could reasonably expect to receive them back again from the actions of the loan customer as that is what the verb to lend entails. killings or get involved with Moral Courage Project. There are tons of resources for online activism and even opportunities for guest bloggers.
The Moral Courage Project website promotes critical thinking, the free exchange of ideas, and speaking truth to power, all things we as feminists love! One post of honorable mention is Caution: Men at Work (Demolishing Violence) that explores the issue of men and violence.
One exciting event that the MCP will hold this summer is a live online conversation with Cyrus Nowrasteh, the director of The Stoning of Soraya M. No topic is off limits! Email Janice.formichella@gmail.com for more information on this event or the Moral Courage Project.
Category: Blog, Janice Formichella /
