Archives for June 2006

Here I am at the AMC! The weather is gorgeous, the people are smart and interesting, and the Pita Pit serves delicious falafel on a salad you can design yourself.

But I know what you’re really wondering: how did I bowl? I’ll tell you. I bowled a 73 and formed a deep meaningful relationship with a creamy marbelized bowling ball named Judy. (Really. Her name was etched right there beneath the finger holes.) I felt pretty good about the 73, though that put me in fourth out of four because I made the mistake of bowling with folks who actually had skill and talent.

In all seriousness, though, this conference rocks! The keynote panel last night was completely inspiring, getting us juiced up to tackle this weekend’s central question: since being right is not enough, how do we make media that’s not just right but more effective? Former WAM!mer Deepa Fernandez, host of WBAI’s morning flagship show Wakeup Call talked about the need to get MTV-clever about marketing our message to the masses, without the MTV-style corporate selling out. And the clip from Jackie Salloum’s documentary about Palestinian hip-hop activists, SlingShot Hip Hop, blew me away, especially seeing the female emcees risking everything to get their voice out on stage in an embattled, conservative Muslim society.

This morning I checked out the Is This What Democracy Looks Like? session, which addressed ways to bridge the gaps between media justice, indymedia, and grassroots activists, and engaged in some great conversation about the ways supposedly “neutral” structures like blogs actively exclude the voices of radical & queer women of color (for more, check out presenter Susana Adame’s righteous blog ring of Radical Women of Color Bloggers, but if you’re not a woman of color, please be respectful of their space and resist taking over their conversations), and ended with an emphasis on each of us doing everything we can do to protect free access to community media, from Public Access TV & Community Radio to Net Neutrality, all of which are seriously under attack. Want to help? Start here.

Now I’m off to check out the monstrous Exhibitor Hall, to do some anti-capitalist shopping and schmoozing…

Posted by CNW at 12:05 PM
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Know where I’m going to be next weekend? Only the very coolest place on the planet: Bowling Green, OH.

What makes Bowling Green so cool? I’m sure there are many things, but the one I’m most impressed by is that it’s playing host to the 2006 Allied Media Conference. From their website:

FROM TRUTH TO POWER because being right is not enough

How can alternative media go beyond merely “speaking truth” and actually change the material conditions of our world? How do we construct popular media projects that effectively build grassroots power and advance social justice?

The Allied Media Conference 2006 will bring together some of the most innovative and visionary culture producers, media workers, artists and activists to probe these and other critical questions.

Basically, it’s paradise for this here little WAM!mer. I’m especially drooling over the killer keynote panel, the Is This What Democracy Looks Like? session, and event-producing geek that I am, the workshop on Making the Most of Your Event: Outreach and Evaluation Tips.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s an actual Bowling Party Friday night (it is in Bowling Green, after all…).

Pre-registration closes Tuesday. For those of you who can’t make it, I’ll be blogging from the Conference and will keep you posted!

Posted by CNW at 05:18 PM
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Well, you liked chatting with Katha Pollitt so much last week that we’re bringing you another amazing conversation right away. Oh, yes, as of right now you can chat with the inimitable ALISON BECHDEL, creator of Dykes to Watch Out For, as we prepare for her live event and slideshow celebrating the release of her mindblowing memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.

Today and tomorrow only, Alison will answer your questions & chat on the topics that interest you — all you’ve got to do is register for the Boards and post your questions & comments for her right here. We’ve even posted a little q&a of our own to get us started, which you can read after the jump:

Continue reading "Alison Online" »

Posted by CNW at 04:44 PM
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The Washington Post called Katha Pollitt “the best place to go for original thinking on the left.” Camille Paglia once wished for her to “burn in hell.” But this week, it’s all about YOU.

That’s right — in preparation for her visit to CNW later this month with her new collection of columns, Virginity or Death, the righteously feminist Nation columnist Katha Pollitt will be dropping by our Discussion Boards every day this week to take your questions and chat about whatever’s on your mind. (Or nearly whatever.)

To get us started, we aksed Katha a few questions of our own. Read ‘em after the fold — or just jump right into the conversation here.

Continue reading "Chatting Katha" »

Posted by CNW at 10:06 AM
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No comment.

Posted by CNW at 12:35 PM
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On the evening of August 10, Hannah Shaffer of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, decided to go to the nearby Barnes & Noble outside of Wilmington. She wanted to see Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who was promoting his book, “It Takes a Family.”…

Shaffer, 18, thought Santorum’s public appearance might be a good occasion to ask him a few questions.

“He is my Senator,” she says, and she wanted to challenge him on his notorious claim that legalizing gay marriage was akin to legalizing incest and bestiality…

When she arrived at 6:00 p.m., some of her friends were already there, along with two other young women she didn’t know, Stacey Galperin and Miriam Rocek.

As Shaffer was talking with her friends, Rocek made a joke.

She held up a copy of a book by the gay writer Dan Savage called “The Kid,” which is about how he and his partner adopted a son. And Rocek said, “It would be funny if we got Santorum to sign this book.” (To discredit Santorum, Savage and his readers in 2003 came up with a nasty definition of “Santorum” that now often appears on Internet searches for Santorum’s name.)…

[A] trooper, Delaware State Police Sgt. Mark DiJiacomo, who was on detail as a private security guard, came over to the group of women.

Here is the conversation, as Galperin remembers it: “You guys have to leave.”
“Why?”

“Your business is not wanted here. They don’t want you here anymore. If you don’t leave, you’re going to be arrested. If you can’t post bail, you’ll go to prison. Those of you who are under 18 will go to Ferris [the juvenile detention center]. And those of you over 18 will go either to Gander Hill Prison or the woman’s correctional facility. Any questions?”

Read the whole story at The Progressive.

As it turns out, the women did have questions and yesterday filed a federal lawsuit about the matter. Which is great, and begs the question: what happens when our public conversations take place more and more on private premises? When the town square is replaced by the mall food court? And when indy booksellers, who, while admittedly private businesses, exist out of a devotion to the intelligent exchange of ideas and creative visions, are put out of business by megachains who care about nothing more than maximizing dollars and minimizing disruption to their carefully constructed buying environments?

Well, this. This is what happens.

Via Peek.

Posted by CNW at 04:26 PM
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