AMC 2008

Presenters: Mona Eldahry, Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media; Steve Pierce, Hudson Mohawk Indymedia Center; Nada Elia, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence

What does the future of "free speech," censorship and political repression look like through an Arab/Muslim lens? While mainstream media demonizes Arabs and Muslims, independent media and art made by Arabs/Muslims is deemed terrorist propaganda. Even the expression of solidarity can be criminal. This panel will draw lessons from the experience of AWAAM (Arab Women Active in Arts and Media) whose "INTIFADA NYC" t-shirts became the basis for a racist smear campaign against The Khalil Gibran International Academy and its founding principal, Debbie Almontaser. We'll hear from the Hudson-Mohawk Indymedia center, who's willingness to host Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal's "Virtual Jihada" exhibit caused the city to shut down their community space. We'll also hear the story of why the Ford Foundation revoked $100,000 from INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence moments before their Color of Violence III conference in 2005. From each of these stories we'll build our collective knowledge of how to prepare for and respond to a future of increased censorship and political repression in all targeted communities.

Presenters: Brownfemipower; Devorah Hill, Laimah Osman, Mona Eldahry, Jamila and Yasmin Madadi of AWAAM (Arab Women Active in Arts and Media); Kameelah Rasheed; and more TBA

You believe it is better to speak, but which medium will best amplify your voice and reach your community? Participants in this session can move between many different stations, getting a hands on training from a woman of color media expert and picking up a new skill at each one, including blogging, zine-making, stenciling, graphic design, sewing, textile stenciling (bring a t-shirt or something), video editing and more. This session is open to all women/trans people of color of all ages and from all levels of previous engagement with media making.

A screening of black./womyn.:conversations with lesbians of African Descent followed by a workshop on how to conduct interviews for film/video.

Presenter: Tiona Mcclodden (Director)

black./womyn.:conversations… focuses on the lives and views of lesbians of African descent, featuring candid interviews discussing coming out, sexuality and religion, love and relationships, marriage, visibility in media, discrimination and homophobia, activism, gender identity, balancing gender/race/sexuality and more. Interviewees include close to 50 out, Black lesbians including Poet Cheryl Clarke, Filmmaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Poet Staceyann Chin, and Filmmaker Michelle Parkerson. 97min.

Following the film a workshop will explore the art of the interview and the idea of transporting often silenced voices through film and video. We will explore these topics: (1)Ways one can make an interviewee feel comfortable. (2)Editing for a documentary filled with heavy dialogue. (3)Providing safe spaces for progressive dialogue around a film dealing with various points of view.

Facilitators: Fabiola Sandoval, Mai'a Williams Carpenter, Victoria Law

Parents, particularly mothers, are rarely supported in their radical organizing communities. Often they are pushed away to feed, entertain and quiet their babies and children so that the "activists" can continue organizing. Radical communities reinforce patriarchy and the nuclear family when they ignore the needs and contributions of the mothers and children in their midst. What is revolutionary parenting? How do we center the needs and contributions of parents and caretakers in a sustainable way? Looking at women in the Spanish Revolution, Zapatistas, and Incite!, we will: share experiences; envision what revolutionary parenting looks like as we strive to create a better world; build strategies on creating a supportive environment for mothers/ caretakers in radical movements; discuss how to build support systems within one's community from non-parents/caretakers.

Our bodies, our voices, our experiences are evidence of a life that dominant culture denies. The mostly white male leadership of the Disability Rights Movement marginalizes women of color, while disability is ignored or misunderstood in other social justice movements. We advocate for the integration of a radical disability politic in feminist of color agendas. What would our community look like if we had space to begin acting collectively? In this caucus, disabled women of color come together to envision a world where our individual and collective voices are heard, through blogs, zines, videos, art, poetry, and other creative venues. It's open to all disabled people and allies but centered on the experiences of disabled women of color. From here we will organize and collaborate on a project that explodes our experiences with the non-profit industrial complex, the colonization of our bodies, our histories, onto paper.

Presenters:Shira Hassan, Amber Kutka, Ryanna Sandoval, Cindy Ibarra and Isa Villaflor of The Young Women's Empowerment Project

In this interactive session we will make a zine together! Learn YWEP's quick and dirty method of making zines on the fly! Young Women's Empowerment Project is a social justice based harm reduction organization working with girls and transgender girls involved in the sex trade and street economy. We have been making zines since our very first day together. We emphasize self-care and social justice and our zines always have a theme or a message about a topic we care about at the time. Past zines have been: F**K the Police, Real Srug Information, Eyes Wide Open, a series of zines on the sex trade and many more…

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence and Speak Women of Color Media Justice Collective will host a 3 hour strategy session aimed at strengthening connections between INCITE! and existing radical women of color independent media outlets and envisioning a shared approach to using media to end violence against women of color. This session is a continuation of preliminary conversations between members of INCITE! and Speak, and all women/trans people of color are welcome.

Presenters: Andrea Ridges, Jon Blount, Starlet Lee and Jenny Lee of Detroit Summer's Live Arts Media Project; Andrea Ritchie and Remy Kharbanda of Research for Revolution; Isa Gonzalez & Paula Rojas of Sista II Sista

Join us for a continuation of the much-loved People's Statistics workshop at AMC 2007. Collectively, we'll share strategies for developing and using survey-based participatory research in campaigns around education, school safety, and violence against young women. We'll analyze struggles and successes through role-playing and talk about how to make sure we address the intersections of race, gender, gender identity and sexuality based oppressions in our research & organizing. And we'll brainstorm ways of overcoming challenges together!

Presenters: Andrea Ritchie, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence; Moya Bailey, Be Bold Be Brave Be Red; Jesse Muhammad, The Final Call Newspaper; Jordan Flaherty, Left Turn Magazine
Moderator: Brownfemipower

How did the story of the Jena Six spark mobilizations that came to be called "a 21st century civil rights movement" in the media? How did the 7 young black lesbians who were attacked in the West Village of NYC in 2006 come to be called a "wolf pack of lesbians" in the media, resulting the imprisonment of 4 of them? This panel will feature the journalists, bloggers and grassroots activists who helped bring both of these stories to national attention. We will breakdown the process by which progressive media institutions fueled mass mobilizations in support of the Jena Six, and also offer an analysis of how and why such mobilizations did not occur in support of the New Jersey 4. We will look at the strategies developed by Women of Color Bloggers to raise national awareness of the New Jersey 4 without the backing of most progressive media outlets. Finally, we will explore what both of these cases have to teach us about the kind of media movement we need for the future.

Facilitator: Fallon Wilson

The Cyber Quilting Experiment is a project examining how the internet can be used for social justice work and movement building activities. As with the Highlander Folk School in the Civil Rights Movement, the cyber quilting experiment is to be a space where activism, cognitive engagement, and skill development intersect, equipping women of color activist and organizations with the cyber tools needed to bring about radical social change. The experiment involves three spatial internet components: (1) A Space to End Violence against Women of Color; (2) A Space to Envision a Better Day; and (3) A Space to do Media Justice work. Each internet space will bring together artist, scholars, and activists to either create new projects or to collaborate on existing projects. At this caucus, we will talk with women of color about the project and etch out how to make the vision of the cyber quilting experiment a reality.