event

She's Beautiful When She's Angry

Film Screening and Discussion

Wednesday, March 2nd / 5:30pm

Cortelyou Commons / 2324 N. Fremont Street

In celebration of Women's History Month, join The Women's Center and the Women's and Gender Studies Department for a screening of the documentary film She's Beautiful When She's Angry, that resurrects the buried history of the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971. Amazing historical footage of meetings, speeches and rallies of the time and juxtaposed with photos of many of these same women today, now in their 60s and 70s, relishing the memories. 

One of the women in the film, Vivian Rothstein, co-founder of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union will lead the discussion following the movie. Two DePaul students will offer young women's commentaries on the film and the relevance to women's studies and activism today.

Free and open to the public

For more information call The Women's Center: 773-325-7559
Or email Diane Horwitz: dhorwit1@depaul.edu

Sponsored by The Women's Center, Latin American and Latino Studies Department, History Department, Women's and Gender Studies Department, Center for Latino Research, Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Program.

Film Showing: She's Beautiful When She's Angry

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Directed by Mary Dore

Opens at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre from March 13th 2015

3733 North Southport Ave, Chicago | 773 871 6607

Special Q&As with Mary Dore and women from the film

She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women’s movement from 1966 to 1971. She’s Beautiful takes us from the founding of NOW, when ladies wore hats and gloves, to the emergence of more radical factions of women’s liberation; from intellectuals like Kate Millett to the street theatrics of WITCH (Women’s International Conspiracy from Hell!).

Remarkably, there has never been a theatrical documentary about the early days of women’s liberation. She’s Beautiful aims not to romanticize the early movement, but to dramatize it in its exhilarating, quarrelsome, sometimes heart-wrenching glory.

The film does not shy away from the controversies over race, sexual identity and leadership that arose in the women’s movement.  She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry captures the spirit of the time -- thrilling, scandalous, and often hilarious.

Reviews

"One of the year's best films. An urgent, illuminating dive into the headwaters of second-wave feminism." -- Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice  

“I loved it. I watched it with my daughter. Thank you so much for this film because it manages to do all the history but … also be fun.” -- Melissa Harris-Perry, MSNBC

"The convulsive, painful, contradictory -- and yet still threatened -- movement to see women as full partners in the human dance has, we too often forget, also enabled those of us with Y Chromosomes to re-imagine who we can be as well, which is why Mary Dore's film is much more than a simple documentary." -- Frank Browning, Huffington Post

Contact the filmmakers

Catherine Dwyer

She's Beautiful Film Project

286 13th Street

Brooklyn, NY 11215

347-552-3242

Watch the trailer

www.shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com

www.facebook.com/ShesBeautifulWhenShesAngry

twitter.com/SBWSA

http://instagram.com/shesbeautifulwhenshesangry/

Facebook || Twitter || Trailer || Instagram

For group sales, contact: msilk@internationalfilmcircuit.com

March for Climate Justice! Chicago on Sept. 6th and NYC on the 21st!

On September 21st, thousands will come to New York City for the People’s Climate March. Organized by Bill McKibben’s 350.org and a coalition of orther environmental groups, the march is expected to be perhaps the largest mobilization for climate justice in American history. It is part of a growing wave of activism and advocacy demanding that the US government take decisive action to radically reduce carbon emissions and stem the disastrous effects of climate change.

Another part of that wave passes through here in Chicago on September 6th -- and you should plan to be at it whether or not you’re intending to be in NYC.

The Great March for Climate Action

On March 1st of this year, hundreds of people in Los Angeles took the first steps in a march across the country bound for Washington, DC. The Great March for Climate Action will culminate in DC this November and will be passing through the Chicago area for a public march action on September 6th.

According to the March’s website: “The March seeks to build the broadest possible public consensus and is focused strictly on the climate crisis.”

Everywhere along the way, the cross-country marchers have been met and encouraged by individuals and grassroots community groups, who have walked a portion of the route and attended climate rallies. We want to do what we can to celebrate and support these people and spread the message that our government representatives need to take action to encourage sustainable energy. Therefore we are encouraging any and all Chicago readers of this site to be out there on the 6th if you are able.

Get Involved and Show Support!

There are multiple options for being part of this march. At 7am on the 6th the marchers will reach the Oak Park Public Library (834 Lake Street, Oak Park) just outside of Chicago. This is right near Scoville Park and one block away from the Oak Park Green Line “L” stop. A kickoff event will take place between 7am and 8am.

Following the kickoff the marchers and supporters will then begin the twelve mile walk to Daley Plaza in Chicago. Between 10:15 and 10:45 they will reach the second opportunity for you to join the march at the Garfield Park Conservatory, right near the Conservatory Green Line “L” stop.

At 11am the march will resume and rally at the iconic Buckingham Fountain, right next to Lake Michigan. They will reach the fountain for another meetup between 1:15 and 1:45. This will be the final opportunity to join the rally if you wish to march with them. At 2pm the march will reach its destination and final rally at Daley Plaza. Speakers will begin at 2:30, including Kim Wasserman Nieto of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. A PDF is attached here with more details regarding the march route.

Urgency

There is no doubt that the climate crisis is very real; it presents an undeniable danger to the planet while world leaders continue to drag their feet. California is experiencing the worst drought in the state’s history, and scientists are saying that it may yet be just a preview to come. The phenomenon of the climate refugee is no longer merely a “what if.”

Meanwhile, corporations and governments alike continue their reliance on fossil fuels. Pipelines and fracking projects continue to devastate ecosystems and livelihoods. All signs indicate that if these projects continue apace, carbon emissions will drive the global temperature to the point of making the planet unfit for human life.

That’s not an option. The urgency for this growing climate justice movement is as palpable as it’s ever been. The Great March for Climate Action is an opportunity to connect, organize and build this movement further, toward not just the 21st but into a movement that reaches every community, workplace and campus, that can win the kind of change to make our planet sustainable and safe for all. We hope to see you out there!

The Girls in the Band - Movie and Brunch 8/16

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Join Chicago Area Women's History Counciland AAUW Chicago for Brunch and Screening of the Film "The Girls in the Band"

 

Help celebrate the 10th Anniversary of WITASWAN (Women in the Audience Supporting Women Artists Now) and it's success promoting women positive films.

Saturday, August 16, 2014   

11:00 am - Brunch at Bravo Restaurant

1701 Maple Ave, Evanston, IL

1:00 pm - Movie Screening at Cinemark Evanston

Theater, 1715 Maple Ave, Evanston, IL

After the Film - Discussion with Director/Producer Judy Chaikin

In the 30s and 40s, hundreds of women musicians toured the country in glamorous all-girl bands, while other played side by side with male counterparts. By the mid 50s female jazz musicians had literally disappeared from the workplace, their names and contributions completely forgotten.

"The Girls in the Band" tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big ban instrumentalists and their groundbreaking journeys from the late 30s to the present day. These talented women endured sexism, racism and thwarted opportunities for decades, yet continued to persevere, inspire and elevate their talents in a field that seldom welcomed them.

For more information, the trailer and rave reviews of the film go to:

http://thegirlsintheband.com

Cost: Movie screening and Q & A - $20.00

     Brunch at Bravo Restaurant - $25.00

     Brunch and movie combo - $50 - includes special reserved seating  

Reservations required:

Mail checks, made out to AAUW, to Chicago AAUW, 2746 W. Morse Ave.

Chicago, IL 60645

or go online to purchase tickets:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/765726

This event is cosponsored by Chicago Area Women's History Council

100th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage in Illinois

In June 1913, Illinois became the first state east of the Mississippi to grant women the right to vote for presidential electors and some local offices. The League of Women Voters Chicago is holding a celebration of this occasion

Tuesday, June 11, 2013
6 to 8 p.m
Exchequer
226 S. Wabash Ave.


Co-sponsoring the celebration are Chicago Area Women's History Council and Working Women's History Project. This event will feature an original play by Mary Bonnett about three Illinois women, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Catherine Waugh McCulloch, and Grace Wilbur Trout, whose activism was crucial in making women's suffrage a reality in this state.  Ald. Leslie Hairston will be our featured speaker. The cost of this event is $25, which includes salad, pizza, and wine. Scroll down and click on the link below for a flyer.  

RSVP with payment required by June 1. Online at LWVChicago.org or mail checks made out to LWVChicago Education Fund to LWVChicago, 332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 525,Chicago, IL 60604

Voices of Chicago Women Activists and Leaders: Oral Histories 1945 - 2000

Chicago Area Women's History Council and Columbia College Honors Oral History Class invites you to a program of student oral history presentations in connection with our project:

"Voices of Chicago Women Activists and Leaders: Oral Histories 1945 - 2000"

Dr. Erin McCarthy, Associate Professor of History at Columbia College, led her honors students in a semester long introduction to the methodology and practice of oral history interviewing using CAWHC's project as a foundation for the class' research and interviews. In this program students will present an edited version of their interviews in a variety of creative formats.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

12:30 - 3:30pm

1104 S. Wabash, Room 504

This program is free and open to the public. No reservations are necessary. Light refreshments will be served.

Contact: emccarthy@colum.edu

Chicago Area Women's History Council

The Chicago Area Women's History Council is a non-profit, membership organization that promotes the documentation, interpretation, preservation, and sharing of Chicago women's history. Founded in 1971, the organization serves as a dynamic network of academic historians, archivists, teachers, museum professionals public historians, independent scholars, preservationists, activists and others interested in the study of Chicago women past and present.

If you are interested in Chicago women's history, please join us.

Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum

Revolution Books & Wicker Park Public Library present:

Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum

May 29, 2013

6 - 8pm

1701 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Author reading, book signing and refreshments

"The characters in Good Kings Bad Kings made me laugh over and over again, and cry, and cheer. This is fiction at its best. The story's sharp eye allows no one to take shelter, and it doesn't flinch; it is simply and breathtakingly honest. A stunning accomplishment." -BARBARA KINGSOLVER

 This powerful and inspiring debut is the 2012 winner of Barbara Kingsolver's PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Told in alternating perspectives by a varied and vocal cast of characters, Nussbaum's novel pulls back the curtain to reveal the complicated and punishing life inside the walls of an institution (set on Chicago's South Side) for juveniles with disabilities.

Playwright SUSAN NUSSBAUM's works have been produced at many theaters. In 2008 she was cited by the Utne Reader as one of "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" for her work with girls with disabilities. Nussbaum lives in Chicago. This is her first novel.

Contact: Revolution Books for more information

773-489-0930 0or  revbookschi@yahoo.com

Additional reading:

June 5, 2013
Women and Children First
Swedish American Museum
5211 N. Clark Street

Contact for this event: Ann Christophersen, wcfann@gmail.com773-769-9299

"Absolutely Safe" – a film about women’s health

Film screening and discussion on women’s health topics
Featuring Our Bodies Ourselves co-founder Judy Norsigian & filmmaker Carol Ciancutti-Leyva

Please join us to view the film and engage in a discussion on women’s health topics including breast implant safety, body image, and women’s health activism.

Date: Thursday, March 21, 2013
Time: 5:30-7:30 pm
Place: Auditorium, UIC School of Public Health,

1603 W. Taylor Street, Chicago, IL

This event is FREE and open to the public. Reserve your seat today.
To request more information, or to request accommodations, please contact Kris at 312-413-4251 or kzimme3@uic.edu.
Flyer: http://www.uic.edu/depts/crwg/AbsolutelySafeUIC.jpg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/468086736586179/


ABSOLUTELY SAFE takes an open-minded, personal approach to the controversy over breast implant safety. ABSOLUTELY SAFE is the story of everyday women who find themselves and their breasts in the tangled and confusing intersection of health, money, science, and beauty. 

Carol Ciancutti-Leyva’s inspiration for ABSOLUTELY SAFE came from her mother. She believed her mother’s declining health was due to silicone breast implants. Her goal for the film was to encourage viewers to think about, question, and debate not only breast implant safety but also the quest for perfection and beauty that we all confront.

Judy Norsigian is the executive director and a co-founder of Our Bodies Ourselves, formerly known as the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. She is an internationally renowned speaker and author on a range of women’s health concerns, including women and health care reform, abortion and contraception, childbirth, sexually transmitted infections, and genetics and reproductive technologies. Ms. Norsigian has been an author and editor for each of the nine editions of Our Bodies,Ourselves, the organization’s landmark book on women’s health and sexuality.

Sponsors:
UIC Center for Research on Women and Gender / National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health
UIC Maternal and Child Health Program
Radical Public Health

Music Exhibition Nov 30

New exhibit opening featuring second wave feminist musicians in South London.

Here's a blurb from the co-curator:

"Music & Liberation: Women’s Liberation Music-Making in the UK, 1970-1989, shows how feminists used music as an activist tool to entertain and empower women during the 1970s and 1980s.

Dear friends,

I thought you may be interested in - and may be able to tell others about - this exhibition based on the online Women's Liberation Music Archive - opening 30 November in South London. Features loads of feminist musicians from the 70s and 80s, many of whom continue to play and sing and make fab music today! This will be a great trip down Memory Lane for many people - and full of discovery for others - music to listen to, photos, posters, films, events. All welcome!

A compilation CD pressed especially for the exhibition will be on sale - twenty tracks from the bands and singers of yester-yore, such as Spoilsports, Ova, Mistakes, Hi-Jinx, Frankie Armstrong, Fabulous Dirt Sisters, Stepney Sisters, Jam Today, Siren and many more. All proceeds from the CD sales will go to benefit the archive.

Please see http://womensliberationmusicarchive.wordpress.com/ and http://music-and-liberation.tumblr.com/ for all the info! 

Best wishes

 Frankie Green, Co-curator, 

The Women's Liberation Music Archive

Feminist music-making from the 1970/80s

http://womensliberationmusicarchive.wordpress.com"

ICAH event honoring Jenny Knauss on Nov. 16th

Location: Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton Chicago

Time: 6 to 9pm

If you would like to gather after the event to share memories of Jenny and CWLU please RSVP to Estelle Carol at news[at]cwluherstory.org. Suggestions of where to gather are welcome.

ICAH is truly saddened by this loss of a leader and tireless advocate, and will honor her memory and give tribute to her legacy at a fall ICAH 35th anniversary celebration and reunion gathering.  Jenny died on June 11, 2012. Two awards will be presented: The Jenny Knauss Youth Advocate Award and the Jenny Knauss Emerging Organization Award.

See the details in the ICAH event notice below and BUY TICKETS for $75 at the ICAH website.  Please send this notice to friends and colleagues. We hope you will be able to come, meet old friends, honor Jenny and learn about plans the Caucus has in the coming year.

New Jenny Knauss bio on Herstory website

With the ICAH 35th anniversary event rolling around, we added a bio of Jenny Knauss to our bio section by Yamani Hernandez, which was also featured on the ICAH website.

Remembering Jennifer Knauss, Fierce Leader and Advocate

Jennifer Knauss was a active CWLU member from its beginning to its end. Born in UK, she spent 5 years in Nigeria and Ghana before coming to US. Her first work for CWLU was working on a draft of an anti-imperialism paper with Vivian Rothstein and others. She then worked on the liberation school workgroup, participated in a day care group and the sit-in at City Hall to demand more day care. Jenny was also active in developing health programs in CWLU. This was partly done in collaboration with two other English women: Rachel Fruchter, who were working on women's health issues in New York City at the time, and Deb Dobbin, Jenny's sister, who was a strong link with JANE.

Jenny Knauss legacy

Jenny Knauss was a leading presence in the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union (CWLU) as a member of the Ms O’Leary Chapter, a founder and teacher in the Liberation School, and in women’s health projects.

Jenny epitomized the warmth and enthusiasm of the women’s movement for changing women’s consciousness. Her generous spirit and ready laugh touched all who knew her – from young women in an Our Bodies Our Selves class, to a picket line or CWLU members achieving consensus at yet a another meeting.

For all your work and more, we love and miss you.

Jenny donated her files to McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University (accessible for research). 

 

Gallery Show: Original screen prints of the Chicago Women’s Graphics Collective posters

August 10 reception from 6pm - 10pm

Uri-Eichen Gallery, 2101 S. Halsted, Chicago 60608
Show ends August 31.
After the reception please request to view the posters by appointment
Gallery website: www.uri-eichen.com
Gallery email: info@uri-eichen.com

 Everyone is invited to the reception.
It’s a great opportunity to connect, so please tell your friends.

 About the posters: From 1969 to 1983 the Chicago Women’s Graphics Collective produced feminist posters to decorate the walls of the women’s liberation movement. The posters were distributed world-wide by the thousands.

 See the original silkscreen prints of these posters and meet Estelle Carol, one the founders of the Chicago Women’s Graphics Collective. Estelle also coordinates the CWLU Herstory Project.

Re-release of Film:The Chicago Maternity Center Story

This poster was made by the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective and is available at the Herstory Store!

Later this month, Kartemquin Films will be presenting a special screening of The Chicago Maternity Center Story.  The screening will take place on January 29th at 1.30pm at the Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL.

The Chicago Maternity Center provided safe home deliveries to Chicago mothers for over 75 years.  But, in 1974 the center was forced to close after a decrease in funding from Northwestern University.  The film tells the story of the center and their fight to stay open in the face of the corporate take-over in medicine.  CWLU was an important partner in the coalition fighting to keep the center open.  Former CWLU members are in the film and were on the crew that made the film.

Filmmakers Gordon Quinn, Jenny Rohrer, Sue Davenport, Jerry Blumenthal and Sharon Karp will be present for an audience discussion following the screening, and the event will mark the start of Kartemquin's 45th anniversary celebrations!

The Chicago Maternity Center Story will be shown in a pristine new print taken from a never-before-screened original fine grain master from the Kartemquin archives. Both films will screen in 16mm.

The screening is part of the Film Center's 'Stranger Than Fiction' documentary series. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $7 students, $5 for Film Center members. Get tickets and more information.

The DVD will be available from www.kartemquin.com at the end of this month.

CAF Celebrates 25 years, Jane Celebrates 40

The anniversary celebration will take place Thursday, September 23 downtown Chicago. It will not only celebrate the work CAF has done over the past 25 years, but also the work of “Jane”. Activists, friends and family members of those involved with the “Jane Collective” came together 25 years ago to start the Chicago Abortion Fund. They will be honoring Heather Booth and the Abortion Seven at this event.

Judith Arcana, a former "Jane" member, will be flying in from Portland to do a presentation about "Jane" at the anniversary celebration. Throughout the years Judith has continued to speak out for social change. She has published numerous stories, poems and books with the same feminist themes she was passionate about as a member of Jane in the early 70s.

So come out to support Judith and the Chicago Abortion Fund on September 23rd! Tickets can be purchased on CAF's Website.

Second Annual Grace Paley Celebration in Portland Oregon

Celebrate the life and work of one of the great American writers and activists of the 20th century. Grace Paley’s decades of streetlevel action are inextricable from her writing – and equally valuable as a model. The event will be held at Looking Glass Bookstore Friday, December 5th, 7pm. The store is located at 7983 SE 13th Ave in Portland OR. For more event info, contact Looking Glass Books: 503/227.4760 +lookingglassbook@qwestoffice.net

 Grace's good friend Ursula LeGuin will read a bit. Judith Arcana, author of Grace Paley's Life Stories, A Literary Biography, will talk a bit. Nancy LaPaglia will be our MC, introducing Portland writers Rodger Larson* and Sharon Wood Wortman*, who will read from Grace's work and their own. 

The audience will read from Grace's work too - and everybody will probably laugh and think a lot. Then they'll eat and drink and buy books for their own pleasure, for gifts, and to sustain one of Portland's much-loved independent bookstores (all of which are things Grace would do if she were here).

*Rodger Larson’s What I Know Now received the Andres Berger Award from Pacific Northwest Writers and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. His second novel, Raindog, is currently with an agent, looking for placement with a publisher. Rodger has been Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at Linfield College, currently teaches Creative Writing at PCC’s Southeast Center, and offers an ongoing writing workshop in his home.

*Sharon Wood Wortman has been a writer and often-enrolled student since 1984, giving up full-time seniority at Union Pacific Railroad to support her kids with words. The gamble, despite her Depression-born grandmother’s protests, worked: she’s got ten grandchildren who do not miss many meals. She’s best known for The Portland Bridge Book; visit www.bridgestories.com for a virtual tour of the Morrison Bridge.

For more Grace info: Judith Arcana's website

The Persistent Power of Socialist Feminism

Radical Women is celebrating is 41st anniversary by holding a conference in San Francisco on the theme of socialist feminism. The Radical Women conference is an opportunity to grapple with ideas, examine the limitations of reformism, gain the confidence to challenge the system, and build the ranks of socialist feminists.

Key topics

  • Multi-racial organizing in a society divided by racism
  • The dynamic leadership of youth and queers
  • Women of color and immigrant women spark a labor revival
  • For a grassroots feminist movement independentof the twin parties of war & reaction

If you are interested in attending or helping with this exciting and historic event, contact the Conference Organizing Center at radicalwomenus@gmail.com , 206-722-6057 or 722-2453. All genders are welcome.

For more information, to register or donate, go to www.radicalwomen.org.

The conference will be held at:
The Women’s Building
3543 18th Street, San Francisco CA 94110
www.womensbuilding.org

Judith Arcana is Coming to Town in August

Writer and reproductive justice activist Judith Arcana will be in town on August 5 reading at the Peggy Notebart Nature Museum. Her appearence is part of the Chicago Public Library's Read Green-Live Green series.

Judith will be joined by Alison Swan, Susan Firer, Donna Seaman, Gail Louise Siegal and Judith Strasser for a lively reading that celebrates the richness of life on and around the Great Lakes.

Readings from Fresh Water: Women Writing on the Great Lakes

Date: Tue. August 05, 2008

Time: 6:30 pm

No Cost Specified No Branch Data

Program: Summer Reads for Adults

About this event:

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

2430 N. Cannon Dr. 

light reception begins at 5:30 p.m.

naturemuseum.org

The Chicago Dyke March is on the Move

This year the Chicago Dyke March will take place on Saturday June 28th, 2008. Gathering begins at 1:00 PM at 1800 South Halsted (Chicago Community Bank Park), and step off is at 2:30 PM. Attendees will then march down 18th street to rally at Harrison Park (1824 S. Wood).

All people, including allies to the community, are encouraged to attend.

The Chicago Dyke March (CDM) is looking for talented spoken word artists, musicians, comedians, dancers, drummers, and performers for the rally after the march. In the past, some performances have been theater, burlesque, and poetry. Anything that is queer, EMPOWERING, and entertaining can find a place at the rally.

The Chicago Dyke March is a grassroots mobilization and celebration of dyke, queer, and transgender resilience. It is an anti-racist, anti-violent, volunteer-led, grassroots effort with a goal to bridge together communities across race, class, age, size, sex, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, culture, immigrant status, spirituality, and ability.

For more info visit http://www.myspace.com/dykemarchchicago

Fundraiser for the WE-ACTx Girls Exchange Chicago- Kigali 2008

The WE-ACTx Girls Exchange Chicago↔Kigali is an exciting program to link a group of six young women from our WE-ACTx HIV clinics in Kigali, Rwanda with six young women from Chicago. The group will include HIV infected and uninfected youth from both cities who have demonstrated the capacity for leadership.

You are invited to a unique fundraiser and potluck to support this exciting project. You may download the announcement here.

WE-ACTx Girls Exchange Chicago↔Kigali 2008
When: Saturday, June 7, 2008
Where: Linda and Allan Mellis’s House
1115 W. Montana, Chicago
773-327-9123
Time: 5:30 to 8:30

Dr. Mardge Cohen, Medical Director WE-ACTx will
give a Presentation at 7:00.

Why: We are asking for donations for the participants from Chicago to
bring to Rwanda.

Items requested by the women in Rwanda:

Women’s underwear, sizes S,M
Sanitary napkins
School supplies ( notebooks, pencils, ball point pens,
Scientific calculators)
Deflated soccer balls
Baseball caps
Watches
Toys (no battery operated toys)
Or Cash donations to purchase the above
What to bring: Appetizer, main course, salad or dessert, no drinks please.

The Chicago group will travel to Rwanda in late July of 2008 to meet the Rwandans, live in their homes, learn about their circumstances and their country and begin to form a youth community that focuses on HIV prevention and related global issues by using art (murals, video, journaling).

After a week in Rwanda, the entire group, including the Rwandans, will return to Chicago. Hosted by families here, they will continue to work on the art projects and plan future projects in order to create a sustainable community with long-term connections.

Check out Chicago's Feminist Meetup!

The Chicago Feminists Meetup Group is sponsoring a book discussion on Ellen Bravo's Taking on the Big Boys on May 19 at Argo Tea 16 W. Randolph in downtown Chicago. A fee of $1 is charged to cover expenses. An RSVP is requested. You may sign up and RSVP at the Chicago Feminist Meetup site.

For people unfamiliar with Meetups, the idea is to sign up at the Meetup website where you will be able to see who is in the group, get the latest news, contact other Meetup participants, and register for events. It's a form of online organizing that can work suprisingly well.

The Chicago Feminist Meetup Group currently has 113 members and has sponsored 12 meetings so far. Check them out here.

Don't miss Adrienne Rich at Northeastern Illinois University

Poet, essayist and activist Adrienne Rich will appear in Northeastern Illinois University's (NEIU) Presidential Lecture Series. Since receiving the Yale Younger Poets Award in 1951 at the age of 21, Adrienne Rich has not stopped writing in her distinct voice, with strength and conviction.This event is free and open to the public

Fine Arts Center Recital Hall, Northeastern Illinois University
5500 N. Saint Louis Ave in Chicago
(Use campus entrance located at 3701 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.) Free parking in Lot F
Thursday, April 24 at 8 p.m

Adrienne Rich is the recipient of the 1999 Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. Rich has also been distinguished by an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Common Wealth Award in Literature, the National Book Award, the 1996 Tanning Award for Mastery in the Art of Poetry, and the MacArthur Fellowship Foundation.

Rich is the author of more than 16 volumes of poetry and has authored five books of non-fiction prose. Her most recent book of essays is titled "Arts of the Possible: Essays & Conversations." Her 2004 collection of poems, "The School Among the Ruins," was honored with the National Book Critics Circle Award and was chosen as one of Library Journal's Best Poetry picks of 2004. In the fall of 2006, Rich was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters by the National Book Foundation. Rich's new book of poems, "Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth," was published in October 2007.

For tickets or more information, call the NEIU Box Office at (773) 442-4636 or visit www.ticketweb.com