“Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out.”

— Gloria E. Anzaldúa (Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza)

NOTE: Due to my 2 month hiatus this post is delayed, however I think the contents are relevant so, READ IT

In February I attended the 26th annual Empowering Women of Color conference held at UC Berkeley’s MLK Student Union. With hundreds of registrants, conference administrators were met with a challenge to meet the emotional, intellectual and scholarly needs of a variety of women of color. Attendees were made up of youth of all ages, collegiate women from undergraduate freshman to doctoral candidates and seasoned women with decades of experience in the departments of social justice and education.

The schedule of events was diverse, intriguing and exciting. I wanted to attend all of the forums as they ranged from pop-culture’s impact on teenage girls of color to male feminist of color to white allyship and even a class on how to learn to be a DJ. But only having the option to choose three I chose:

1. What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?

This workshop focused on empowering women of color through reproductive justice and filmmaking. The founders of ImMEDIAte Justice, a summer program that empowers young women from Los Angeles to share their experiences of reproductive justice through film, showed us two of their shorts and

My Critique: When I read through the forums offered for the first session of workshops I was moved by the description of this class. My deep-seated interest and work in the RJ movement pressed me to choose this class over others. I found the concept of introducing young women of color to issues of reproductive justice through film interesting and a formative and visionary way of teaching girls at the high school level about issues relevant to their reproductive health – unfortunately the actual workshop proved to be lackluster. The leaders of the forum showed us two of the films the girls they mentor created which were informative and creative but afterward, instead of a discussion on how to further introduce them to issues surrounding RJ or expressing their experiences with teaching the youth they passed out pieces of paper and encouraged us to write on them “if  you could tell the media one thing what would it be?” which I thought was less interesting and stimulating than a discussion.

Dylcia Pagan 

Dylcia Pagan

If you’re unfamiliar with Dylcia Pagan, she is a Puerto Rican political prisoner who was captured April 4, 1980 along with other comrades, for participating in the underground wing of the Puerto Rican independence movement. She served 8-years of a 55-years sentence on charges of seditious conspiracy, among others. Learn more about Dylcia here.

2. Birthing Justice: Mothering & Childbirth as a Liberation Praxis

Birthing Justice: Mothering & Childbirth as a Liberation Praxis

My next workshop was Birthing Justice: Mothering and Childbirth as a liberating praxis. As most of you know I am passionate about issues surrounding Black women’s maternal health and I am so grateful I tool the time to participate in this workshop. The women on the panel told their birth stories and their narratives moved half the room to tears.

Their experiences were diverse in nature. Some women faced extreme ageism in wanting to procreate later in life, deemed irresponsible and selfish they were disregarded by medical professionals.  Some found that their interests in holistic home birth practices were not widely accepted by their loved ones and they were encouraged to seek medicalized, western birthing practices in order to “have a healthy birth.” Other stories detailed giving birth while imprisoned and having their baby taken away from them just 48 hours after delivery.

I would feel uncomfortable retelling these stories in detail, the way these women expressed their intimate experiences with birthing cannot be recounted and I would be doing them a grave injustice. However I am please to announce that we have since created a collective surrounding birthing justice called the Black Women’s Birthing Justice Project that will be up and running in the next month. Each of these women will be giving their personal narrative on our website. I will keep you all abreast of upcoming features and events. {{YAY!!!}}

Linda Jones-Mixon, Harriet Davis, Cherisse Harper & Julia Oparah

The politics of birthing justice is complex and I will be dedicating a full post to it in the coming weeks.

Erika Huggins

Erika Huggins

Erika Huggins, former Black Panther and political prisoner spoke to us next. Huggins participated heavily in the Black power movement of the 60s and 70s and she was the first Black woman appointed to the Alameda County Board of Education here in Oakland. She currently teaches in the Women & Gender Studies Department at Cal State East Bay. Read more about Erika here

3.Building Community for Women of Color in a Predominately White Academic Institution: The Making of the Women of Color Creative Collective {WOC3}

Women of Color Collective

Workshop number three was interesting and very informative. Women of color staff from UC Davis came to discuss how to feel comfortable and at home when you {and people who look like you} make up a small presence on a large campus or organization. In their case, they are mainly Black identified women who are on staff at a predominately White University. Their isolation encouraged them to create the Women of Color Creative Collective where they could meet once a week and discuss pressing issues they didn’t feel comfortable discussing in mixed company. Some issues that came up were:

• Alienation of white identified women
• How they chose the women who would be a part of the collective
• If this was feasible at a private organization
• Their group processes

Having went to a predominately white academic institution {LSU} I know first hand what it means to be surrounded by people who do not share your world view. We created orgs like this {not as formal} but often it seemed like self-segregration and isolated groups by race and gender, I think my institution would have benefited from a program like this. Maybe I’ll shoot them an email and encourage it

ARTIVIST (ARTIST + ACTIVIST) PANEL

Goapele, Ka'ra Kersey, Favi, Hannah Moore

This panel, for me, was just okay. I was expecting to be enlightened by local artist on how they juggle being both an activist and an artist in mainstream America but it turned into an awkward {{no disrespect to the panelists}} back & forth passing of the microphone. Goapele shed some light on she and her families community & coalition building – probably the highlight of the panel.

Angela Davis

The keynote speaker was none other than former Black panther, political prisoner, current distinguished professor emerita and founder of Critical Resistance, Angela Davis. As she always does, she impressed with seasoned words of wisdom imparting profound quotes and advice on eager listening ears. She answered questions from the audience about the non-profit industrial complex, the injustices in foster care and of course the prison industrial complex but more specifically geared toward women in prison. She quoted Gloria Anzaldúa from the famous “This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981) and she disclosed personal narratives of struggle and sacrifice. Read more about Angela Davis here.

Talent:

The conference administrators did a pretty a-maz-ing job at snagging talent for the event.

This group is called Aguacero – they were Fantastic!

Aguacero

Goapele

Overall I’d say the conference was a great success. I walked away enlightened, stimulated and having met a host of phenomenal women of color with whom I’ve stayed in contact with. I am looking forward to next year’s conference and encourage you , if you’re a woman of color in California to attend