Dear Readers, I Need Your Help.
Aug. 4th, 2010 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantryslutSeriously, I need you to deconstruct the following Call for Submissions and explain to me why I find it so deeply...annoying.
*
(Original at Feministe.)
This Bridge Called My Baby: Legacies of Radical Mothering
http://thisbridgecalledmybaby.wordpress.com/
“We can learn to mother ourselves.” Audre Lorde, 1983
All mothers have the potential to be revolutionary. Some mothers stand on the shoreline, are born and reborn here, inside the flux of time and space, overcoming the traumatic repetition of oppression. Our very existence is disobedience to the powers that be.
At times, in moments, we as mothers choose to stand in a zone of claimed risk and fierce transformation, the frontline. In infinite ways, both practiced and yet to be imagined, we put our bodies between the violent repetition of the norm and the future we already deserve, exactly because our children deserve it too. We make this choice for many reasons and in different contexts, but at the core we have this in common: we refuse to obey. We refuse to give into fear. We insist on joy no matter what and by every means necessary and possible.
In this anthology we are exploring how we are informed by and participating with those mothers, especially radical women of color, who have sought for decades, if not centuries, to create relationships to each other, transformative relationships to feminism and a transnational anti-imperialist literary, cultural and everyday practice.
“We don’t want a space where kids feel that only adults can imagine ways to strengthen our communities and protect ourselves against the Architects of Despair,” Sora said, “and we don’t want adults to feel that either. We want to create a space where all of our imaginations help each other grow; but we realize that kids might get bored from sitting still the way that adults tend to do, so we set up the play room with toys and games.” Regeneracion Childcare Collective 2007
Sometimes for radical mamas, our mothering in radical community makes visible the huge gulfs between communities, between parents and non-parents, in class and other privileges AND most importantly the wide gulf between what we say in activist communities and what we actually do. Radical mothering is the imperative to build bridges that allow us to relate across these very real barriers. For and by radical mother of color, but also inclusive of other working class, marginalized, low income, no income radical mothers.
“Parenting and being a role model to kids in your community is important because they will be the activists of tomorrow. And they will be our gardeners and mothers and bakers. They will question our generation, they’ll write their own history, create new forms of art and media.” -Noemi Martinez 2009
We find the idea of the “bridge” useful because we believe that the radical practice of mothering is at once a practical and visionary relationship to the future IN the PRESENT, a bridge within time that can inspire us to relate to each other intentionally across generation and space. We also acknowledge the not-so-radical default bridge function of marginalized mother in society. How our children in particular get walked all over in terms of public policy that criminalizes our mothering and movement spaces that claim to be creating a transformed future without being fully accountable to parents or kids.
“I came into the Third World Women’s Caucus when it was well under way. The women there were discussing the caucus resolution to be presented to the general conference. There were Asian women, Latin women, Native Women and Afro-American women. The discussion when I came in was around the controversial issue of motherhood and how the wording of the resolution could best reflect the feelings of those present. It was especially heartening to hear other women affirm that not only should lesbian mothers be supported but that all third world women lesbians share in the responsibility for the care and nurturing of the children of individual lesbians of color…Another woman reminded us of the commitment we must take to each other when she said ‘All children (of lesbians) are ours.” -Doc in Off Our Backs 1979
We see this book as a continuation of the accountability invoking movement midwifing work of the 1981 anthology This Bridge Called My Back in that it:
a. is the work of writers who see their writing as part of a mothering practice, as not career, but calling and who believe that their writing, and their every creative practice has a strategic role in transforming the possible world.
b. contextualizes contemporary radical mama practices in relationship to socialist and lesbian mothering practices experimented with and practiced in the 1970’s by writers including Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Adrienne Rich, Third World Lesbians conference, Salsa Soul Sisters, Sisterhood of Black Single Mothers
c. seeks to speak to those who participated in that earlier practice and who have been informed by it as a primary audience, and to connect those who have not have access to that work to it
We invite submissions including but not limited to the following possibilities:
*Manifestas, group poems, letters, mission statements from your crew of radical mamas or an amazing group from history
*Letters, poems, transcribed phone calls between radical mamas supporting each other
*Accounts of your experience as a radical mama
*Reflections on enacting radical mamacity at different ages
*Motivations for/obstacles in your practice of radical mothering
*Conversations with your kids
*Rants and rages via the eloquence of a mother-wronged
*Your experience of radical grandmothering
*Self-interviews, interviews with other mamis
*Birthing experiences
*Ending child sexual abuse
*Mothering as survivors (survival and mothering)
*Mothering with and without models
*Mothering and domination
*Mama to-do lists
*Mama/kid collaborations…
*Radical fathering
*Overcoming shame and silence in the practice of radical mothering
*Ambivilence, paradox, emotions, vulnerability
*Experiences of state violence/CPS
*Balancing daily survival
*Loss of children, not living with children, custody arrangements and issues
*Sharing your stories from where you live
*Everything we haven’t thought of yet! Take a deep breath and WRITE!!!!
Please send submissions via email to
alexispauline@gmail.com
maiamedicine@gmail.com
and china410@hotmail.com
or via snail mail to
P.O. Box 4803 Baltimore Maryland 21211
by April 1, 2011.
*
(Original at Feministe.)
This Bridge Called My Baby: Legacies of Radical Mothering
http://thisbridgecalledmybaby.wordpress.com/
“We can learn to mother ourselves.” Audre Lorde, 1983
All mothers have the potential to be revolutionary. Some mothers stand on the shoreline, are born and reborn here, inside the flux of time and space, overcoming the traumatic repetition of oppression. Our very existence is disobedience to the powers that be.
At times, in moments, we as mothers choose to stand in a zone of claimed risk and fierce transformation, the frontline. In infinite ways, both practiced and yet to be imagined, we put our bodies between the violent repetition of the norm and the future we already deserve, exactly because our children deserve it too. We make this choice for many reasons and in different contexts, but at the core we have this in common: we refuse to obey. We refuse to give into fear. We insist on joy no matter what and by every means necessary and possible.
In this anthology we are exploring how we are informed by and participating with those mothers, especially radical women of color, who have sought for decades, if not centuries, to create relationships to each other, transformative relationships to feminism and a transnational anti-imperialist literary, cultural and everyday practice.
“We don’t want a space where kids feel that only adults can imagine ways to strengthen our communities and protect ourselves against the Architects of Despair,” Sora said, “and we don’t want adults to feel that either. We want to create a space where all of our imaginations help each other grow; but we realize that kids might get bored from sitting still the way that adults tend to do, so we set up the play room with toys and games.” Regeneracion Childcare Collective 2007
Sometimes for radical mamas, our mothering in radical community makes visible the huge gulfs between communities, between parents and non-parents, in class and other privileges AND most importantly the wide gulf between what we say in activist communities and what we actually do. Radical mothering is the imperative to build bridges that allow us to relate across these very real barriers. For and by radical mother of color, but also inclusive of other working class, marginalized, low income, no income radical mothers.
“Parenting and being a role model to kids in your community is important because they will be the activists of tomorrow. And they will be our gardeners and mothers and bakers. They will question our generation, they’ll write their own history, create new forms of art and media.” -Noemi Martinez 2009
We find the idea of the “bridge” useful because we believe that the radical practice of mothering is at once a practical and visionary relationship to the future IN the PRESENT, a bridge within time that can inspire us to relate to each other intentionally across generation and space. We also acknowledge the not-so-radical default bridge function of marginalized mother in society. How our children in particular get walked all over in terms of public policy that criminalizes our mothering and movement spaces that claim to be creating a transformed future without being fully accountable to parents or kids.
“I came into the Third World Women’s Caucus when it was well under way. The women there were discussing the caucus resolution to be presented to the general conference. There were Asian women, Latin women, Native Women and Afro-American women. The discussion when I came in was around the controversial issue of motherhood and how the wording of the resolution could best reflect the feelings of those present. It was especially heartening to hear other women affirm that not only should lesbian mothers be supported but that all third world women lesbians share in the responsibility for the care and nurturing of the children of individual lesbians of color…Another woman reminded us of the commitment we must take to each other when she said ‘All children (of lesbians) are ours.” -Doc in Off Our Backs 1979
We see this book as a continuation of the accountability invoking movement midwifing work of the 1981 anthology This Bridge Called My Back in that it:
a. is the work of writers who see their writing as part of a mothering practice, as not career, but calling and who believe that their writing, and their every creative practice has a strategic role in transforming the possible world.
b. contextualizes contemporary radical mama practices in relationship to socialist and lesbian mothering practices experimented with and practiced in the 1970’s by writers including Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Adrienne Rich, Third World Lesbians conference, Salsa Soul Sisters, Sisterhood of Black Single Mothers
c. seeks to speak to those who participated in that earlier practice and who have been informed by it as a primary audience, and to connect those who have not have access to that work to it
We invite submissions including but not limited to the following possibilities:
*Manifestas, group poems, letters, mission statements from your crew of radical mamas or an amazing group from history
*Letters, poems, transcribed phone calls between radical mamas supporting each other
*Accounts of your experience as a radical mama
*Reflections on enacting radical mamacity at different ages
*Motivations for/obstacles in your practice of radical mothering
*Conversations with your kids
*Rants and rages via the eloquence of a mother-wronged
*Your experience of radical grandmothering
*Self-interviews, interviews with other mamis
*Birthing experiences
*Ending child sexual abuse
*Mothering as survivors (survival and mothering)
*Mothering with and without models
*Mothering and domination
*Mama to-do lists
*Mama/kid collaborations…
*Radical fathering
*Overcoming shame and silence in the practice of radical mothering
*Ambivilence, paradox, emotions, vulnerability
*Experiences of state violence/CPS
*Balancing daily survival
*Loss of children, not living with children, custody arrangements and issues
*Sharing your stories from where you live
*Everything we haven’t thought of yet! Take a deep breath and WRITE!!!!
Please send submissions via email to
alexispauline@gmail.com
maiamedicine@gmail.com
and china410@hotmail.com
or via snail mail to
P.O. Box 4803 Baltimore Maryland 21211
by April 1, 2011.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 04:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 05:29 am (UTC)Particularly:
"Find another connection to the rest of the world
Find something else to make your legitimate
Find some other way to be political and hip"
...?
But the rest of it too.
(And now I feel old.)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 05:24 am (UTC)(Also: the construction "This Bridge Called My Baby" makes children to be parts of their mothers, and not persons in their own right.)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 05:31 am (UTC)And you're right about the second part, too; see above about metaphor abuse. I'm quite sure that's a big part of my flinch.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 02:32 pm (UTC)It does sound to me like there might be a good idea buried in this call for submissions, but yes, annoying.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 05:51 am (UTC)(I say this as the author of a book chapter that starts off with an Audre Lorde quote. And later quotes bell hooks. Yesterday I quoted the Dalai Lama. I gett the Sensitive White Person crotch punch award now, I think.)
(Oh wait, the word "manifestas" just jumped out at me and WTFBBQQQQQQQQ)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 06:04 am (UTC)[sarcasm alert] I blame mommy brain. [/sarcasm alert]
That TITLE makes my teeth itch.
Date: 2010-08-05 06:35 am (UTC)Re: That TITLE makes my teeth itch.
Date: 2010-08-05 07:12 am (UTC)I tried to go further and started drowning in the unnecessarily convoluted and academic/poetic sentence construction.
It would be nice to *immediately follow up the Lorde quote with the statement that this is intended to be a continuation of This Bridge Called my Back instead of burying it at the end, since you really need that context for the rest of it to make sense, and many people won't have it, given that the original was published in the early 80s, is out-of-print, and not that easy to find.
But yeah, the title alone is just wrong. I mean, you *walk* on bridges. Radical mothering is stomping on the baby? Bleah.
Re: That TITLE makes my teeth itch.
Date: 2010-08-05 07:20 am (UTC)There are so many roots to the tree of anger
that sometimes the branches shatter
before they bear.
Sitting in Nedicks
the women rally before they march
discussing the problematic girls
they hire to make them free.
An almost white counterman passes
a waiting brother to serve them first
and the ladies neither notice nor reject
the slighter pleasures of their slavery.
But I who am bound by my mirror
as well as my bed
see causes in color
as well as sex
and sit here wondering
which me will survive
all these liberations.
Re: That TITLE makes my teeth itch.
Date: 2010-08-06 06:44 am (UTC)This. Argh!
This is the journalist in me, but I can't stand excessively wordy writing, especially when it's rammed full of buzz words and pretentiousness.
Lots of big long words does not necessarily = teh smarts.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 08:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 11:41 am (UTC)I think this call for submissions also dismisses the idea that motherhood is a choice that many women make, by asserting that all lesbians of color share the responsibility for each other's children, whether or not they want it, whether or not they are mothers themselves. Can take it on, okay. Must? That's starting to go back into the realm of forced motherhood: a woman can be single, can be an out lesbian, can be childfree by choice or childless for other reasons, but they're still telling her she has to put her other choices and work aside to raise children.
Other people have pointed out the problem with the back/baby analogy, including that a woman's child is not intrinsic to her in the same way that her back is. I can see the appeal of invoking that shared experience of having babies, but this is a problematic way of doing it. The phrasing also incidentally, or maybe not so incidentally, downplays both the experiences of foster and adoptive mothers and stepmothers who met their children after infancy, and motherhood as a relationship to, and experience involving, older children.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 02:21 pm (UTC)I think starting with Audre Lorde quote without any context/damn sense combined with "This Bridge Called My Back was an awesome anthology lets piggyback on that!" gives an initial impression that RWOC haven't done anything since the early 80s. Which makes my teeth itch. And...yeah. It somehow goes downhill from there.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 02:25 pm (UTC)ergh brain. the first one about gender and housework and stuff
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 03:48 pm (UTC)Let's see someone turn in something about being a Christian or Mormon mother, or a mother in a submissive relationship, and see how supportive they are of "radical mothers" then.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 06:02 pm (UTC)And, we have a winner.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 04:06 pm (UTC)Lastly, it seems to say over and over that radical mothering is about one's relationship to the larger community and to other radical mothers, rather than having something to do with one's relationship with one's children. Children are barely mentioned in this whole thing.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 03:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 08:54 pm (UTC)http://writing-program.uchicago.edu/toys/randomsentence/write-sentence.htm
(mentioned on lj by a friend...)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 05:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 03:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 06:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 12:08 pm (UTC)