Mamita Mala :One Bad Mami blog

I didn’t write when I posted this to VivirLatino, was the sacred space that the AMC has been for me in many ways. Not even so much because of the work and information exchanged but because it is the only conference where I have not yet had to cry alone, it is a space where I can reconnect with other hermanas I love and usually only communicate with online. Last year, bringing my then 11 year old was powerful for me and for her (although she rarely will admit it), meeting woman whom I refer to as if they were sitting with me everyday made flesh and real.

Cross Posted with VivirLatino

For the last two years, I have been blessed enough to attend the Allied Media Conference and both times my attendance was thanks to the generosity of others. This year, with the conference less than a month away, my attendance feels like an impossibility, especially since I would need expenses covered for myself and my two children who would have to travel with me but miligros do happen and even if not for me, for other amazing mujers whose work I respect.

INCITE! will partner with To Tell You The Truth to host a track of workshops and strategy sessions at the Allied Media Conference, June 17-20, 2010 in Detroit, MI. Read more about the track at http://alliedmediaconference.org/program/tracks.

We need to raise $4,000 to support travel, housing, food and childcare costs for 10 AMAZING mamas, community care-givers and their kids attending the AMC and USSF. Read more about them below. We need your help!

Please support the INCITE/To Tell You The Truth Track by making a donation on the To Tell You The Truth site by following the PayPal link on the bottom right of the page here.

As a thank-you for your donation, you will be entered into a raffle, with the chance to win one of the 2 FABULOUS RAFFLE PACKAGES of Mamas and Feminist of Color Media (described below).

For a $5 donation, you will receive one raffle ticket
For a $20 donation, you will receive five raffle tickets
For a $100 donation or more, you will receive 60 raffle tickets

Make your donation today here!

Raffle Package #1
* An INCITE! T-shirt
* The Gloria Anzaldua Reader by AnaLouise Keating. This reader—which provides a representative sample of the poetry, prose, fiction, and experimental autobiographical writing that Anzaldúa produced during her thirty-year career—demonstrates the breadth and philosophical depth of her work.
* A one-year subscription to Make/Shift magazine. Make/shift creates and documents contemporary feminist culture and action by publishing journalism, critical analysis, and visual and text art. Made by an editorial collective committed to antiracist, transnational, and queer perspectives, make/shift embraces the multiple and shifting identities of feminist communities. We know there’s exciting work being done in various spaces and forms by people seriously and playfully resisting and creating alternatives to systematic oppression. Make/shift exists to represent, participate in, critique, provoke, and inspire more of that good work.
* I Was a . . . Student Nurse! by China. Every page oozes personality: a distrust of science, a vague but persistent spirituality, her own brand of low self-esteem, love for her children and friends, and a constant desire to be anywhere but where she is. And the setting–nursing school–is one we’ve never seen depicted from this angle. (Poems about genetic recombination and stoichiometry? Never saw that coming.) Sometimes we found ourselves screaming (at least in our heads) at China to get over her fear of hospitals. She’s the one who chose nursing school, not us. But it’s China’s ability to cause such reactions that keeps us reading.
* Los Viajes: a literary anthology by POOR Magazine. For a year and a half POOR Magazine conducted free bi-lingual, multi-generational, art and writing workshops in shelters, schools and community centers with migrant poverty scholars from across the globe to be included in the audio and print anthology called Los Viajes..Los Viajes introduces a new lens on migration of peoples across Pacha Mama informed by the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples.
* A DVD of Motherland, a Jennifer Steinman film. An honest and intimate look at the complexities of grief and healing, Motherland is about resilience, triumph of the human spirit and the power of unconditional love. It also reminds us of the vastly different ways in which disparate cultures confront deeply felt personal challenges.Each year over eight million families around the world suffer the loss of a child. In Jennifer Steinman’s moving and inspiring documentary film, a 17-day trip to South Africa transforms the lives of six grieving women from across the US.
* Dressy Bessy: holler and stomp – CD
* To tell the Truth Freely by Mia Bay
* Mamaphiles #4 – Raising Hell – Mamaphiles returns for its fourth issue with the theme of “raising hell.” The newest installment includes 34 contributors, including papa zinesters. Check in with your favorite parent zinesters and discover some new favorites as you learn about the many zines that have come out since #3 was released in 2007. In addition to fabulous essays, poems, artwork, and photos, #4 includes comprehensive ordering information about each contributor’s zine. This is all new material, no repeats of the pieces in previous issues. (118 pages, half size)
* “Program a Playshop” Residency at Gris Gris Lab in New Orleans, LA. Program a Playshop is a Gris Gris Lab signature community building residency. Advocates, artists, healers, activists can live and work at GGL for up to 10 days and produce a playshop for the New Orleans Community. Work must involve some aspect of one of these themes: healing work,art, food justice and urban farming, sustainable economics or woman-centered work.

Raffle Package #2
* AN INCITE! T-shirt
* The Gloria Anzaldua Reader by AnaLouise Keating. This reader—which provides a representative sample of the poetry, prose, fiction, and experimental autobiographical writing that Anzaldúa produced during her thirty-year career—demonstrates the breadth and philosophical depth of her work.
* One year-long subscription to Make/Shift Magazine. Make/shift creates and documents contemporary feminist culture and action by publishing journalism, critical analysis, and visual and text art. Made by an editorial collective committed to antiracist, transnational, and queer perspectives, make/shift embraces the multiple and shifting identities of feminist communities. We know there’s exciting work being done in various spaces and forms by people seriously and playfully resisting and creating alternatives to systematic oppression. Make/shift exists to represent, participate in, critique, provoke, and inspire more of that good work.
* Slant by Laura Williams
* The Dancer from Khiva by Bibish. An autobiographical story, this is an unflinchingly honest memoir, The Dancer from Khiva is a true story that offers insight into Central Asian culture through the harrowing experiences of a young girl.
* Mamaphiles #4 – Raising Hell – Mamaphiles returns for its fourth issue with the theme of “raising hell.” The newest installment includes 34 contributors, including papa zinesters. Check in with your favorite parent zinesters and discover some new favorites as you learn about the many zines that have come out since #3 was released in 2007. In addition to fabulous essays, poems, artwork, and photos, #4 includes comprehensive ordering information about each contributor’s zine. This is all new material, no repeats of the pieces in previous issues. (118 pages, half size)
* Discovering Pig Magic by Julia Crabtree
* The Color of Violence INCITE! Anthology – What would it take to end violence against women of color? How does the mainstream antiviolence movement help? How does it hinder? When will we admit that repositioning women of color at the center of the movement— women more often harmed by the police, prisons, and border patrols than aided by them— means that we must address state violence?
* Once You Go Back by Douglas Martin
* Hermana, Resist : The Poetry Collection: “…media can be yours/and you can write your own history.” – Noemi Martinez. Authored and compiled by Noemi Martinez of Hermana, Resist this zine is breathtakingly beautiful and contains poems from 2000-2007.
* Resistance is a Duty! and other essays by comrades from Action Directe – Kersplebedeb
* I Was a . . . Student Nurse! by China. Every page oozes personality: a distrust of science, a vague but persistent spirituality, her own brand of low self-esteem, love for her children and friends, and a constant desire to be anywhere but where she is. And the setting–nursing school–is one we’ve never seen depicted from this angle. (Poems about genetic recombination and stoichiometry? Never saw that coming.) Sometimes we found ourselves screaming (at least in our heads) at China to get over her fear of hospitals. She’s the one who chose nursing school, not us. But it’s China’s ability to cause such reactions that keeps us reading.
* The Astonishment: Banana Sandwich

A subscription to make/shift magazine, one of the great raffle prizes!
This raffle is made possible with support from: Gris Gris Lab, New Mythos project (To tell you the Truth), INCITE!, Feminist Review!, Allied Media Projects (AMP)
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