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2006 Visions in Feminism Conference

2006 photo gallery

The 2006 Visions in Feminism Conference will be held on Saturday April 22 in Washington DC at American University in the Ward Building. Click here for a campus map, here for directions. AU is on the Tenleytown/ AU metro stop on the Red Line. A free shuttle will be provided from the metro to the Ward Building. Shuttle schedule is available here.

The 6th Annual Visions in Feminism (ViF) Conference is about mobilizing our communities and organizing them toward social change and social justice. Through organizing and mobilizing within our communities we seek to bring conversations of and about activism, challenges we encounter, and the successes we have experienced. We will discuss how our voices, bodies, identity, and presence are styles of activism and resistance. ViF will continue to highlight the importantance of the dynamic process of viewing and collaborating with others using an open-mind. Mobilize & Organize!

Schedule

9:30-10:30am Breakfast and Registration
10:30-11am Introduction/ Welcome
11am-12:30pm Workshop Session I
12:30-1:30pm Lunch
1:30-3pm Workshop Session II
3-4pm Keynote Presentation: Rhodess Jones

Workshops will be in tracks, with morning and afternoon sessions that work together. However, you may switch between tracks throughout the day.

TRACK A - Organizing

 TRACK B - Policy
Street Harassment Workshop
Presenters: INCITE! DC
Many women experience harassment on a daily basis, but have not examined their experiences as part of the larger picture of violence against women. The first part of the workshop deals with this aspect of street harassment and what it means for women who experience it, especially women of color. The second part of the workshop will offer several tried-and-true techniques against various forms of street harassment. Finally, we will discuss strategies for organizing against street harassment. Prime examples will be last summer's campaign against street harassment led by the DC chapter of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, as well as an upcoming action in Columbia Heights in May. We will look at these and other campaigns and discuss how to build a movement against street harassment from the ground up. 		Whose Choice is It Anyway?: Working Within a Reproductive Justice Framework
Presenter: Kierra Johnson
Much of the education, mobilizing and organizing around pro-choice issues has been done from a reproductive health and reproductive rights framework. This workshop will introduce reproductive justice as another framework that purports the struggle for reproductive autonomy is inherently linked to the struggle for social justice and ultimately human rights. It is a framework that pushes the discourse and organizing around the fight for sexual rights and reproductive health to find solutions and strategies that acknowledge and work to eradicate the intersections of oppressions. We will conclude with a look at national legislation and local organizing impacting reproductive choice today.

Community Organizing to Reduce the Risk of Hate Crimes and Sexual Assault
Presenter: Oraia Reid
RightRides For Women’s Safety, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the risk of hate crimes and sexual assault in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan communities by providing women, trans and gender queer individuals a free, late night ride home service. We also organize educational and violence-prevention opportunities for these groups as well as the greater public in our related safety programs.Co-founder and Executive Director Oraia Reid will present the history of RightRides, the successes and challenges, discuss the future of the service as well as the other programs RightRides For Women’s Safety organizes. She will also solicit interest from the DC community about fostering a RightRides chapter there. Please bring your ideas for action and find out how to utilize this program to mobilize against hate crimes and sexual assault!

 Lets Get Organized:Title IX and Making Education Equitable
Presenters Mandy Van Deven and Laura Lindstrom
Girls for Gender Equity will provide participants with information about Title IX of the Education Amendment, why it is relevant today, and how organize to promote gender equity in schools. Title IX is the law that ensures boys and girls receive equal opportunities within schools with regard to educational and after-school activities. There is a misconception that Title IX only applies to collegiate sports. Our workshop will explain the purpose for and provisions of Title IX, and provide ideas to increase opportunities for girls and women in all areas of their academic and extra-curricular lives.
   
   
TRACK C - Art
 TRACK D - Everyday Activism

Feminist Curating: A Roundtable Discussion
Presenters: Catherine Pancake, Liz Flyntz, Sarah Templin, Janine Slaker, Jenny Graf Sheppard
A discussion about using feminist ideals to strategically organize artists and artwork. How can we create space for art by, for, and about women in our communities? Should the focus of feminist artwork and exhibitions be on representing female artists, the female experience, or on developing a specifically feminist aesthetic and mode of production? Promoting a culture of DIY art organizing where anyone can gain access to materials and information relating to all aspects of organizing art exhibitions: from working with galleries and artists to the intricacies of shipping, design, writing proposals, and hanging work on a wall. An opportunity for artmakers and artworkers
to talk shop and share advice about the practicalities of producing exhibitions.

 Women, War and Water
Presenters: Kristi Fults, Kate Zaiden and Jody Dodd
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security is fundamental in bringing women to the forefront on gendering the peace building movement. 1325 is being implemented in many countries throughout the world. However, the U.S. has done little to incorporate 1325 in its own policies. We will discuss the meaning of 1325 for women, how other countries are implementing it, and how the U.S. has done little to implement it. Attendees will walk away with general knowledge of 1325 and how to raise awareness for U.S. implementation of 1325 in their own communities. As well we will be talking about feminism in the broader sense as it relates to how war affects women we will also talk about water wars.

mothertongue: Building Community Through Art
Presenter: Sarah Edwards
This workshop will focus on building community through feminism, empowerment and creative writing. Using mothertongue's mission as a model, this workshop will be part community discussion, part writing workshop, part performance. Participants can bring their own journals or just come as they are, but bring a willingness to uncover the challenges of being a feminist/writer/activist so that we can get back to thriving in our art and creativity.

 Organizing and Regrouping in the Wake of Katrina
Hear from activists and organizers about the challenges, struggles and successes in rebuilding New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. This session will discuss efforts to start anew after one of the most devastating natural disasters in our nation's history, and will highlight the pivotal role of grassroots efforts in reconstruction. speakers TBA
 

LUNCHTIME DISCUSSION KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
Playwright and performer Anu Yadav spent two years working on `Capers, a one-woman show based on the stories of families at the Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg public housing projects who protested the governemnt funded relocation and demolition of their neighborhood. Yadav will talk about lessons learned, perform excerpts and lead a discussion on the role of art within building a movement.
RHODESSA JONES is Co-Artistic Director of the San Francisco acclaimed performance company Cultural Odyssey. She is an actress, teacher, singer, and writer. Ms. Jones is also the Founder and Director of the award winning "Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women" which is a performance workshop that is designed to achieve personal and social transformation with incarcerated women. For more information, visit www.culturalodyssey.org

 

Other activities:

VIF AFTER PARTY!
Saturday April 22, 8pm (after the conference)
$5 to benefit HIPS, at warehouse next door


CHERIE LATSON, EMCEE
THE FEVER FEW, FOLK
TELENOVA, QUEER INDIE
ANGEL MILES, SPOKEN WORD
PRINCESS OF DESTRUCTION, EMCEE
ODD BONES

HEADLINING ACT - TIM'M (www.reddirt.biz)