Thoughts on Feminism - a work in process

When I was a child I had a Barbie that I played with topless. My mother and aunt jokingly named her Michigan Barbie. Years later I stumbled on pictures of topless women in the 80s outside, somewhere. When confronted my mother explained they that was the Michigan Womyns Festival. Years later I heard the hilariously different versions of the time that my mother and aunt “accidentally” carpooled to the festival together. This is the association I grew up with to the Michigan Womyns Festival, tangled into the other stories of the women in my family, my mom and my aunt, feminists. I felt it like a legacy I was receiving and at the same time confusion with my own gender pushes me away from these definitions and associations with feminism.

When I arrived in college I was told a different narrative of Michigan. A transphobic space of rejection, not solidarity, told I would find myself more at home at Camp Trans. Michigan Womyns Festival became synonymous in this academic setting with the problems of 2nd wave feminism, no longer a place for me in the world that pushed me towards the third wave or no wave. I learned of 2nd wave feminism, and more generally feminism as an old wave, the movement of an older generation.

It is impossible for me to separate my work as an activist video maker from my experience growing up female bodied, white, Jewish, child of feminists, in a feminist synagogue. But when it came to my own personal identification this was never a term that I chose to use for myself.

As I form and examine the methodology of my current project I have come to realize just how much the 2nd wave feminist movement influences the core of my work. The lens through which I learned and have found myself to study oral history is through a feminist lens, examining the ways in which the personal is political, a crucial value of 2nd wave feminism.

Throughout my time at Hampshire I have found my work revolving around questioning the patriarchy, capitalism, and the systems of oppression they perpetuate. My work as an activist media maker is always anti-patriarchy and when it comes down to it I find myself drawn to that term more than to the term feminist. And yet, I feel, understand and know the pull towards feminism within my work. My current project centers around the concept of (his)Story, taking the ‘his’ out of history.

On Monday October 18th I partnered with Food For Thought Books in Amherst, and the Center for Feminisms, Queer Community Alliance, Trans Student Alliance, Feminist United Collective and Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire College to bring the Make/Shift Reclamation tour to Amherst for an afternoon workshop and evening performance. We spent the day in conversation with ourselves and each other dealing with the issues of contemporary feminism, what does that word mean and how does it influence our work? It was a good conversation, one that makes you think, that draws out the ideas that we have all been struggling with. The next day, as I was driving home after dropping the performers off at the train station to catch a train back to New York and continue with the tour I was texted by my 12 year old cousin, spurring an attempted conversation about what feminism is, opening up conversation on multiple levels in different spaces.

M- what show?

H- it was called make/shift reclamation

M- what it about?

H- feminism

M- it about friends?

H- what do you mean?

M- the show is about friends?

The moment she asked me if feminism was about friends (I believe she read it as friendinism) I realized the importance of my not brushing off this aspect of my life. Through the nature of my work I have often been forced to face the hipocracies within my life, if I advocate space for youth empowerment then who am I to shut my relatives, specifically, cousins, out of these conversations because they are not my intended audience. I want to teach them the values of the work that I do but this relationship is easily strained by family relationships. Knowing that I could not just dismiss this conversation I was then faced with the question, how do I explain feminism to this 12 year old?

to be continued…

Re-Mapping Data References

This is an online album of screen shots of other web-based tools for data-mapping and visualization, I would like to create something along the lines of these tools.

Fundraising Update

So far I have raised roughly $650 dollars to go towards the completion of this project!

This is great! I could not have done it without everyone who helped me along the way. Over the weekend my indiegogo fundraising campaign ended. It was no big deal, I barely noted the occasion. I realized a while ago that I was not going to meet my goal, but I am satisfied with the results of the campaign and the money I have right now.

The original project budget (the dream budget) is about $4,600, however, there will be ways for me to continue if this goal is not met. For one, I have started finding deals on items, such as the projector that was found by technical director, EJ, that only costs $100 instead of the originally projected $300. Additionally I expect that as time unfolds I will find other ways to trim the budget. My current barebones budget lies at $1100 and I believe that goal is easily do-able and I feel confident that I will not only meet it but exceed it.

I have also begun applying for grant funding from sources such as the Social Venture Fund at Hampshire College and Do Something, and organization that donates seed money to many youth produced projects regularly. In the near future I will continue to apply for grants as they come up.

ALSO RIGHT NOW the project is entered in the FACT Social Justice Competition:
http://www.netsquared.org/projects/re-mapping-our-hisstories

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE become a fan of the project and support this work! There are many benefits if my project does well in this contest such as consultations and funding for the project (that could potentially fund the project in full!)

Soon I will move the online fundraising component of my project to LongTail, a crowdfunding site promoting socially minded projects. While the website is still in it's beta form it will be going fully live soon and I am excited to be working with the founders of the site to host and promote the Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories project.

I want to thank everyone for helping/participating in this project so far! There is SO much more to come!

-Helyx

First Day with Teen Leadership Seminar! Introduction to Community History - I Am From

On October 3rd I had the first session of Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories with the youth at the Teen Leadership Seminar at Mishkan Shalom Synagogue in Philadelphia! The session was great. Below is the product of the session, a collaborative 'I am From' Poem:

Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories: The First Weekend, Project into Practice

On October 2nd I held the Philadelphia premier screening of El Trompo, the documentary created through the Midnight Media Coup as part of The Trek Project. The screening was a success, the event served as a promotional event and fundraiser for the Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories Project. During the screening I raised $160 dollars for the project, bringing the grand total up to $650!

After the movie was finished everyone at the screening was given a chance to paint a collaborative world map on the screen where we had just finished watching the movie. Below are pictures of the event:

The Story Box

The storybox is the physical embodiment of the Re-Mapping Our (his)Stories archive. The storybox is being created inside the frame of an old television, with turning channel knobs and plastic wood paneling. They storybox is equipped with a touch screen, camera, microphone, speakers and a projector. Using the storybox people will be able to browse the archive, create/input stories and present stories to large groups.

I believe that the TV represents a form of classic American (in reference to mainstream culture in the US) imagery. The television is a centerpiece of “modern” family life. A central location for information, family gatherings, and entertainment; however, the TV only works one-way, we are told what to watch. There is no choice in the content that comes to us and we have very limited options in relation to input. Everyday the media brings us gradually more consolidated messages. These messages tell us everything from how to look to how to think especially in relation to how we see ourselves.

Summary of the 4 Session Curriculum!

Introducing Community Histories:


Goals:
Establish and understand a sense of community.
Create an audio track
Understand the importance of history
Understand the importance of everyone’s voice

Highlights:
Creating a collaborative audio track!







What is your story?



Goals:
Understand that there are different portrayals of the same history/events
Create a community history timeline
Create some kind of visual media


Highlights:
Timeline of our own histories!
Making short video clips of our stories!






Creating a (his)Story


Goals:
Listen to someone’s history
Collaboratively create a media history.

Highlights:
Creating our own media (his)story based on an in-session interview with a community member!










Sharing (his)Story


Goals:
Reflect on the process of gathering and creating histories
Come up with a plan of action to display history work

Highlights:
Creating displays for our own (his)stories!