2.23.2006

riffRAg panel: "Examining Visibilites: Queer Visual Culture in the New Millennium: Roundtable"

The "Examining Visibilites: Queer Visual Culture in the New Millennium: Roundtable" is scheduled to take place on March 4, from 10:30am-12:30pm at Sarah Lawrence College.

What, and where, is queer visual culture in the new millennium? Where queer movement in the early 1980’s embodied the politics of separatism as embodied in the Great Lesbian Art Show, the late 1980’s and early 1990’s had ACT UP, whose bold graphics and flamboyant protest actions helped imprint the movement on social memory as visually and visibly queer. What does it mean to make visibly queer art or to engage in a queer sense of aesthetics today? With current attacks on queers and queer culture showing no sign of decreasing and assimilationist rhetoric also kicking in to high gear, especially in the debate around gay marriage, is a bold and brash ACT UP style of queer protest graphics needed now? In what other--perhaps more subtle--ways can queer culture and desire be represented visually?

Saturday March 4, 2006

10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Small Sessions I

Examining Visibilites: Queer Visual Culture in the New Millennium: Roundtable

- Eleanor Whitney, Co-editor riffRAG, moderator
- Desireena Almoradie, Documentary producer and student at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
- Kerry Downey, Painter, curator
- Kagendo Murungi, Film producer
- Laimah Osman, Multi-media artist working for social justice.
- Sally Willowbee, Mixed media artist

Directions to Sarah Lawrence College:

Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line commuter trains run every half-hour between 6:00 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. weekdays, and hourly on weekends. Take the train from Grand Central Terminal to the Bronxville Station. Purchase your round-trip tickets at the station to
avoid an extra charge. Please call Metro-North at 800.METROGO (800.638.7646), visit the Metro-North site, or inquire at the information booth in Grand Central Terminal for exact schedule and fare information. Taxi service is available at the Bronxville Station for the short ride to the College or you can walk to the college from the train station, which is about a 15 minute walk.

Driving directions please see the Sarah Lawrence Website at http://www.slc.edu/index.php?pageID=1399

2.22.2006

REAL HOT 100

FINAL CALL FOR NOMINATIONS TO THE REAL HOT 100
Nomination period ends March 1, 2006

Q: What do a Protestant minister from Iowa, the owner of Chicago’s first woman-friendly sex shop, a political cartoonist from New York, and a lawyer from D.C. have in common? A: They’ve each been nominated to the REAL hot 100, a list of young women who are smart, savvy, and actively trying to make the world a better place and who contradict the popular notion that sex appeal is all young women have to offer.
Do you know a young woman who is breaking barriers, fighting stereotypes, or making a difference in her community or the nation? Nominate her today and she will join over 150 women, from over 30 states that have already been nominated.
The REAL hot 100 will stop taking nominations on MARCH 1 so visit our website and nominate a REALLY hot woman today! Are you REALLY hot? Do you know a REALLY hot woman? You know what to do. For more information: visit www.therealhot100.org or email us at info@therealhot100.org
the REAL hot 100
see how hot SMART can be
www.therealhot100.org

2.19.2006

riffRAG call for submissions. extended

RiffRAG is extending the January 15 Submissions deadline to April 15. We are interested in capturing fresh, new political art-making talent in our next issue and at our future events. If you or anyone you know is creating art, writing, videos, or other exciting works, please submit to our next issue and pass on this call-for-submissions. We are also planning NYC parties and events for the near future and are seeking live bands, performers, DJ's and videos.

Again, we appreciate your passing this on to all of your friends and posting it on all of your bulletin boards. Thanks!
xox riffrag

http://www.riffrag.org/submit.html

riffRAG
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS, ISSUE 2
Call date: October 12, 2005
Final deadline (received by): April 15, 2006
www.riffrag.org

riffRAG is a forum for inspiration and creativity. We aim to highlight the extraordinary work that people are creating which often slips under the radar of the art world. We are a queer, feminist magazine committed to challenging racism, promoting accessibility to art and building alliances across boundaries. We foster an awareness of system power and a dedication to critical reflection and analysis. We are currently looking for art and writing to be published in our second issue. See below for submission details.

Submission Cover Sheet

Please provide all of the following information with your submission. You may attach this form to an email as a Word or Text file, or paste the information onto the body of your email. Send all information by the final deadline to riffrag@yahoo.com. Please note that we will not accept incomplete submissions, as tracking down all of the necessary info delays our release date.

Name:
Email:
Website (if you have one):
Phone Number:
Address:
Short bio (30-100 words):
Please attach a small photo of yourself to include with your bio (sized to 75 x 100 pix at 72 dpi, if possible).
Note: We will not give out any of your personal information. If you are included in riffRAG, the only information that will be shown is your name and website URL.

Guidelines for Website Submissions

1. Visual Art: We accept digital files. We are interested in works on paper, video, interactive web projects, photographs of tri-dimensional sculpture and installation, and series and multiples such as posters, prints and artists books.

Send your images attached to an email as JPEG files (.jpg), sized down to a maximum of 500 x 500 pixels at 300 dpi. If you do not know how to resize your images, we can do this for you. If you don't have access to means of digitizing your work, email us at riffrag@yahoo.com.

Please include a written artist's statement (200-500 words) that will be included in the magazine so that our audience has background information about your piece(s).

2. Written Work: We are interested in including articles about art, artists, cultural criticism, interviews, essays, fiction, and nonfiction. We do not currently accept poetry submissions.

Send your edited written work, 2000 words maximum, via email as a Word or Text file, or paste the information onto the body of your email. Written work is automatically considered for our limited edition print version.

Guidelines for Print Version Submissions

Visual Art: Our limited edition print version will be released in conjunction with the launch of the second issue. This is an exciting opportunity to participate in a collective publication that showcases original, small work and introduces emerging printmakers to new audiences. We are seeking original prints of any style or medium in editions of 150 in dimensions of 4 inches x 5 inches. All who are included in the print version receive a copy. If you are interested in participating, please email us a digital image of the piece you would like to create, in addition to your full contact information and artist's statement (200-500 words). Proceeds from the sale of the print edition support riffRAG.

Email us at riffrag@yahoo.com with any questions about submitting work.

2.18.2006

Two NYC Events to Check Out!

Below are two events that I learneda boutfrom people at the Grassroots Media Conference that I think will be really interesting and important and bring much needed perspective to feminist discusscions, dialogue and communities in NewYork City.

The first is a screening and panel discusscion on Sunday, February 19th at 7pm entitled "30 Years of Sisterhood" about women in the 1970's women's liberation movement in Japan and includes panelists Chieko Yamagami and Noriko Seyama (who made the film of the same name that will be showing), Yoko Akiyama (Professor of Chinese and Women's Studies, Surugadai University), Yumi Doi (writer), Soko Miki (Professor of English and Women's Studies, Kyoto Seika Univeristy), Satoko Woolala (filmmaker) and Yuriko Yamaki (journalist). There will also be an opening performance by Swing MASA, who is a jazz saxophonist. It is taking place at Bluestockings Books, at 172 Allen Street and is $10. More information is available on two blogs, one in English and one in Japanese.

The second event is on Thursday, February 23 and is a screening of the film "Say I Do: Unveling the Stories of Mail-order Brides" by Arlene Ami, put on by the Gabriele Network.
Here is the flier:

GABRIELA NETWORK PRESENTS...
a screening of

SAY I DO
A FILM ON MAIL-ORDER BRIDES
by Arlene Ami

"…I need to find myself a nice submissive young lady who wants and needs to have me control and direct her life. I am age 52, divorced after a long marriage. There is nothing so pleasurable to me as teaching a young woman to submit fully to my wishes… If my wife does not obey me, then I am perfectly willing to punish her in whatever way I think is right..." -from a letter received by a young Filipina from a mail-order bride agency customer.

When: Thursday, 23 February 2006, 6:30PM

Where: Imaginasian Theater, 239 E. 59th Street
(btwn. 2nd & 3rd ave.), Manhattan, NYC

How Much: $10.00
(Tickets available online or at Imaginasian's box office, or by contacting GABNet at (212) 592-3507 or nynj@gabnet.org.)

While February is a month of heart-shaped chocolates and cards, GABRIELA Network-- the largest and oldest US-Philippine women's organization--looks at intimate affairs and the power dynamics that ensue when love is for sale. In commemoration of the 7th anniversary of the Purple Rose Campaign Against Sex Trafficking, GABNet presents a screening of Arlene Ami's award-winning film "Say I Do," a documentary chronicling the journey of four women, from their lives in the Philippines through the mail-order bride system to their experiences as wives, mothers, and women in a foreign land. A panel discussion on sex trafficking will follow the screening.

Tickets are available online at www.theimaginasian.com or at Imaginasian's box office, or by contacting GABNet at (212) 592-3507 or nynj@gabnet.org.

Directions: F to Lexington Ave./63 St.; or 4, 5, 6, N, R, W to Lexington/59th. St; Buses include M57 - E. 57 St / Lexington Avenue, M31 - 57 St. / 2 Avenue, Q32 - 60 St. / 2 Avenue, X63 - 57 St. / Park Avenue.

.............
The Purple Rose Campaign is an international campaign against the sex trafficking of Filipino women and children.
It was launched in 1999 in New York by GABRIELA Network, a Philippine-US women's solidarity mass organization, and is now in 11 countries in Asia, North America, Europe and Australia.

For more info on "Say I Do" and filmmaker Arlene Ami: http://www.redstorm.ca/sayido/synop1.htm

2.10.2006

NYC Queer Youth Film Screnning

Hope to see everyone this weekend at the NYC Grassroots Media Conference. Don't forget to register before 5pm TODAY to save some $. To register and see the schedule, check out the NYC Grassroots Media Website. riffRAG will be presenting a panel on NYC Feminist Independent Media at 2:30 pm and it would be great to see some of our readers there!
Also, I just found out about this screening on Wednesday, February 15th which sounds excellent!
Here's the info:
We're Here, We're Queer, We're in High School
A Night of Short Films by New York City LGBT Youth Filmmakers
at the Pioneer Theater
155 East 3rd street (between A and B)
Feb. 15, 7pm
Call 212-591-0434 for more info.
Check it out and support NYC Queer youth!

2.02.2006

NYC Grassroots Media Conference: Sat February 11th, 2006

Information about the Grassroots Media Conference:

REGISTER EARLY! www.nycgrassrootsmedia.org/register

NYC Grassroots Media Conference
Sat February 11th, 2006
The New School 65 Fifth Ave at 13th St
www.nycgrassrootsmedia.org
10am-6pm
$20 Adult, $5 Youth (21 and under)

Conference Schedule:
* Schedule & Workshop Titles are Subject to Change*
Official Workshop Descriptions due online by Monday
Jan 30th

9am-10am
Registration Check-In, Coffee, Exhibition Area Open
*Be sure to get in early to avoid the line!*

10am-11:30am
*Research Like a Librarian: Advanced Internet and Critical Evaluation
of Websites, + FOIA, FOIL, and RSS
*Panel on Youth Newsletters
*Build Your Own Radio Station
*Breaking the Chains: Building a Media Strategy for Juvenile Justice in
America
*NYC Blogging Caucus
*DIY Distribution: Strategies and Challenges
*Interactive Funding Workshop
*Sister Radio Stations: Bringing together the anti-corporate
globalization movement with campaigns for Media Democracy in the
U.S.

11:45 - 1:15
*A Media Literacy Lesson Share for Educators
*PSA in a Day Video Production workshop for Youth
*Making Folks Think, When They're Laughing Too Hard to Realize it:
Performance as Creative Resistance
*Get It Online with Harlem Live!
*Archiving Grassroots Media: How to Collect, Preserve and Access
*Using Video as an Organizing Tool with the Coalition of Institutionalized Aged and Disabled (CIAD) & Our Voices/Nuestras Voces: Putting the Community in Community Media with the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS)
*Hip-Hop Activism
*Media Policy: Why It's Important For Everyone! with Free Press
*Wireless Internet Activism
*DIY Silkscreening with Visual Resistance
*Do It Yourself Media Criticism
*Freemix Radio: The Mixtape and Emancipatory Journalism

2:30 - 4:00
*NYC Feminist Independent Media
*Using Youth Media To Fight Stereotypes
*Interviewing for Independent Media (for Youth) with Riseup Radio
*The Portable Printing Press: A Hands On Guide to Stencil-Making
*Community Media- Personal or Political: From Limited Acces to
Transformative Communication
*Ethnic Press with the IPA
*Grassroots Media in an Election Year: Creating Community Voter Guides
*How to Build Your Own Website
*Talking to Mainstream Media: Indy Media Isn't Always Enough

4:15 - 5:45

*Videogaming and Military Recruitment with Global Action Project
*Creative Politics: The Art of Freestyling
*Do it Yourself Podcasting and Videoblogging
*Celebrating Community and Public Access Television: The Fight Ahead
*Video Production with DYKE TV
*Media Literacy
*STORMWATCH: The Struggle for a Renewed Activist Media after Hurricane
Katrina
*The Grassroots Artists MovEment (G.A.ME)’s International Artists Union
(IAU): *How Artists Can Benefit By Being Independent
*Independent Mediamaking and Political Organizing: How Can We Do It?
*Africa Not in the News: What mainstream and Alternative Media are
Missing in their Coverage of the Continent

GMC CONFERENCE AFTERPARTY/NETWORKING EVENT

Please join the NYCGMC to celebrate the local grassroots media
community. Free Admission for all, Cheap drinks to benefit the
NYC Grassroots Media Coalition 4 DJ's, Drinks $2-$4 - Make this NetWORK!
ALL AGES

9pm
Abc No Rio
156 Rivington Street (between Clinton & Suffolk)