Conference at Hampshire College and Mabuhay!

HI WORLD!  Major updates!

April 10th, 2010 - Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom

I took a trip with three buds to Hampshire College in Massachusetts to attend this conference, and it was really really baller!  This conference was supposed to be three days long from April 9th to April 11th and is sponsored by the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program and organized by Hampshire students.  I only got to stay Saturday morning and afternoon, but it was definitely one of the most inspiring, informational, and amazing experiences I've ever had.

They started off the day with a series of speakers who took the stage for five minutes and spoke about their work with reproductive rights and their uplifting messages.  The awesome thing about this was that there were so many people from different organizations and backgrounds, like anti-prison activists, environmental justice activists, people from different generations, and disability rights advocates.  It just reinforced the fact that these causes are all interrelated and relevant, and that allies are everywhere.

I sat in on three workshops: Gender and Militarism, Feminism and Sex Workers' Rights, and Politics of Family Creation.  You can get more info about the workshops at this link: http://clpp.hampshire.edu/projects/conference/2010/workshop

I liked all three workshops, but my favorite one by far was the Feminism and Sex Workers' Rights.  It was super informational.  I went in thinking that it would be about prostitution and sex trafficking, but instead I learned about all the things that "sex work" encompassed, including prostitution, phone sex, dominatrix work, and so much more.  Hearing from past sex workers and current sex workers' rights activists, it definitely made me think a lot more about what it means to be feminist, the sexual body and the ways that people are entitled to use and enjoy it, and the type of societal standards that stigmatizes sex work and sex workers and why they are problematic.  The speakers were so well-informed and powerful, I have nothing but immense respect for them.

There was one part that hit me very powerfully.  A participant of the workshop said something about not having ever been a sex worker and probably not ever going to be one, but she would still like to be an ally and work for the cause.  But she was wondering whether the movement was very exclusive to non-sex workers and whether she could be of any help.  One of the panelists responded with the message:  It depends on the organization, but if they don't want your involvement, don't pressure them.  If you want to be an active ally of any cause, you should be an active ally of a community that you are intimately involved with and engaged with every day.  Just by being a receptive, open-minded, and tolerant person, you are already an ally.

What the panelist said really got me thinking, and I completely agree.  I think that it is very important to be interested and involved with issues and causes, but at the same time, there are boundaries and everyone's experiences are different.  You may be able to relate to them in some ways, but in other ways, it would be impossible for you to understand and relate exactly with people.  I think it is very important to keep in mind, as activists, the types of boundaries you are crossing and the harms that may come from it.   I personally feel uncomfortable with the notion of waltzing into an intimate community that I don't belong to for a short period of time, doing my thing, and then waltzing out thinking that I've done something meaningful, important, all the while not having done something to make the community more sustainable and united.  Tell me what you think!

Some small other things: There were so many other women/female-bodied people at the conference with unconventionally female hairstyles!  Lots of mohawks, shaved heads, short hair!  And these students were definitely some of the most passionate, knowledgeable, and amazing people I've ever encountered.

April 16th: Mabuhay!

Last Friday was Mabuhay, Wesleyan's Asian/Asian-American cultural show.  It's one giant extravaganza of traditional dances, songs, modern pop dance numbers, and awesome MC's.  I participated in a spoken word event called "America, You Are Not White," which was a collaborative spoken word piece about being Asian-American, and reflections on our experience with racism, assimilation, cultural differences, and the different types of people that the term Asian-American encompass.  It's been a long and intense project, but amazingly rewarding!  I got to meet so many people who identified as Asian-American, and their thoughts and stories.  We wrote the piece in hopes of sending out a wake-up call to Asian-Americans on campus to realize that these cases of racism are targeted incidences, and that we must reflect and come together to keep talking about our experiences in order to create change within our community.  I'm just hoping it worked!

I'm just going to post the bit that I wrote and performed for the show.

For you, it is all about convenience:
categories, statistics, checkboxes.
For your convenience, my culture is a cartoon and you think it's:
Ching Chong General Tso's Chicken No Speak English Ni Hao Ma
But I am not a shape punched out by a racial cookie cutter
And my culture is a story of immigrant survival that
Landed gentry don't get and try so hard to forget
So while you struggle to measure my body, my mind, my stories, my identity
What is convenient for you, oppresses and silences me

I was so nervous!  My fellow performers and I were having de-stress dance parties backstage minutes before our performance.  But it was so fun, and I'm definitely looking forward to doing something like this again!

Dan Diddly Doo Ping-o?