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Center for New Words

The Center for New Words is committed to a simple mission: use the power and creativity of words to strengthen the voice of progressive and marginalized women in society. To accomplish this mission, our programs support diverse women's engagement with the entire word cycle, from literacy to blogging to literary writing to opinion-making in the media and other domains of influence. Built on the wisdom, commitments, and competencies of 28 years of running New Words Bookstore, CNW is creating spaces and places where women's words matter. break

http://www.centerfornewwords.org

Radical Mommyhood

Thu, Nov 13, 2008

Join Amy Richards and Maegan "Mamita Mala" Ortiz for a frank conversation on radical mommyhood. The two examine how making the decision to have a child impacts who we are and who we want to be (as women, feminists, anti-racists, and artists); the intersections of feminism and motherhood; and how race and class in particular, play an important role in how motherhood is encountered, seen, and experienced. **Amy Richards** is the author of Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself, and the co-author of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and The Future and Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism (both with Jennifer Baumgardner). She is co-founder of the Third Wave Foundation and the feminist speakers bureau Soapbox. She lives in New York City with her family. **Maegan "Mamita Mala" Ortiz** is a radical Nuyorican mami, blogger, poeta, and freelance writer. La Mala is currently co-editor of one of the top US Latino blogs, VivirLatino. She is also a contributor on Anti-Racist Parent. Her words , blogging, and opinions have been featured at The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, NPR, and Latina Magazine.

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Nami Mun: Miles from Nowhere

Wed, Jan 21, 2009

Nami Mun reads from her debut novel, *Miles from Nowhere*. Teenage Joon is a Korean immigrant living in the Bronx of the 1980s. Her parents have crumbled under the weight of her father's infidelity; he has left the family, and mental illness has rendered her mother nearly catatonic. So Joon, at the age of 13, decides she would be better off on her own, a choice that commences a harrowing and often tragic journey that exposes the painful difficulties of a life lived on the margins. Joon's adolescent years take her from a homeless shelter to an escort club, through struggles with addiction, to jobs selling newspapers and cosmetics, committing petty crimes, and, finally, toward something resembling hope.

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Women of the World: Art and Adventure

Thu, Nov 11, 2004

Susan Orlean, author of *The Orchid Thief* and *My Kind of Place,* takes readers on an irresistible tour of the world via its subcultures: from Japan's Mt. Fuji, to the heart of the African music scene in Paris, to Midland, Texas, hometown of George W. Bush, a place where "oil time" is the only time that matters. Barbara Sjoholm (formerly Barbara Wilson, author of *Gaudi Afternoon* and, the new book *Pirate Queen*) takes readers along for the four months that she traveled around the North Atlantic, chasing little known biographies of women fishing captains, cross-dressing sailors, and bold Viking explorers.

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Taking Our Place in the Public Conversation

Fri, Mar 18, 2005

Medea Benjamin, a powerful and charismatic force in human rights activism, talks about her struggles for social justice in Asia, Africa and the Americas for over 20 years. She is the founding director of the human rights organization Global Exchange. **Medea Benjamin** is a leading activist in the peace movement in the United States and helped bring together the groups forming the coalition United for Peace and Justice. She is also the co-founder of Code Pink: Women for Peace, a women's group that has been organizing against the war in Iraq and pushing for a reorientation of budget priorities in the US to focus on heath care, education and housing, not war. In February 2003, Benjamin visited Iraq and met with weapon's inspectors, women's groups and ordinary Iraqi civilians. Benjamin's previous work focused on improving the labor and environmental practices of US multinational corporations, and the policies of international institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. She also ran for the US Senate on the Green Party ticket, mobilizing thousands of Californians around platform issues such as living wage, schools-not-prisons, and universal healthcare. She is the author of numerous books. Prior to founding Global Exchange in 1988, Medea worked for 10 years as an economist and nutritionist in Latin America and Africa for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, the Swedish International Development Agency, and the Institute for Food and Development Policy. This event is co-sponsored with the MIT Program in Women's Studies.

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Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America

Thu, Mar 10, 2005

Pooja Makhijani, Patricia Goodwin, Judith Chalmer, and Lisa Drostova read from *Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America*, an anthology of essays by women that explore through a child's lens the sometimes savage, sometimes innocent, and always complex ways in which race shapes American lives and families.

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Hip Mama: From the Cutting Edge of Parenting

Wed, Mar 16, 2005

*[Hip Mama](http://hipmamazine.com/about/ "")* was developed, and edited by Ariel Gore. As a single mother dependent on public assistance, Gore wanted to reach an audience of readers who "do not want to do the whole yuppie thing just because they have kids." Her magazine explicitly integrates politics and parenting. Ariel Gore and regular contributors to *Hip Mama*, Annie Downey, Jillian Brady, and Katherine Arnoldi, read in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the legendary 'zine, and a decade of its earthy, honest, and soulful parenting essays. The magazine includes personal narratives, book and music reviews, sex and parenting pieces, commentaries, news, and "Girl-Mom" (resources and discussion for young parents). Recent articles include "Protest Primer" and "Just Say No to Genetically Altered Foods."

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Daily Realities: Feminist Curiosity and Globalization

Thu, Jan 27, 2005

Cynthia Enloe, author of the collection of essays, *Bananas, Beaches, and Bases* makes sense of globalization and international politics by taking a look into the daily realities in a range of women's lives. She proposes a distinctively feminist curiosity that begins with taking women seriously, especially during this era of unprecedented American influence. This means listening carefully, digging deep, challenging assumptions, and welcoming surprises.

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Grassroots: A Field Guide for Activism

Wed, Feb 23, 2005

Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards discuss their new book, Grassroots, which answers the perennial question, "What can I do to help?". Baumgardner and Richards argue that this question rings ever louder in the post-9/11 political landscape. Whether you are a student or a stay-at-home-mom, an artist or a corporate professional, *Grassroots* illustrates how anyone, no matter how much or how little they believe they have to offer, can become involved. It also shows how even small efforts have the potential to produce a sea change in our lives.

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Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era

Wed, May 4, 2005

In celebration of the newest edition of *Our Bodies, Ourselves*, a panel of the book's authors and contributors for a look at how it has grown and changed to serve lesbians, bi women, and transpeople. In 1970, they showed us a cervix, talked openly about same-sex relationships, and helped get women safe information about sexual assault. But a lot has changed since *Our Bodies, Ourselves* first published the chapter *In Amerika They Call Us Dykes*! Co-sponsored by Fenway Community Health Center.

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Risking Hope: Women, Prison, and Life Behind Bars

Thu, May 19, 2005

Cristina Rathbone discusses *Risking Hope*, which explores every facet of prison culture and reveals the true face of the American criminal justice system. Rathbone spent five years visiting women prisoners at MCI Framingham, outside of Boston. *Risking Hope* provides a firsthand look at prison and the women that Rathbone came to know there, and shows why prison officials are so eager to keep journalists out. The book also describes the author's long legal struggle to gain access to the women inside. It took Rathbone a full year and two law suits against the Massachusetts Department of Corrections to win access to the women and hear their stories. Women are the fastest-growing population incarcerated in the United States; over 950,000 women are currently under some form of correctional supervision. Putting a human face to the statistics, Rathbone examines the devastating consequences of mandatory minimum sentencing laws, the use of male guards for women prisoners, substandard medical care that leads to high rates of suicide, and the drastic effects skyrocketing incarceration rates have on millions of families across the country.

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Center for New Words