HIATUS

Hey guys, we’ve been gettin’ a lot of e-mails and this message is long overdue sooo:

Due to a confluence of things, including key members moving, being too busy with other projects, spotty attendance, etc., the Baltimore Feminist Reading Group is/had been on  indefinite hiatus. We thank everyone who attended meetings over the past year, people who helped out with the Summer BBQs, and everyone who’s shown us support and love.

We also definitely encourage folks who’ve been e-mailing us about attending this group’s meeting to start their own reading groups! Organizing these sorts of things is surprisingly time-consuming, sometimes frustrating, but so, so rewarding! I’ve met true, life-long comrades, participated in important conversations, had my analyses and perspectives on  things changed, all as a result of this reading group. As cheesy as it sounds, it’s definitely one of the most important things I’ve participated in. 

Nothing, not even the internet, can replace an actual, physical space of feminist camaraderie where people can have sometimes-difficult conversations about capitalism, racism, heterosexism, etc. without having to fight the “other side”– so to speak– the side that tells us what we know can’t be true: that the exploitation of people must go on uncontested, that sexism is natural, that racism can be cured by not talking about the white supremacist society we live in, that imperialist wars are “just,” that women, people of color, queers, trans people, have to wait for the “real, class war” to be fought for “our” issues to be confronted. Fuck that shit, we gotta find our comrades, we gotta talk and disagree and laugh and dance and debate and protest and scream and cry with them. 

A reading group isn’t a political organization, it won’t dismantle any of the crap I just cited, but it’ll (hopefully) help you find people who are just as frustrated and fed up as you; maybe after meeting yall will be able to get stuff started… .

So yeah, this reading group is basically done (for now…?), but feel free to use this little site as a resource for any future projects, or e-mail questions to us. 

May a thousand  reading groups bloom!

 

TransLiberation

Transgender Liberation, A Movement Whose Time Has Come by Leslie Feinberg, in Transgender Studies Reader pages 205-220. 

Th is pamphlet is an attempt to trace the historic rise of an oppression that, as yet, has no commonly agreed name. We are talking here about people who defy the “man”-made boundaries of gender.

no meeting 4/25!

next week’s meeting is cancelled!! we look forward to seeing you two weeks from today (5.2) to discuss a history article about welfare and tenants rights organizing in Baltimore! 

Capitalism and Gay Identity By John D’Emilio

Tags

capitalism, gay identity, the family, world war ii

This week we’re reading Capitalism and Gay Identity by John D’Emilio– it’s (from what I remember) a historical-materialist analysis of gay identity in the United States– very interesting!

See ya Thursday!

Boys Don’t Cry Readings for next week

J. Halberstam’s “Brandon Teena Archives” – Chapter 2 in “In a queer time and place”

Click to access halberstam_in-a-queer-time-and-place-l.pdf

and

another 3 page take on the movie to be added when I remember how to post pdfs!!!

Women in Uprising

This week we’re reading “Women in Uprising: The Oaxaca commune, the State and Reproductive Labor” by Barucha Calamity Peller from  LIES volume 1  Pages 124-144.

Through revolt, the women de-mystified the dimensions of their penury, specifically the housewives’ sector of the Oaxaca Commune, who in their own terms defined their rebellion against capitalism and the state as directly correlated with their rebellion against their husbands and families in the domestic sphere.

Pamphlet on the Flatbush Rebellion

Fire Next Time

A new pamphlet entitled The Flatbush Rebellion is currently being distributed in Flatbush following the events of the past two weeks. It includes a brief account of the murder of Kimani Gray, the rebellion that occurred, and the social causes contributing to such rebellions. You can download it from the image on the left or the link above.

The pamphlet opens with an a quote from Frederick Douglass, from a speech in 1857:

“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle.”

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in place of meeting Thursday (3/31): Antonia’s Book Talk at Enoch Pratt!

our beloved Antonia will be talking about her book, The Wrong Kind of Different: Challenging the Meaning of Diversity in American Classrooms, this Thursday! we’ll meet there in place of the regular meeting.

Enoch Pratt Library, central branch (400 Cathedral Street), 6:30 pm in the Poe Room.

here’s the scoop.

Communiques from the occupation

This week we’re reading Wendy Trevino’s “From Santa Rita 128 TO 131” and “On the recent #occupations: Communique from W.&.T.C.H.” from LIES volume 1, pages 103 -124.

“We’re not asking for better wages or a lower interest rate. We’re not even asking for the full abolition of capital — there’s no one to ask. For now, we are simply critiquing this occupation for assuming we are there, while we have so far been left out.“

 

Pages from a CNA’s notebook

“This piece is dedicated to all nursing home workers, residents and their family members. Be patient with me, as I share our silenced stories.”

This week we’re reading “Caring: A labor of stolen time” from LIES volume 1, pages 69-100.