WAM! Round-Up
There are alot of people who are blogging WAM! so it's hard for me to know where to start! So I'll just get on with it.I met Shark Fu of Angry Black Bitch and the name of her blog is all wrong. She was happy and engaging. Not only that but while describing her experiences blogging, you got the impression that she has alot of patience and hope. You want to sidle up to her and say, "Hi, will you be my BFF?" I like her post about WAM! because she doesn't just describe what happened there, she also talks about what she brought to the conference from her life experiences and what she is taking away and using in her work.
I met all three of the bloggers from Racialicious. It is such a cool thing to be able to put faces to the names of the people you have been reading and responding to online. Wendi and Latoya were both at We B(e)lo(n)g which was a very audience centered session, therefore I had a chance to see and hear more from them than if we had been at some of the other more lecture style panels. They were both excited to share their ideas and interested in hearing from everyone else. I also saw them later at the QWOC party and met Carmen there too. Unfortunately by that time of the night I wasn't feeling very well and was no where near the life of the party. So I didn't mingle as much as I should have. (I have a chronic condition that mostly gets worse in the evening, with unpredictable flare-ups during the day sometimes too.)
Wendi gives her impressions of WAM! at The Coup Magazine.
Latoya has more to say about it at Racialicious.
(Go say congratulations to Latoya, she is now an editor at Racialicious!)
Jen Angel at Aid and Abet has a post describing her experiences. (Update: I misunderstood something Jen said and made an ass of myself. I've removed that part because being an ass is embarrassing. Jen, I'm sorry about that!)
Amanda has a great photograph of the...um...main building the conference was in, the MIT Stata Center. She also discusses her session on reproductive rights. I have more to say about that main building thing later.
Jennifer Pozner of Women in News & Media (WIMN) gives a description of her session on Strategies for Making Change.
A few bloggers are giving a more comprehensive look at the sessions they attended:
Roni, at Viva La Feminista, has some good posts describing the sessions she attended.
---WAM! Friday Recap
---WAM! - We B(e)lo(n)g: Womyn of Color & Online Feminism
---WAM! - FACT-UP Fact Check, Research, & Think Critically like a Radical Librarian
---WAM! - Sunday Morning Sessions
---WAM! - Sunday Late Morning Sessions
---WAM! - The Day After: The Good.
I met Roni at We B(e)lo(n)g panel, when she and Liza from Culture Kitchen tackled BrownFemiPower. Love hurts, man! I recommend BfP wears padding and a helmet like a football player when she goes to conferences.
Amber Rhea did a wonderful job live blogging the sessions she attended, with some amazing new software called Cover It Live.
---WAM!2008 Saturday
---Dacia’s Sex Work and Media Representation session
---WAM!2008: Growing Independent Media in a Time of Shrinking Resources
---WAM!2008: How to Get Heard: The Art of Strategic Communication with Editors
---WAM!2008: YouthSpeak! The Present & Future of Online Media & Activism
Jill at Writes Like She Talks also used Cover It Live to live blog the sessions she attended.
---Live blogging Helen Thomas keynote address WAM!2008
---Live-blogging Haifa Zangana, former prisoner of Iraqi regime, WAM!2008
---Live-blogging Creating Sustainable Media, WAM!2008
---Live-blog: Here We Go Again: Bad Stories About Women That Never Die, WAM!2008
---Live-blog: Analysis of Media Coverage of Hillary Clinton & Presidential Election, WAM!2008
Hugo has three posts, to round out his impressions of the conference.
---Helen Thomas and a Short First Night WAM Report
---Abortion, Media, Sex Work and Pink Polo Shirts: WAM Day Two, final take
---Final WAM notes, with some thoughts on changing attitudes towards male feminists
Kay Steiger has four posts describing her impressions
---Helen Thomas Misses the Mark (Thank you, Kay, for writing this post.)
---Haifa Zangana on Iraq at WAM!
---WAM!: Reproductive Rights/Justice Framework
---WAM!: Race in the Blogosphere
Vanessa at Feministing did some live blogging on a couple of panels
---Live Blogging at WAM! Breaking the Frame: Revitalizing and Redefining Reproductive Rights Media Coverage
---Live Blogging at WAM! Battling Backlash: Strategies for Fighting Back, Rising Above and Making Progress
Roy at No Cookies for Me also has a couple of posts about the people he met (Like the fabulous Nadia of No Snow Here) and his panel about online gaming.
---WAM! Report...
---WAM! session thoughts...
Oh I've got more. I'm saving my impressions about WAM! and more about the WOC decompressing and brainstorming session we had at Sudy's for my next post.
posted by Donna at
8:06 AM
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5 comment(s):
"C'mon now, don't you know they [KPFA] work hard and cover issues important to white liberals, so a little bit of racism is ok, get with the program silly brown girls!"
That's so not nice. I was sitting right next to Preeti from the KPFA Women's magazine during this discussion and she said she hadn't gotten the pitch in question. By saying that KPFA and Pacifica is full of volunteers, I was referring to the general lack of disorganization, and if you call and pitch a show that's only on once a week and staffed by volunteers, it's difficult to reach them in the studio.
AND. KPFA has a TON of great talk shows not focused on white liberals, like Africa Today, Bay Native Circle, Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, and Hard Knock to name a few. Not to mention people of color hosts like CS Soong, Walter Turner, Pratap Chatterjee, or Aimee Allison. Not to mention the music shows.
I think KPFA has a lot of issues with how they are organized, but they have good programs.
The real issue I was talking about was the lack of viable progressive or radical outlets, so it creates a scarcity culture where we all have to compete for the limited coverage that's available.
By
Anonymous, at
4/03/2008 12:36 PM
I'm sorry if I misunderstood your meaning, Jen. I'm so used to people making excuses for why issues of interest to POC aren't relevant or aren't interesting to enough people (meaning white people) that I automatically assumed that is where you are coming from. Also I am so tired of being told things like 'why are you being so mean to your allies?' 'circular firing squad!' etc when too many are not our allies at all, they are willing to use us for their purposes but only dismiss our concerns and ignore our needs.
It really helped to clarify your meaning for me when you said this, "The real issue I was talking about was the lack of viable progressive or radical outlets, so it creates a scarcity culture where we all have to compete for the limited coverage that's available." and I hope you will update your post and add that to it.
Thank you for stopping by and setting me straight. I'm sorry I jumped on you.
By
Donna, at
4/03/2008 8:54 PM
I am told there were old women there, but I wanna picture or I don't believe it. (Helen Thomas, media star, doesn't count.)
Anything at all about disabled women? Transwomen?
I don't think I would have liked it, frankly. Sounds like still another exclusive party for the attractive, fit, young, affluent (mostly white) folks...I woulda stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb.
By
Daisy, at
4/04/2008 4:18 PM
Thanks so much for the linking!
By
Hugo Schwyzer, at
4/06/2008 1:04 AM
I just want to thank Donna for adding the "Update" rather than just disappearing her earlier words. It's become a pet peeve of mine when bloggers just delete a post/part of a post if they come to agree with a commenter's criticism. Thanks!
By
Anonymous, at
4/10/2008 1:22 PM
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