Category — Friends of WOMS news

SJSU’s RAINN Day participants won Cosmopolitan Magazine’s national “Cosmo Fights Campus Rape” Magazine Multimedia Contest!

SJSU’s team created a terrific Flash Mob to the music of Glee…congrats to Bonnie Sugiyama, Jennifer Momi Gacutan-Galang, Kyle Burt, Yan Yin K. Choy, Amarissa Mathews, Rose Fried, Staci D. Gunner, Chris Hernandez, and #SJSUMadeYaLook, among others.

When we launched our Cosmo Fights Campus Rape campaign earlier this year, our goal was to end the epidemic of sexual violence at colleges and to encourage schools to update their sexual assault policy requirements. As part of this campaign, we teamed up with RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network), the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the country, to hold the RAINN Day/Cosmo Magazine Multimedia Contest 2011. The idea was for students to boost awareness of sexual violence and RAINN through events such as benefit concerts, art projects, or roundtable discussions. The winner, which was announced this week, is San Jose State University’s flash mob… (from RAINN Day Cosmo Contest Winner 2011)

Please help distribute widely to your communities.
Anna Guevarra
Assistant Professor, Asian American Studies and Sociology
University of Illinois at Chicago
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**For press inquiries, please contact feministdelegation@gmail.com

Between June 14 and June 23, 2011, a delegation of 11 scholars, activists, and artists visited occupied Palestine.  As indigenous and women of color feminists involved in multiple social justice struggles, we sought to affirm our association with the growing international movement for a free Palestine. We wanted to see for ourselves the conditions under which Palestinian people live and struggle against what we can now confidently name as the Israeli project of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. Each and every one of us—including those members of our delegation who grew up in the Jim Crow South, in apartheid South Africa, and on Indian reservations in the U.S.—was shocked by what we saw. In this statement we describe some of our experiences and issue an urgent call to others who share our commitment to racial justice, equality, and freedom.

During our short stay in Palestine, we met with academics, students, youth, leaders of civic organizations, elected officials, trade unionists, political leaders, artists, and civil society activists, as well as residents of refugee camps and villages that have been recently attacked by Israeli soldiers and settlers. Everyone we encountered—in Nablus, Awarta, Balata, Jerusalem, Hebron, Dheisheh, Bethlehem, Birzeit, Ramallah, Um el-Fahem, and Haifa—asked us to tell the truth about life under occupation and about their unwavering commitment to a free Palestine. We were deeply impressed by people’s insistence on the linkages between the movement for a free Palestine and struggles for justice throughout the world; as Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted throughout his life, “Justice is indivisible. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” [Read more →]

San José State University students and community members will hit center stage dressed in red and black, ready to spread awareness about violence and abuse toward women and girls through their production of Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues. The benefit production will run at the historic SJSU Morris Dailey Auditorium on Thursday, March 11, 2011 at 6:00 p.m., Friday, March 12th at 8:00 p.m. and on Saturday, March 13th at 8:00 p.m. Tickets for the event are $8 for students and $10 for general admission. For ticket information please call 800-745-3000 or visit http://www.ticketmaster.com.

The Vagina Monologues celebrate the global movement of V-Day, which strives to empower women to find their collective voices and demand an end to the violence. SJSU is joining this global movement as part of the V-Day 2011 College Campaign. Each year V-Day increases awareness by focusing on a specific group of women in the world who are resisting violence with courage and vision.

In 2011, V-Day’s Spotlight Campaign will be on the Women and Girls of Haiti. The Spotlight will highlight the high levels of violence against women and girls in Haiti, and will focus on the increased rates of sexual violence since the devastating earthquake that took place in January 2010. All funds raised through the Spotlight Campaign will be used to support a revolutionary national campaign in Haiti lead by a coalition of women activists – including longtime V-Day activist Elvire Eugene – that will address sexual violence through art, advocacy, safe shelter and legal services.

The proceeds of the V-Day SJSU 2011 will benefit the women and children of Haiti, as well as local non-profit organizations whose programming supports survivors of violence and work toward the ending of violence against women and girls. [Read more →]

Students at Cal State East Bay designed and carried out a “limpia” ritual (cleansing) of Warren Hall on May 4th of this year.  In this student-directed film of the event, you’ll see the students walk through Warren Hall with eggs “collecting the negative energies” of the building, then convening downstairs on the plaza for discussion, dance, venting, and finally, the destruction of the eggs.  The event merges the curanderismo practice of natural healing with student protest and self-preservation in the face of the budget situation.  It’s a powerful film, about ten minutes.

The Xicana/o Graduate Council evolved out of the Mexican American Studies Graduate Associated Students.  Created in the fall of 2009, the graduate group meets regularly to foster community within the department and among alumni.  This first newsletter explains more of their mission and purpose, and highlights the experience of those students who attended the 37th Annual National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Conference in Seattle, Washington in April.  It includes articles by Ana Angel y Juan Pablo Mercado, Victor Vasquez, Berta Jimenez, Ricardo Agredano, Juan Pablo Mercado, Robert Unzueta, and Elisa Ocegueda.

Read the newsletter here (pdf)

Are you man enough to walk a mile in her shoes?
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
4:00pm – 7:00pm
Plaza de Cesar Chavez, Downtown San Jose

See young men walk a mile in heels to raise awareness about Sexual Assault!  The YWCA of Silicon Valley hosts this unique event during Sexual Assault Awareness Month to call attention to these statistics:  one-in-three women and one-in-five men, regardless of socio-economic status, will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

This event is a light-hearted approach to a very serious subject and is also a fundraiser for our local YWCA’s  local rape crisis center. Donations are not required to walk, but every little bit helps.

Registration for the event begins at 4PM. The walk will start at 5:00. Shoes WILL be provided, but show up early. The walk route parades through downtown San Jose, culminating at the California Theatre on First Street. There will be a reception to follow.

Also, don’t forget, AfricanAmerican scholar/activist Angela Davis will be speaking the same evening at Morris Daily Auditorium!

If that’s not enough to pique your interest, here’s a few more facts why you should walk, and ladies don’t worry. Only the guys need to wear heels. ;) [Read more →]

March 24 – Liz Burke,  “Classism: How it Effects Our Lives at MOSAIC: Cross Cultural Center  at 5 p.m.

April 7 – Andrew House,White Privilege:  Identifying & Understanding at MOSAIC: Cross Cultural Center.

Womyn United:  International Womyns’ Day Marcha & Festival 2010

March begins 11am at Roosevelt Park, continues down Santa Clara and First Street to the Biblioteca Latinoamericana.  Festival from 1 to 4pm with vendors, food, and entertainment.

Participating Organizations: Cihuatl Tlatocan (MAIZ), FOCUS-SV, Silicon Valley
DEBUG, San Jose Peace and Justice Center, Women’s International League for Peace and  Freedom , San Jose CodePink, SJSU WoWi (Womyn on Womyn’s Issues), Santa Clara County’s Office on Women’s Policy,  LGBTQ Youth Spaces, SOMOS Mayfair, Cardea Center for Women, Bay Area Radical Women, SJSU Women’s Studies.

Cihuatl Tlatocan  is a women’s based mass organization whose vision seeks the liberation of Mexican womyn at an individual and community level, in a collective struggle towards social change and is a member organization of the MAIZ Alliance  (Movimiento de Accion, inspirando Servicio). Questions?  Cihuatl.Tlatocan@gmail.com

Download flyer here (click on image to see fullsize)

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