Women's Studies Around Boston

September/October 2007 Edition

Tuesday, September 4, 3:00 p.m.

"The Science of Race, Sex, and Gender": a student-centered discussion hosted by Professors Abha Sur and Thomas Defrantz.
Refreshments and Community Discussion. By the MIT Program in Women's & Gender Studies. MIT Building 3, Room 270, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge.
Information: 617-253-8844.

Wednesday, September 5, 7:00 p.m.

Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
Book signing and discussion. Maryanne Wolf is Professor of Child Development at Tufts University, where she holds the John DiBiaggio Chair of Citizenship and Public Service and is the director of the Center for Reading and Language Research. Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street, Cambridge.
Information: 617-491-2220.

Tuesday, September 11, 7:00 p.m.

Dalia Sofer, Septembers of Shiraz
Book signing and discussion. Dalia Sofer was born in Iran and fled at the age of ten to the United States with her family. A page-turning literary debut, "The Septembers" simmers with questions of identity, alienation, and love, not simply for a spouse or a child, but for all the intangible sights and smells of the place we call home. In the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, gem dealer Isaac is arrested, wrongly accused. Terrified by his disappearance, his family must reconcile a new world of cruelty and chaos with the collapse of everything they have known. Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street, Cambridge.
Information: 617-491-2220.

Thursday, September 13, 7:00 p.m.

Nalini Jones and Karen Russell, What You Call Winter: Stories and St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
Book signing and discussion with two new female writers. Gracefully and with deep emotional intelligence, Jones vividly evokes the ebb and flow of life across several generations and continents while Russell filled "St. Lucy's" with stunning inventiveness and heart. Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street, Cambridge.
Information: 617-491-2220.

Thursday, September 13, 7:30 p.m.

Gender Crash Open Mic
For poets, spoken wordsters, literary geeks, journal writers, queers, transgender, and gender queers. Gender Crash is a spoken word and performance event held on the second Thursday every month. Adults $5-10 sliding scale. Spontaneous Celebrations, 45 Danforth St, Jamaica Plain.
Information: gendercrash@gmail.com.

Thursday, September 13- 14.

Staceyann Chin Residency
Provocative discussions, workshops, lectures, and a spoken word event. Staceyann Chin is a Def Jam Poetry performer, writer, activist, and poet. Chin, an "out," female, Jamaican-Chinese immigrant will join MIT for two dynamic days of student-centered events. Hosted by MIT Women's and Gender Studies, the MIT Race-Sexuality Task Force, SLIPPAGE, and the MIT Caribbean Culture Club. See the Women's and Gender Studies web site for specific details.
Email genderstudies@mit.edu to participate or with questions.

Monday, September 17, 4:00 p.m.

Gail Tsukiyama, The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
Book signing and discussion. The bestselling author of "Women of the Silk" and "The Samurais Garden" has written a powerfully moving story of tradition and change, of loss and renewal, and above all, of the enduring strength of family ties. Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street, Cambridge.
Information: 617-491-2220.

Tuesday, September 18, 12:00-1:30 p.m.

Aimee Sands, "What Makes Me White?"
A film screening and discussion. Designed as a gentle tool for both the classroom and diversity training workshops, WHAT MAKES ME WHITE is a personal and poetic exploration of whiteness as a learned racial identity. Emmy award-winning filmmaker Aimée Sands takes a uniquely inquiring and personal approach in this documentary, inviting audiences to ask difficult questions of themselves about the role of race in their lives. Part of Brown Bag Anti-Racism Discussion Series 2007, Changing the Public Discourse around Race. By Community Change Inc. Community Change Library on Racism, 14 Beacon Street, Room 605, Boston.
Information: 617-523-0555.

Tuesday, September 18, 7:00 p.m.

Sophie Freud, Living in the Shadow of the Freud Family
Book signing and discussion. Sophie Freud is a distinguished and internationally known Professor Emeritus of Social Work at Simmons College. Also previously a practicing Clinical Social Worker and Supervisor, she was born in Vienna and lived near her famed grandfather, until she emigrated with her mother, first to France then to the United States. Sophie weaves into the text letters she inherited, including letters from Martin while he was a prisoner of war, and excerpts from her own diary, kept as an adolescent. The resulting mosaic will fascinate--and perhaps disturb--readers interested in Freud and psychoanalysis, as well as those intrigued by relationships and family. Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street, Cambridge.
Information: 617-491-2220.

Wednesday, September 19, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Global Feminisms
Reopening of The Davis Museum. Through sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, video, installation, and performance, Global Feminisms explores the definition of feminist art at the turn of the new millennium. Featuring work made since 1990 by women artists from around the world, this exhibition questions what it means to be a feminist artist today, and how gravely that differs in varying cultural, political, and social contexts. Gender, sexuality, violence, power, politics, and, ultimately, identity, are among the sources and subjects of this momentous show. Building upon and transcending groundbreaking feminist scholarship of the 1970s, Global Feminisms will present cutting edge contemporary art that is international in scope and challenging in nature. Organized by the Brooklyn Museum. Free and open to the public.
Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley. Information: 781 283-2034.

Wednesday, September 19, 7:00 p.m.

Dorothy Monnelly, Between Land and Sea: The Great Marsh
Book signing and discussion. Award-winning photographer Dorothy Monnelly captures the yet-unspoiled beauty of one of the last natural ecosystems in the Northeast. In this collection of 57 large-format, black and white photographs, the salt marsh is a solemn force rendered dramatically with crisp reproductions of Monnelly's original gelatin silver prints. As a native of Ipswich, MA, Monnelly executes her work with a familiarity and grace evocative of Ansel Adams. Her work is described in the foreword by Jeanne Adams, manager of The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite National Park, as capturing the marsh's "amazing sculptural quality." Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street, Cambridge.
Information: 617-491-2220.

Thursday, September 20, 7:00 p.m.

Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women
Book signing and discussion. "Pimps Up, Ho's Down" pulls at the threads of the intricately knotted issues surrounding young black women and hip hop culture. What unravels for Tracy D. Sharpley-Whiting is a new, and problematic, politics of gender. In this fascinating and forceful book, Sharpley-Whiting, a feminist writer who is a member of the hip hop generation, interrogates the complexities of young black women's engagement with a culture that is masculinist, misogynistic, and frequently mystifying. Sharpley-Whiting questions the impacts of hip hop's increasing alliance with the sex industry, the rise of groupie culture in the hip hop world, the impact of hip hop's compulsory heterosexual culture on young black women, and the permeation of the hip hop ethos into young black women's conceptions of love and romance. Co-Sponsored by the Simmons Institute for Leadership and Change and the Center for New Words. Linda K. Paresky Conference Center, Simmons College, 300 The Fenway, Boston.
Information: 617-876-5310.

Thursday, September 20, 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Harvard College Women's Center Open House
Please join to celebrate the start of our second year! All are welcome to come enjoy great food, music, and coffee, and learn about the resources and programs for women in the Harvard community. Harvard College Women's Center, Canaday Hall, B Entry Basement, Cambridge.
Information: 617-495-4292 or http://hcwc.fas.harvard.edu.

Tuesday, September 25, 7:00 p.m.

Abigail Jones and Marissa Miley, Restless Virgins: Love, Sex, and Survival at a New England Prep School
Book signing and discussion. This book etches in fine detail the contours of teenage sexual and social life in modern America. Jones and Miley have crafted a compassionate and very personal glimpse into the ordeals that the students faced and the many demands assaulting them from all angles. Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street, Cambridge.
Information: 617-491-2220.

Friday, September 28, 7:00 p.m.

Mikhaela Reid, "Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela"
Discussion. Bushies are bum-rushing Cheney's secret bunker! Ex-gays are quaking in their closets!
Abstinence educators are shivering in their purity rings! Greedy CEOs are heading for the hills and Minutemen are bolting for the border! Cartoonist Mikhaela Reid is on the rampage—and no hypocrite is safe! By the Center for New Words. CNW, 7 Temple St, Cambridge.
Information: 617-876-5310.

Wednesday, October 10, 5:00 p.m.

Carol Moseley Braun, "Colored Water and The Power of One"
Lecture by Ambassador Braun. The Fourth Annual Eleanor Roosevelt Lecture. By Brandeis University Women's and Gender Studies Program. Carl J. Shapiro Theater, Shapiro Campus Center, 415 South Street, Waltham.
Information: 781-736-3045.

Saturday, October 13, 1:30-2:45 p.m.

Latinas, Identity, and Media Panel
Panel discussion and screening. Part of the Boston Latino International Film Festival. Free. Followed by the gender exploring documentary, "Companeras", which focuses on an all female mariachi band. By Women in Film & Video/ New England. Harvard Film Archives, WIFV/NE, 397 Moody Street, Waltham.
Information: 781-788-6607.

Tuesday, October 16, 7:30 p.m.

Adelheid Roosen, "The Veiled Monologues"
Performance. After acting in a production of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, Dutch actress Adelheid Roosen approached Muslim women living in the Netherlands to ask them about their lives. The result is a vital, surprising, and poetic portrait of sexuality, love and relationships, performed by Muslim women. A panel discussion with the actors and director will follow. Co-sponsored by the Harvard College Women's Center. October 16-21. American Repertory Theatre's Zero Arrow Theatre, 0 Arrow Street, Cambridge.
For information and pricing contact 617-547-8300.

Thursday, October 18, 5:15 p.m.

Susan Ware and Eileen McDonagh, "A Sporting Chance: Billie Jean King, Title IX, and the Revolution in Women's Sports"
Discussion. A Boston Seminar on the History of Women and Gender. By the Massachusetts Historic Society. Schlesinger Library, Harvard University, Radcliffe Institute, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge.
Information: 617 495-8647.

Thursday, October 18, 6:30-9:00 p.m.

Joan Blades, "The Motherhood Manifesto"
Film screening and discussion. Joan Blades, well known for co-founding MoveOn.org, has set out to empower the motherhood movement with a new organization, Momsrising.org. With this site, she hopes to build an army of citizen activists who will push for strong maternity leave laws, improved health care coverage, and fair wages, among other issues. Do more "family friendly" policies make economic sense for our country? Does an active online community necessarily translate into political influence? Blades joins us tonight to screen her documentary film, The Motherhood Manifesto, and to explore the Internet's ever-changing role in our political process. By the Ford Hall Forum. Rabb Auditorium, Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St. Boston.
Information: 617-536-5400.

Tuesday, October 23, 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Alison D'Amario, "Witches or Willful Women?: Behind the Salem Witch Trials"
Presentation. The Salem Witch Trials have fascinated lawyers, historians, political scientists, artists, and religious scholars for over 300 years. D'Amario will present an oral history of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. LaCava Executive Dining Room, Bentley College, 175 Forest St, Waltham.
Information: 781-891-2594 or smoeschen@bentley.edu.

Wednesday, October 31, 7:00 p.m.

Nappy Grooves, "Too Hot to Handle"
Lecture and demonstration by the all-Black drag king troupe who will be artists-in-residence at MIT. October 31-November 3. By the Alan W. Katzenstein Memorial Fund. Broad Institute Auditorium, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge.
Information: 617-258-8631.