Happy International (Working) Women's Day at the Women Who Rock Un-Conference

Yesterday, Ivette and I went to the Women Who Rock Un-Conference, an annual event put together by feminist scholars at UW in collaboration with other community members, focusing on social justice movements and music. Check out the website here.  The really cool thing was that this was not a "UW" or academic event, but really intended whole community- anyone in Seattle that wanted to talk about social justice. It was an awesome day, starting with a march to the un-conference from a few blocks down.
The speakers while we were gathering for the march reminded us of the "international" in international women's day and added in "working"- speaking of the colonization and oppression of women in other countries, who make our consumer goods and do other reproductive labor for our capitalist lives.  The main "un-conference" event started with, after the blessing, a panel of women of color activists speaking on the events theme- "Rocking Media Justice." All of them shared their stories (Thank you!) and had so much to say about social justice and media, especially using media in the fight for social justice. A question from the audience that stood out to me was someone asking how we can balance the fact that while our new technologies and media platforms can be tools of the movement, they are also produced in oppressive settings and really environmentally destructive ways, which is a great question. The panelist woman from Mexico who answered that did so wonderfully. She said that you should be aware of the conditions it's made in, and then own it. And then use you're technology, your smartphone, whatever for social justice. Okay, she said this so much more beautifully and much more than this, but I can't remember it all. Another panelist added that we should urge our institutions to divest from oppressive and environmentally destructive companies like we did during the South African apartheid. (There is a student divestment movement at UW).
 After that, at the skill swap, which was basically a tabling session, Ivette and I represented LatinaTech, or "Starting Where We Are"  It was a great way to talk to other people doing things in the community. I was really surprised at how well I was able to talk about the project, as I'm usually flustered and nervous in speaking to strangers.
One of the other tables swapping skills was ZAPP, Zine Archiving and Publishing Project, a really cool project to encourage people to make zines and archiving them- I picked up a flyer from them with instructions on making an 8 page mini zine from one piece of paper and one cut, as a cool idea to do with the kiddos. Now, to just think of what we should make zines about.
I wish I had been able to be in two places at once and check out the dialogue that was happening up stairs at the same time as the skill swap as well as check out the workshop by the Fandango Project, who did a performance at the opening. But it was still a great day. I found many community projects to look out for, and couldn't even list all the amazing things going on. This was a really a celebration of all the great things so many people, especially women, especially women of color, are doing in the fight for all facets of social justice.