tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75572068629756647622024-03-13T11:03:36.511-07:00The Kitchen Sink ApproachI had ideas for umpteen blogs. Here is where they all somehow converge and I attempt to do something productive with my sprawling web presence.sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.comBlogger331125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-84888207747006190302019-09-05T09:00:00.000-07:002019-09-05T09:49:32.551-07:00Some Small Music With Jessika Kenney (getting back to my voice, one step at a time with the support of some friends)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIiPEiZXGhvZalSkLJh9YKYgmru-_Z4aHkUjJAkLIvWOsKWh3PSuoLoIqw-Tisve2KLiG20DG4eQ9cCeCNer8z2mi1uS3Nincw00npLOmINTxMf4z4SrHZ6-GL0IJT7TZlV-pWINsbVQ37/s1600/badcolor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1164" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIiPEiZXGhvZalSkLJh9YKYgmru-_Z4aHkUjJAkLIvWOsKWh3PSuoLoIqw-Tisve2KLiG20DG4eQ9cCeCNer8z2mi1uS3Nincw00npLOmINTxMf4z4SrHZ6-GL0IJT7TZlV-pWINsbVQ37/s400/badcolor.jpg" width="290" /></a></div>
<span data-offset-key="242ia-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true">Yesterday, </span></span><span blockkey="242ia" class="_247o" contentstate="c { "entityMap": [object Object], "blockMap": OrderedMap { "242ia": c { "key": "242ia", "type": "unstyled", "text": "Yesterday, Jessika Kenney and I noodled a little after I wrote that I would learn a song or create something new if someone sent $5 or more to my tip jar (Venmo: @MecaCole, Cashap: ", "characterList": List [ b { "style": OrderedSet {}, "entity": null }, b { "style": OrderedSet {}, "entity": null }, b { "style": OrderedSet {}, "entity": null }, b { "style": OrderedSet {}, "entity": null }, b { "style": OrderedSet {}, "entity": null }, b { "style": OrderedSet {}, "entity": null }, b { "style": OrderedSet {}, "entity": null }, b { "style": OrderedSet {}, "entity": null }, b { "style": OrderedSet {}, 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"anchorKey": "242ia", "anchorOffset": 160, "focusKey": "242ia", "focusOffset": 160, "isBackward": false, "hasFocus": true }, "selectionAfter": b { "anchorKey": "242ia", "anchorOffset": 161, "focusKey": "242ia", "focusOffset": 161, "isBackward": false, "hasFocus": true } }" data-offset-key="242ia-1-0" decoratedtext="Jessika Kenney" end="25" entitykey="1" offsetkey="242ia-1-0" spellcheck="false" start="11" style="background-color: #dce6f8; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="242ia-1-0"><span data-text="true"><a href="https://jessikakenney.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Jessika Kenney</a></span></span></span><span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true"> sent me a seed riff <a href="https://tlc-kitchensink.blogspot.com/2019/09/small-songs-experiment-with-community.html" target="_blank">after I wrote</a> that I would learn a song of folks' choosing or create something new if they sent $5 or more to my tip jar (Venmo: @MecaCole), and this as a way for me to get back to singing regularly, to stretch my voice and musicality, to woodshed, to start thinking in music again after years of not singing, not even being able to open my mouth, or hum, and some of that even manifesting physically into ailments that I am currently working on. </span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true">I thought this activity might be a way to hold myself accountable to the calls from folks who are telling me I need to get back to music. I also thought that this would be a way that I could take care of myself too, to not become over-committed, and to be supported by the folks who want me to step back into my body and the world through song. </span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true">Here's how that part works: Send me $5 or more through Venmo (@MecaCole) and some song information: title, recording, poem, etc, it doesn't matter what genre or style, so long as you do not choose the most difficult operas/art songs and so long as you don't expect me to shoot back something from the bebop or super-max prog canon in the too-near future (I gotta get my chops back, y'all).</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Below follows some snippets of the riff Jessika sent to me, and some of the play I was able to do with it in the short time I had yesterday morning. </span><br />
<span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true">I was working with limitations. My computer has gone kaput on me, my voice is rusty as all get out, and I don't know yet how to use the app on my phone, but, if I did, this would be longer, and perhaps later this week, I will work with it more. The limitations bit comes because I want Jessika's voice to be part of this, central even, rather than memorizing her Inanna riff (what I heard mama mama mama) and going from there. The riff can be a beautiful loop, or, if I knew how, a remix with that central idea intact. </span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true">I also like the idea of treating these music bits as a sort of musical exquisite corpse. If folks want to play with that, I would love to hear what comes of it. The first link is Jessika's riff. The second is my riff on Yeyo (mother), and what follows are variations. </span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="242ia-2-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-text="true">Just a short background about Jessika Kenney: I have been following her work for a while now, ev</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">er since I learned about it through my friends Heather Crank and Greg Amanti at <a href="https://crahmanti.com/" target="_blank">Crahmanti Design Collective</a>. Some years ago, Heather shared a video from a concert that <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kenneykangmusic/" target="_blank">Jessika Kenney and Eyvind Kang </a>did in collaboration with the <a href="http://playgroundensemble.org/" target="_blank">Playground Ensemble</a> and <a href="http://creativemusicworks.org/" target="_blank">Creative Music Works</a> in <a href="http://creativemusicworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Release-Kang-Kenney-2013-03-09.pdf" target="_blank">2013</a>. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10EJw-LSWhg&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3i7aidnYxCOBgxev52eYQhMWaLMAG5UmUoscSWbKAfI-WuJv_hGk0mSKQ" target="_blank">Click here for a video from that performance.</a> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, not to make this part about me: Jessika Kenney is a beautiful accomplished experimental vocal artist who is steeped in the knowledge of art songs from all over the world. She recently worked with the team of folks who helped create the very creepy musical score for Ari Aster's movie </span></span><i style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Midsommer</i><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">. <a href="https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/the-haxan-cloak-and-midsommar-director-ari-aster-interview-the-years-creepiest-film-score/" target="_blank">According to </a></span></span><i style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/the-haxan-cloak-and-midsommar-director-ari-aster-interview-the-years-creepiest-film-score/" target="_blank">Pitchfork</a></i><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Jessika brought her knowledge of Nordic and Icelandic musics, and also those of the Mideast. For more information about Jessika Kenney, <a href="http://jessikakenney.com/" target="_blank">check out her website over here.</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I've</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> wished I could transport myself to that concert mentioned above so many times, and have listened to this snippet from the performance so many times, so Jessika reaching out to me just melted me yesterday, and it was enough light I needed to continue with this project for an indeterminate amount of time. I hope that I can get my voice back, or grow into the voice that I am with now, as imperfect and rusty as it is, and unpracticed. I am looking forward to seeing what happens next.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/view/musicsnippets-kenneycoleman/home" target="_blank"><br /></a></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/view/musicsnippets-kenneycoleman/home" target="_blank">Click here for the work from yesterday.</a> I created a simple site on Google Sites to create the artifact of that work. Google Sites is slow, so be patient, and if you have other ideas on how I can upload music links into Blogger, I'm all ears.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you for being here! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-31222542384748751932019-09-04T08:52:00.000-07:002019-09-05T09:48:49.125-07:00Small Songs: An Experiment with Community in Getting Back to Singing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">I haven't been singing regularly for a long time for many reasons. My voice is very rusty but I can still sing. I can sing through the rust, oil it up, treat it or whatever, get back in, be with my voice however it is now, sing around rasps, holes and obstructions until they are hopefully healed or integrated/transformed, and remeber again how to breathe, how to play with and hold sound, breath, and silence in my body.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I'm often too timid to do something on my own. And here I am, mid life, spent a little, having been waiting, and mourning too much when I could have kept 'shedding.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">But that is not the tone I want to end this post with: For a long time, I've been thinking about doing these small videos where I ask folx to send me a song to learn, and I'll learn it (+5 or more bones in my tip jar --> Venmo @MecaCole). It's a way for me to hold myself accountable in regards to my singing, and also take care of myself, and give back, too. Because people keep asking me to get back in, and I don't always know how to get back in, and maybe this is a way I can get back in, so I'm going to try it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">This morning, I start with a little tiny riff. Just a small example of something I might start with before I start riffing off of that idea into loops and variations/deviations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I'm hoping that this week, I can get my home in order, set my loop stations up again and figure out what I need to create more sounds even when it's just my voice, and even when I'm a groggy rough mess in the morning. <span class="_5mfr" style="margin: 0px 1px;"><span class="_6qdm" style="background-image: url("https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/tc1/1.5/16/1f495.png"); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: contain; color: transparent; display: inline-block; font-size: 16px; height: 16px; text-shadow: none; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;">💕</span></span><span class="_5mfr" style="margin: 0px 1px;"><span class="_6qdm" style="background-image: url("https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t96/1.5/16/1f64f_1f3fd.png"); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: contain; color: transparent; display: inline-block; font-size: 16px; height: 16px; text-shadow: none; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;">🙏🏽</span></span><span class="_5mfr" style="margin: 0px 1px;"><span class="_6qdm" style="background-image: url("https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t82/1.5/16/263a.png"); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: contain; color: transparent; display: inline-block; font-size: 16px; height: 16px; text-shadow: none; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;">☺️</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">If you have a song for me, Venmo me the title, and I'll oblige. <span class="_5mfr" style="margin: 0px 1px;"><span class="_6qdm" style="background-image: url("https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/tc1/1.5/16/1f495.png"); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: contain; color: transparent; display: inline-block; font-size: 16px; height: 16px; text-shadow: none; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;">💕</span></span> I'm getting my wings back, so don't send me your most difficult operas (don't know if I'll ever get those kinds of chops back), or anything yet from the Charlie Parker Omnibook (I'd like to work up to that). <span class="_47e3 _5mfr" style="line-height: 0; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle;" title="tongue emoticon"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><img alt="" class="img" height="16" role="presentation" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/tf8/1.5/16/1f61b.png" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: -3px;" width="16" /></span><span aria-hidden="true" class="_7oe" style="display: inline; font-size: 0px; width: 0px;">:P</span></span></span></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-14586016646730297532019-08-27T09:12:00.001-07:002019-08-27T10:37:29.583-07:00They/Them/Theirs: This is not an explanation I owe to you<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzfrNnzwepJ0oKzYT6N9M3MbMbsbWiraTT3kQZ9AcSguGQfQKrwSJzB5nfPRAEvl2kj_v9JKxfSxpc6vh80YsKtPLVxGb-_gMbz5loJplnaXgy5rY-fkHfjfFF2x-8l_yjgcBUISv_d2DA/s1600/49008938_10101364373966153_7407487716968890368_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzfrNnzwepJ0oKzYT6N9M3MbMbsbWiraTT3kQZ9AcSguGQfQKrwSJzB5nfPRAEvl2kj_v9JKxfSxpc6vh80YsKtPLVxGb-_gMbz5loJplnaXgy5rY-fkHfjfFF2x-8l_yjgcBUISv_d2DA/s320/49008938_10101364373966153_7407487716968890368_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">For the most part, I am female-presenting, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">and I choose </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">they/them/their's pronouns for </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">many reasons. None of </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">these reasons include </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">anything like your comfort unless </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">you are someone in the realm of folks </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">with whom I </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">wish to show solidarity. </span></div>
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This is not an explanation I owe to you. This is not a signifier of an identity crisis. This is ultimately none of your fucking business. This is not a signifier of a course of action you imagine for me. This is not license for you to ask me what I do with my genitals or my love. This is not license for you to tell me what I should be doing with my genitals, my body, my mind, or my love. </div>
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This should be enough: They/them/theirs. It is what I prefer to be called, and yes, it is absolutely political. This is not a blanket statement over anyone else.</div>
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I have always felt "in-between things." I was born on the cusp of Taurus/Gemini. I was born to a white mother and Black father. My familial life for a long time was always in some state of flux. We lived in at least five or six places before I was five years old, stitching our way back and forth over the country, and with many homelife instabilities that carried forth into my adult life. For most of my life, I've felt like I was in some sort of limbo for so many reasons and in so many different ways. I write about these things in other places.</div>
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I have always felt someplace between what our society calls female and male (though I used to call this state "nondescript," and often dressed accordingly), and I have always craved some sort of script or even mention (permission, even) of an integrated gender, one that was both, neither, all. <a href="https://www.learnreligions.com/what-is-shiva-linga-1770455" target="_blank">Shiva Linga</a>, for example, or my idea of what Divinity is: a place from which all things come and then return, which ultimately does not have any gender, and which ultimately switches back and forth and to every in-between, depending on what energy is called for. </div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Two of my Shiva Lingas -- in simplified terms, Shiva Lingas are </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">a representation </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">or manifestation of feminine </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">and masculine energies combined.</span></div>
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In my deepest silent moments, I am neither. I know what organs my physical form carries, and I know how this body functions biologically. But that is not all that I am. </div>
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I know precisely what reasons led me to they/them/theirs. I have been thinking about it a lot because people often ask me. I will list some of these reasons below, and give myself license to change this list as I need to:</div>
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<b>I can choose.</b></div>
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There isn't a lot more to say here other than that. I can choose. This is an action out of my own volition. I choose they/them/theirs, and I am thankful that it mostly feels significantly safer in 2019 to do so because of everyone who is celebrating who they are and how they want to, because of everyone who has come before, because of everyone who has suffered/ is suffering or who died because they stood up for who they are, or because they simply exist. Choosing they/them/theirs is one minuscule action I can make towards that energy of everyone being able to choose how they express their gender.</div>
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I want to recognize, too, how for many of us, it really isn't safer. Folks are still being harassed and even killed for expressing how they want or need to express. It is important to point out that I am very lucky in being surrounded by supporting and growing communities who create a foundation and safe container in which many of us can come out and be who we are in the world when and if we feel ready. It is also important for me to recognize my particular privilege. I am female-presenting, which jives with most folks' perception of who/what I am.</div>
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<b>I am less and less afraid to use myself as an example.</b></div>
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It has become important to me to show my clients and students where I stand, and to hopefully open up spaces that aren't always safe or welcoming for folks who reside on any point of the <a href="https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/summer-2013/the-gender-spectrum">gender spectrum</a> that isn't fully accepted by social norms which are predominately determined by a select minority who deems any "deviation" a threat to whatever comfort or power structure they would like to uphold. For the record, gender nonconformity is not a deviation. Gender nonconformity is valid expression and necessary action. There are other terms that ring better than "gender nonconformity," in my opinion, like "gender fluidity." I feel that it is important to say that.<br />
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<b>I am a person who recognizes my own energetic and gender fluxes.</b><br />
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I've often considered it a goal, to be that entity I feel I am in my deepest silent moments. Currently, though I feel this state of in-betweenness, I do not feel wholly fluid. I do not feel wholly free. I do not feel wholly urgent in being one thing or another. Maybe I never will. I do feel, that for me, fe/male is a false dichotomy. I am not either/or, though sometimes, yes, I am. <br />
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I've never felt particularly "female," and I don't completely jive with feeling "male," though I recognize myself as carrying both energies in differing capacities. The term "female" (along with Black, Queer, POC, etc.) is a label that only matters when I leave my house. It is a term that is most often applied from the outside. It is a term that is applied without asking me who I am or how I feel. It is a term that makes many assumptions. Most terms place a certain stagnancy, and demand a certain outcome. I am stubborn, and feel more comfortable being a living, breathing, changing question. </div>
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I realize that in this moment I contradict myself. I've said my choice of pronouns isn't any of your bee's wax, and I have said that I prefer to be a question. People will ask, and I prefer this over any assumption, and there are plenty of resources these days to direct folks to when necessary.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">"<a href="https://bolt.straightforequality.org/files/Straight%20for%20Equality%20Publications/2.guide-to-being-a-trans-ally.pdf" target="_blank">Guide to Being a Trans Ally</a>" is one of many </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">helpful resources available, this one from </span></div>
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<a href="https://pflag.org/" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;" target="_blank">PFLAG</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">, an organization that "unites parents,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">and allies with people who are are lesbian, gay, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">bisexual, transgender, and queer.</span></div>
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<b>To show solidarity with my friends and loves who are transitioning, coming home or who are also finding comfort in or making sense of any version of an in-between place.</b></div>
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Not even a year ago, I was with a dear friend in the hospital during their top surgery. I was reminded all the reasons I try to stay out of hospitals, one of the main being a certain loss of agency that can happen when you enter a hospital's doors. That is: if you are not informed enough about your personal needs, about how the system works, what's available, your rights, etc. as a patient, as a person, and if you do not essentially fight full-steam, non-stop for those needs and rights, even during the heavy grog- of painkillers and the constant change of cast who have varying degrees of care for the patients on their shifts, whose ideas don't always jive in the same lines of compassion, because they can't (overtired, overworked, etc) or because they won't (these reasons are to numerous to name).</div>
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I won't say much about this except that I was deeply affected watching my friend fight the whole time through potential mistakes by the staff (at least a couple of which were caught by my friend's hyper-vigilance) which could have been detrimental (physically, mentally, emotionally) or fatal. Self-Advocacy needed to be constant, and having a network of support to uphold that advocacy was paramount. </div>
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I've heard other stories that I cannot mention, but if you do any search on the internet, you can see for yourself how the medical establishment is far behind in implementing inclusive care. You can also find many stories (some of them might be your own!) about how the medical establishment plays all-knowing and also gaslights so many of its patients who either don't know better or feel powerless or who have placed too much trust in Western Medicine as a know-all cure-all. </div>
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<b>A Note: </b>As I said above, this post is not meant to be a blanket statement over anyone. This is written from where I am today, with what ability I have right now to see into this subject. There are probably holes here, and I am noting that in my states of flux, I am also learning and growing, and I hope to continue opening my understanding towards more inclusivity, self-recognition/love, and helpfulness.</div>
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sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-91383401177580335542019-01-23T09:40:00.000-08:002019-01-23T10:05:13.956-08:00I have a byline at Westword. That's so fuckin' cool.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It finally hit me how cool that was when I was walking towards the <i>Westword</i> building to talk with my editor about some things the other day. <a href="https://www.westword.com/authors/tameca-l-coleman-11102513">I have a fuckin' byline at </a></span><a href="https://www.westword.com/authors/tameca-l-coleman-11102513" style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><i>Denver Westword</i>!</a> <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I get some small ducats sometimes from <i>Westword</i>!</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /><br />More than 17 years ago, when I first moved to Denver Colorado, I wondered how you got your foot into the door at places like <i>Westword</i> and <i>The Denver Post</i>. I might not yet have known about Denver <i>Westword</i>'s office, but I did go downtown and enter into the lobby where <i>The Denver Post</i> was held, and I walked up to the security desk and asked how I could get a job there. heh. That's how I thought things worked, and really, up until I'd moved to Denver, things kind of seemed to work that way for me. I mean. . . Boise is a little bit smaller, and for the most part folks are pretty open and nice about what they know. Or were when I lived there. I'm pretty much out of the Boise loop these days. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnydg5ZgQ4nFHHyzFh9f2o5BfpvcuTx7b43cqYCoF_Oxu1wpB_UAaVGNxIR5RmS0295PURGT1Es5mQ8QXJrAOKmrN7akD4LHNVdlviKrLotKzFxD3ZdTMrsZBQ-pLkpVX9cPJAKFk_YGSN/s1600/mecaind.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1166" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnydg5ZgQ4nFHHyzFh9f2o5BfpvcuTx7b43cqYCoF_Oxu1wpB_UAaVGNxIR5RmS0295PURGT1Es5mQ8QXJrAOKmrN7akD4LHNVdlviKrLotKzFxD3ZdTMrsZBQ-pLkpVX9cPJAKFk_YGSN/s400/mecaind.png" width="290" /></a><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Since then, I've worked at<a href="https://tlc-kitchensink.blogspot.com/search/label/examiner"> a click-bait site</a> (now defunct), written hundreds of articles, conducted numerous interviews, written for a minute over at <i><a href="https://www.coloradoindependent.com/author/tameca-coleman/" target="_blank">Colorado Independent</a> </i>(their freelancer budget dried up), taken a handful of journalism MOOCs, and completed a grip of ghostwritten things that paid alright while they lasted. ...and this is all outside of the creative writing stuff I do (which generally doesn't pay, but feels good when it's published).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Anyway. . .this kind of work is so super humbling. I have a lot to learn since I've entered into journalism through the back door, and I get edited a lot. This work is challenging, but I think I like things that way. I'm always working upwards on the curve, learning all I can, and as part of that, failing a lot. Failing is part of the practice and the work. I get better and better by failing. That's just how it is. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I like telling my students how challenging writing is generally when they say that they want writing to get easier and that they're just bad at it. I tell them writing is a learned skill and it is always work, always learning. I tell them that I just received an article or review or essay back from my editors or writing group that was red-marked to hell with stuff I needed to change for whichever audience, or because I was inadvertently hiding something that was too important not to be left out, or because my language was super fuzzy or flowery or not concise. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I've been writing for a long time, sometimes get paid for it, and I still write shit. I still need other eyes to help me to see through it and to compost what's salvageable, and continue on with something better.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">For the most part, hearing this allays classroom excuses. I am a working writer and I still write shit. It's okay. We'll all learn together. Give yourself permission to "write shit" (I first heard this sentiment, shit attached, from a workshop writer and editor Heidi Pitlor conducted at Regis University's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/milehighmfa/" target="_blank">Mile-High MFA</a> program).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I'm not writing these things to brag. I'm doing this more so to take stock. It's important to take stock. I know a lot of really brilliant writers and journalists, and some of them work much harder than I do at <i>just writing</i>. A good deal of them have gone to journalism school and/or have been in the game for decades doing the thing more than intermittently. I piecemeal my life and my income from massage therapy, teaching, freelancing, and many other odds and ends when and if they come. I still do my best. And I still feel green. And when I start feeling like I'm failing too much, I take a moment to look at the tip of the iceberg, the stuff I have to show for the work I have been doing, which in some sense has been constant. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I still feel so new at this, and at the same time, I've been able to take stock and see where some successes were, and this gives me a little more confidence to aim higher as I continue learning and writing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Blah. This is another blog post with a flat ending, but I'm ending it here, just the same. I honestly needed to pick myself up this morning, and to do a little writing warm-up before I address the stuff my editors have sent back. At any rate. . .yeah. There it is, for whoever cares or wants to know. :P If you want to, we can talk about it (in the comments). </span></div>
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sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-4927062446484574762018-12-26T09:27:00.001-08:002021-08-21T13:31:13.525-07:00Taking Stock, and Building a Snowball into the New Year<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9JR2ZeHwCkbNzduHsvKcMkr0IgrHJ4-JkMQS71OBvV3DT7p4_NFcjUXnwsW75sWXeeLsu26t2Q0WdmNkyWSnFxONrag6wEVTrxVTvLpJp0UroSWZ7YyoKvY3U6wbR_2YlN1LaE6SfaHJD/s1600/49102359_10101364373941203_3004520530553339904_n.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9JR2ZeHwCkbNzduHsvKcMkr0IgrHJ4-JkMQS71OBvV3DT7p4_NFcjUXnwsW75sWXeeLsu26t2Q0WdmNkyWSnFxONrag6wEVTrxVTvLpJp0UroSWZ7YyoKvY3U6wbR_2YlN1LaE6SfaHJD/s400/49102359_10101364373941203_3004520530553339904_n.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a lot of writing is about to happen</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the last long while, I have spent time working on building some momentum into the new year during the holidays. My hope always is that I build some kind of snowball that will roll through the new year with a fury. This year is no different.</span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6794cbed-7fff-232d-d952-74af9416d629"><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While working on submissions late Christmas evening 2018, I found this exit document I had to create as a facet of my completion process for my MFA at Regis University last summer. I am tasked as an alum from my MFA program with speaking at the next cohorts' residency about post-MFA life. Over the last six months, I have been steamrolled with activity and accomplishments that I haven't been able to take time to account for until now. And finding this document from my MFA also allows me to take stock of what I have accomplished,and take note of what I would like to do and/or revise.</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6794cbed-7fff-232d-d952-74af9416d629"><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's funny how quickly things happen and how quickly things change. Hopefully I will have more information for you soon, and in more frequent fashion than I have in the long last while. In any case I thought I'd post this document here to start. I plan to run through it with some updates as artifacts of note become available. I also plan to over the next month or so to go through each bit of this blog post and give updates on where I am now.</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6794cbed-7fff-232d-d952-74af9416d629"><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ok, without further ado, here is my exit document to my MFA at Regis University for those who may be interested. Subsequent posts will further describe anything that at this point is fuzzy. </span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6794cbed-7fff-232d-d952-74af9416d629"><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beyond the MFA: a list of short-term and long-term writing goals</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What are your short-term (next year or two) and long-term (next decade or so) goals for your writing career?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">* Short Term: My short term goal is simply to start sending out as much work as I can. I want to put myself on a regular submissions schedule, which doesn’t have to be anything more than a nice slow consistent two submissions a month. I say this because I will be working on other projects, working full time, and also creating new work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">* Long Term: I am trying to figure out if I need to look for an agent at this point. I also would like to find one agent who is willing to grow with me as I write in various genres, some of which are experimental, some of which might not be heavy hitters as far as sales. I also wonder if there is a special someone out there who can work with me via my other creative outlets as well, such as creating web/print projects, working in music, news, etc? I hope that it’s possible not to need someone different for each different thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I may teach. I am toying with the idea but I am not sure how serious I am. Something I think I would definitely enjoy is creating workshops and classes that can help me to travel either to conferences, or as a free agent. It seems that this is something that can be done.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Here is another long term goal: I want to publish </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Identity Polyptychs </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/ </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Glossary of Unfinished Terms</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as two books soon at one of my top publishers. I wonder if I should enter them into a contest. If the timing is not right for any of the contests, I plan on sending work out piece by piece. I also think that “How to Honor Your Mother and Your Father” can be a chapbook on its own. I will finish this poem in the short term and send it out to publishers/ contests.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you plan to seek representation for, or publication of, your thesis manuscript? If so, what’s your plan for doing so?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do indeed intend to seek publication, no matter what happens in terms of representation. My thesis work is a little experimental, and probably not something any of the Big 5 or even mid-list publishers will want to represent (but who knows, sky’s the limit said my Lyft driver today). Also, after hearing Eric Baus speak about his process of publishing, I have decided to try to publish as much of my manuscript as I can in journals and such, and then seek a publisher either via contests (as with Graywolf) or other forms of submissions. I plan on asking my mentors and other folks in the program for assistance on this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is your next writing project? And once that next project is completed, what are your long-term writing projects?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sweet Fictions </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(poems): I have a good deal of poems for this collection already and intend to add more. I intend also to create a list of songs to sing with a good deal of these poems when they are performed. This is something that has worked well in the past with performances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would like to create some additional sections to </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Identity Polyptychs </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as follow</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The Trouble in My Speech”, wherein I address broken analogies on the basis of their problematic origins, such as in the section when I compare racism to a cancer that needs to be cut out, which can be understood as ableist speech. I would also really like to try to get to the reconciliation I have been striving for. It may be that this is for another book, another time, when I am ready, if that ever happens (I mean...surely, yes? It’ll happen!)</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I want to write a collaborative book with my mother about her stories. I’ve been planting the seed, and have written a poem and gleaned another from talking with her, one of which is in </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Identity Polyptychs, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the other of which was published a long time ago at Pirene’s Fountain (“Mermaid, 1969”)</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I need to write more short fiction so that there is enough to be compiled into a book, or two, or more. I think I also need to take more craft lessons/ courses in fiction so that I can gain more skills and knowledge towards this aim.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I want to turn my critical essay into an academic book, and need to write a book proposal. I also need to find a publisher after the book proposal has been composed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What are your deadlines? How will you hold yourself accountable to them?</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would like to send out at least two submissions a month for a while. I have only ever done this for three or so months at a time. What this includes: contests, guest blogs, podcasts, news articles, book reviews, and anything else that has a date attached to it. When I think of deadlines, I think I get a little nervous. However, when I think of them in terms of submissions, it’s really not that big a task and becomes totally a little more feasible in my mind. I can either send things I have already created or “write towards the assignment.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do you plan to reconfigure and maintain your writing practice (absent the pressure of MFA due dates and deadlines) in the face of the demands of your job or everyday life? What would you like your writing life to look like and how will you make that happen? (And whom can you ask for help in order to manifest this vision?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reconfigure/ recalibrate: A big part of reconfiguring and maintaining a writing practice, for me, means changing the mindset of working my writing/ creative life around my massage therapy work, and instead scheduling my creative life as if it’s just as much (if not more than) a priority as that bread and butter work. Part of this also means figuring out how I work best, like if I need three days off to take a day to do nothing, and then the next two days to write, stem, edit, research, etc., I need to make that a priority in my life and stick to it, just as I would any other job or self care necessity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think that it will be really beneficial to round up a group of folks in which we can coax one another to stay on task. I belong to a writing group, but this other group would probably be flexible and provide the support for anyone who wants it, possibly by setting up a sort of forum where people can connect for the purposes of having immediate community, access to writerly goings on, and possibly a reminder circle of some sort that helps people keep on top of submissions and generating new work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do you plan on cultivating a writing community?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My writing group helps a bit with this because even if we are all so busy, living different kinds of lives and doing a lot of our own creative things in our communities, we are constantly encouraging one another and lighting fires under each others’ bums.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Literary Citizen</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> also works towards this aim, actively reaching out to the kinds of folks in the writing world I want to work with and listen to and promote, etc. I am being held accountable to this project, because now there are other folks involved with it as well. My guilty conscious won’t let me walk away from it. Not until it’s at a point where I can pass it on to hopefully some super solid and like minded folks. That’s going to take some doing, some effort, some time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I plan to be better at attending as many readings and events as I can. For me, this means also in the art, music, and performance worlds. There may be more literary/music/art events on my end, as well, both performed and curated. My general modus operandi is to be as inclusive as I can, including folks who have fallen off wayside, who have wonderful work they are sitting on or stuff that’s in their closets, etc. I want to coax them to let their work see the world, and also possibly either publish them or promote them in such a way that publishers interests are piqued.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also want to find those things that are aiding in Literary Citizenship by helping other writers who may have become discouraged to become empowered in their work and inspired. One example of this is that this week, I learned about a side project Rachel Weaver is doing via Colorado Writing School, where folks can sign up to a matching service to try to find a fit for a writing group. This was something that I was trying to figure out for </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Literary Citizen</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but since it’s a thing that already exists, I would love to send folks to her submission for the service and promote that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All in all, I want to be as helpful as I can while maintaining personal boundaries so that I can also accomplish my own work because accomplishing my own work has become hella important.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is also very important for me to do all of this with an open heart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And how can we help?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I just want to say that I feel so inspired already by the inspiration and belief in my ability and the coaching/help I have already received from so many folks in the program. I owe so many thank yous (!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve already received confirmation that </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Literary Citizen </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">can work out an internship situation with Regis, either for credit for the undergraduates or pay when we are able to do that for the MFA candidates. This will be a great help because already, we are foreseeing a lot of work that will require delegation. Further, this is a way for us to continue in both of our mutual missions of connecting with community.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The feeling of connection is something that has become very important to me as well, and the Mile-High MFA really embodies this idea of community support and participation. I hope that in some way the work I am doing is a mirror, and also amplifies that cause.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How and when do you plan on enacting your Writing in the World Action Plan or otherwise contributing your writing talents to your community?</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve already begun work on my Writing in the World Action Plan, and have already taken assignments in the community for book reviews, readings (curated and performed). </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Literary Citizen</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is also part of this work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An updated curriculum vitae (including “MFA in your genre(s), Regis University”).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*see attached.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A thesis manuscript query letter/cover letter (that you can use when querying agents, editors, and/or publishers about your book manuscript).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*see below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Any lessons about writing you’ve learned that you’d like to share with us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Write Shit” ~Heidi Pitlor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What Kind of Job?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While a good deal of my writing life is spent at home, I would like it to in some way help me travel to other places, plane and hotel fares paid + meals and a stipend. :P Perhaps this is some magic I could work through </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Literary Citizen, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and if nothing else, perhaps I could be a free agent!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Figuring out what kind of writing job I should do is something I have been struggling with for a very long while, or maybe I should say experimenting with. Writing related jobs seem super challenging. Freelancing is catch-as-can. I’ve had gigs and then they disappear, or even have been interviewed only to end up feeling like maybe the person who interviewed me was researching information. But. . . it seems that most if not all of us do quite a bit of piecemealing our worklife together, and maybe that’s part of what makes it interesting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I AM in the process of trying to figure out how to make </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Literary Citizen</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> into a business. This feels much more fun than some offers that are already starting to come in for applying for adjunct professorship. I also understand that adjuncting is a stepping stone. I have not ruled it out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Presses I am thinking about (willing to take more suggestions!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Graywolf Press</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tinhouse</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ahsahta Press</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Noemi Press</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes Yes Books</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Field Office</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tarpaulin Sky</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Subito Press</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Uttered Chaos Press (Laura Lehew)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WTAW Press</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Les Figues</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pirene’s Fountain</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To Do List (not listed on our Graduate Portfolio list but I want to put them here anyway so I can remind myself that they are on my to do soon list):</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make a list of people who will help sustain writing/ submission schedule.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am thinking of organizing a group of folks who can be a sort of telephone tree for one another. We can just lightly check in and remind each other what we’re about, etc.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make a list of folks who will promote work, come to readings, etc.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make a Local List</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make a National List</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make an International List</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make a list of people you would really like to have in your literary circle and connect with them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">YES!</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear Matthew Dickman and Camille Dungy,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have attached a copy of my manuscript </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Identity Polyptychs/ A Glossary of Unfinished Terms</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, as a submission to Tinhouse Press.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This hybrid work explores identity through the process of moving towards reconciliation in regards to familial strife and estrangement. It also questions race from a place of in-betweenness and unknowing, carrying forward via performative action by acquiring the language and understanding needed to define and reclaim selfhood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have recently completed an MFA in poetry and fiction from the Mile-High MFA at Regis University. I have published work at </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pirene’s Fountain</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Colorado Independent, Denver Crossroads </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and elsewhere. I have three reviews coming soon from </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Full Stop|Reviews. Interviews. Marginalia, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and I am currently establishing a web and print project called </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Literary Citizen: Writers Shaping Culture </span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">which will feature writers, editors, publications, venues and more who are working towards positive change on many fronts</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I feel that you make beautiful books, and I would be ecstatic if my work was published by your press. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Best,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tameca L Coleman</span></div>
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</span>sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-65806392384581572592016-11-11T07:17:00.000-08:002016-11-22T09:12:33.691-08:00Just a beginning: Why It Is Important to Tell Our Stories<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The personal is political.” ~feminist rallying cry </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikg9HslCYawxLexQVmTjbJnJhO2ELxphXCwsiExVsN8LEwRco_FcJpklxOq2-pSMU4MeB3H9cccLgddE0Gzv3ASdmkI5dGU7mf_H2N388WbS00e2d1agFRgKG-k11LGr5Mh5bkRxRj7bzW/s1600/12970841_10100643193956673_9082656338041432814_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikg9HslCYawxLexQVmTjbJnJhO2ELxphXCwsiExVsN8LEwRco_FcJpklxOq2-pSMU4MeB3H9cccLgddE0Gzv3ASdmkI5dGU7mf_H2N388WbS00e2d1agFRgKG-k11LGr5Mh5bkRxRj7bzW/s320/12970841_10100643193956673_9082656338041432814_o.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m trying to write myself out of a pickle. For months, I have been circling around the idea of why it’s important for us, as women, to tell our stories but I haven’t written anything down on the page. I initially thought that in bona fide academic fashion I would include voices the likes of bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alice Walker and Rebecca Solnit and let them speak for me. I had written notes in the margins of their books and printed out articles, marked passages I wanted to quote, and others I wanted to paraphrase. I intended to expand upon those writings with little more than my personal agreements upon the text, and I thought that would be enough. However, to my dismay, I left every single one of those resources at home, a proper justice for someone who had put off writing her paper til less than 24 hours before her presentation was due.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, there I was without a proper paper to present. My former professor, mentor and friend Sandra Maresh Doe then read to me a proposal letter she is writing to ask for support in her writing and research. In the proposal, she told her story about how chasing a male relative’s work for decades has led her to this point in time. She read about how publishers told her that this story about an artist named Ray Boynton was separate from her own, that the Boynton biography and her autobiography could not be mixed. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But. . .this story is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">your</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> story,” I said. I felt angry and was probably a little pushy, too. In her proposal, and in the text of the book she is writing, Doe talks about a life of her own very impressive accomplishments that, though she won’t admit it, often go overlooked. She talks about many of the deep personal connections she has made along her search. She speaks about motherhood, sisterhood, losing lovers, family members, and a breast to cancer. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve heard pieces of this story multiple times over the years during various presentations on campus and off, but for some reason, it never hit me as much as it did today. “This is your story,” I said. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Doe admitted, passionately that she doesn’t want to continue with this project because why would she continue chasing a man who had burned through three wives and has remained a bit of a ghost, leaving her alone to complete his story for him, to fill in the blanks where he left off. She also admitted that she wanted desperately to finish the work: Can’t leave the work unfinished, after all. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That is honest, what you’re telling me. The want to finish this work </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> your frustrations with it. It is not two stories you are writing, it is one; and it is yours. Further, those frustrations are definitely part of the story.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had breakfast and I still did not have a paper; I did not have a clue on where to start. I began thinking about other friends’ and loved ones stories I have heard over the years. I thought about some of my own. There were so many stories. They came rushing in: </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I remembered the friend whose drink had been laced with rohypnol and who woke up abandoned, groggy and bleeding; the friend who had been gang raped and who took the main instigator to court, only to lose her case because of the way she looked (she was asking for it?); the loved one who was beat in front of her children, her hair dangerously close to lit burner coils; the woman whose baby’s papa sent her flowers and her favorite fruits after promising to take care of her and her soon coming little one, only to abandon them in an unpaid for hotel when he went back to an ex-girlfriend; the woman whose boyfriend became angry at her when she wouldn’t have sex with him because he had brought home crabs from sex with another woman; the woman who asked me to take her photo down off of a college club site because she was afraid a stalker would find her; the woman who confides in me that she’s going back to exotic dancing because she can’t make enough money otherwise, and this despite the sexual harassment that men deem warranted because of her occupation; the woman who owns three strip clubs and also founded an organization to help women who have experienced sexual violence; the woman reporter who constantly has to assert her significance and powerful voice in the realm of journalism; the woman who has laid aside her whole life to be a mother and caretaker; the woman who was told she could be a singer in a band if she became the band fluffer; the woman who kept it secret that her husband raped her first daughter, the same daughter that was a product of another rape; the trans woman who was told that she would never be a real woman. . . .</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I could go on. And many listening right now can recount stories of their own, stories they’ve heard from friends, family members and loved ones, stories they have experienced themselves. Luckily, there has been no better time than now to speak up and to share these stories. Sharing them instigates courage. It creates community and solidarity. It creates change.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Personally, I have felt stunted in my expressions and have shirked telling stories of my own. I suppose that is why I did not start writing around this idea til now. I know conceptually the importance of telling stories and I know what feminist writers would say. Still, I’ve been afraid and silent. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, this morning, I decided to reach out to my friends on Facebook as a way to reach out to people and to begin a process of rounding up community. “What do you think?” I asked. “Can you help me? Why is it important for us to tell our stories?” I had no idea so many people would answer. Here is what they said: </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is where I always start about anyone telling their story: “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” ~Zora Neal Hurston. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s important for us to tell our stories so that we are not written into invisibility by men. . . again. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: circle; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Case in point: A man writes in this thread what he would do if he were writing </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">my </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">story. . . .I thank him for his input and let him know that no one will be writing my story but me.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is important to tell our stories because a lot of people don’t have to live it. They don’t live it, so they don’t see it, or if they see it, they pretend it’s not there. For a lot of folks, they don’t think it’s real if they don’t see it. Last night, I had to tell my own boyfriend personal stories about being a woman in the workplace and the story of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">my</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> sexual assault. It’s not his fault that he didn’t know, he’d never witnessed this himself. But he didn’t believe that sexism is real. He didn’t know about misogyny. I had to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">explain </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to him what misogyny is. It’s our job to share our stories, to inform that yes, these things are happening all around us. It’s not his fault he didn’t know -- he never saw it, never partook in it, never had to deal with it. But for those of us who do have to deal with it, it’s our jobs to show those who love us. It’s our job to open their eyes to it.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We all have a story. . . ‘when having done all to stand, stand therefore.’ When you think you can’t continue, can’t survive, or that you are not strong enough, think again. We are all capable of greatness, even in the smallest measure, shaken and stirred by conflict but still intact.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I grew up in the time of bra burning and Gloria Steinem’s brand of Women’s Lib. When I was a child, I thought that maybe marriage would be out of date by the time I got to be my age. Yet, ironically, we still are talking about the same issues, decades later. I wonder just how have we evolved as a culture? Have we simply become more PC, and never truly addressed the core issues?</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because the romance lie dominates book sales and keeps women hooked on finding the right man.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because our real experiences and thoughts and feelings are not told.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's important because without knowledge of the past, nothing will ever change. We need to know where we came from to appreciate where we are and to realize how important it is to keep going.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stories define us, our histories, our families, our hearts and souls. The telling of story is recognized universally as essential to humanity, from Doctor Who, to Native American, especially western Apache, traditions, all the way back into prehistory. I would love to see some women seize the narrative and run with it, telling their history in the epic tradition, making correlations between womanhood and heroism, like Joseph Campbell did for men with The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Or continuing where Clarissa Pinkola Estes started with Women Who Run With the Wolves. Keith Basso did some great interviews with Apache elders of both genders when he was writing Wisdom Sits in Places. Those three books are my favorite studies of human narratives.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I feel it's necessary teaching for the daughters and granddaughters of this country. It's a health concern to me. Some women are taught not to speak up by their families and society at large needs to teach them how to do so and provide a safe container to hold them. So the scary stories and uncelebrated joys don't turn into ill health and disease.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There's no freedom for anyone until we are all treated equally. Just because we can vote and have jobs doesn't mean we are equal. I want the same pay as the men in my industry doing the same job as me. I want to be taken seriously when doing business with men. I want to be able to make choices about my own body. We aren't all the way there yet.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We want our stories heard so that our lives will have lasting meaning. Maybe our experiences can help others who come after us.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If our stories are never told, it's like we never existed and once again our voices silenced. We live in a patriarchal world where this has been the norm for far too long.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For one reason and one reason only: To remind yourself that you're real. ←(and I would add, to remind the world that you are real).</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I think it's important for everyone to tell their stories. These stories help people to heal and help to create our history. It also can so often help others by hearing these stories. It may trigger something for healing purposes or just allow a person to feel heard, which is important to our human existence.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we let others know how we have struggled, it somehow makes us seem weaker in others' eyes. The reality of it is this: We are stronger than we even know and the trials and tribulations we have gone through have made us who we are. We have learned and evolved from the young women we were to the women we are now. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I went through a very turbulent first marriage and I have said from the beginning of my healing process with that, if I can help one person get through a similar situation or save someone from it, then all was not lost. I love the person I have become and I love my life. I have learned that I am enough just as I am. Wonderful place to be!!!</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For me, it's a very personal way to feel connected. To share/trade stories with other women gives me a feeling of safety, and validation that my own stories and experiences are ok, I'm ok. When I listen to other women confide in me, I feel useful in their experience.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As women (and this can extend to anyone who has dealt with oppression), we have been indoctrinated by a wealthy/male dominated world that has practiced & preached that everything is on their terms. When our voices and stories become heard we have the opportunity to change other people's lives for the better.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because when men go through puberty their voices crack...girls turn to women so quickly, protruding. It's so important to support girls turning into women, so they can pass the baton, we can support one another. Physicality reveals the worlds inside.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because no one knows them better than we do. And because "Not telling it has been changing me, and not in a good way." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="21" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Npra3rs0kPmaznvsOLVMmFVfMUVGQbZ1epWjotfNPfeao4L-LpUB6Byg_HYWewZgWz7rHty-l-9Icl5xqyU2jgq-KJJMEinODlgLJiNpEXKqpeEtzhEvcYaqkZKRLMuUvzInk4Kj" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="21" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is my hope that we can all become inspired and empowered by coming forth and naming those things that have been weighing heavily on our hearts and holding us back. I hope that we can listen to each other and begin a process of healing that can bring about the kind of transformation we yearn to see. I believe that it is imperative that we do. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would like to close with one quote from Audre Lorde after all: “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” So here’s to that (!). </span></div>
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sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-30080588746323944062016-07-04T22:33:00.000-07:002016-07-04T22:33:29.553-07:00I'm adding almost 300 articles to this Blogger account (bye bye Examiner.com)<br />
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I just learned that Examiner.com is shutting down their website and that if I want to keep the articles, I will have to retrieve and archive them. I am posting them here on my blog for safe keeping. It's work I've done, afterall. So. . .in the next couple days or more, this blog will be updating with many old articles.<br />
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It's interesting that there is no news on the matter, and the letter they've sent out to writers says that no part of it can be outed. I did find a link to an article that <i>was </i>posted over at <i>Inquisitr <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiGw4mWy9vNAhXs34MKHT1iAXEQqQIIHCgAMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inquisitr.com%2F3266001%2Fexaminer-com-website-to-shut-down-on-july-10-writers-react-exclusive%2F&usg=AFQjCNGKgbpNWyPtL7EM_WEkS42hfciHFg&sig2=_-g39XQBE8KNxMjyiJSasw" target="_blank">but when you click on it, there is nothing there</a>. </i>hmmm. . . . Maybe I should have stayed with the company longer so I could have seen what became of it (the parts of it they would have talked to us about, anyway).<br />
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Ah well. . . The only thing we can count on is change.sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-86815309563795874422016-03-23T07:02:00.000-07:002016-07-06T06:39:44.046-07:00Hip-hop legend Phife Dawg dead at 45, life works left unfinished<br />
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There’s sad news today for the world of <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/hip-hop" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">hip hop</a>. Malik Isaac Taylor, otherwise known as <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/phife-dawg" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Phife Dawg</a>, one of the founding members of the legendary Hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, died on Tuesday, March 22 after struggling with his health. He was 45 years old.</div>
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The hip-hop pioneer had been struggling for a long time with diabetes and had received a kidney transplant in 2008 from his wife, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35879876" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports BBC March 23</a>. Rolling Stone confirmed the late MC’s death, but an official statement has yet to be released, as well as <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/a-tribe-called-quests-phife-dawg-dead-at-45-20160323" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">an official cause of death</a>.<br />
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A slew of <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=phife%20dawg&src=typd" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter messages </a>from leaders in the hip-hop community began paying tribute to Phife, starting with a RIP message from producer and radio broadcaster <a href="https://twitter.com/djchuckchillout/status/712505904940363776" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">DJ Chuck Chillout.</a> Other hip-hop leaders paid tribute to the late MC on social media including <a href="https://www.facebook.com/gillespeterson/posts/10156725850015422" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">DJ Gilles Peterson</a> and politically and socially conscious rapper <a href="https://twitter.com/MrChuckD/status/712533998149439488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Chuck D</a>.<br />
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Rolling Stone reports that Phife’s health problems were so severe, that they interfered with him having much of a solo career. Taylor appeared on each of Tribe’s five studio albums (including <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Low End Theory</em> and<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Midnight Marauders</em>). He released one solo album in 2000 entitled <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ventilation: Da LP</em>.<br />
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Taylor was working on new music and it is yet to be released. A teaser of the EP “Nutshell,” a track from a J Dilla collaboration entitled <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Give Thanks </em>had been released, but a full version of the song is still under wraps. Taylor was also at work on an album called <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Muttymorphosis</em>, an album that would have served as the late MC’s biography. He had hoped to release the album in 2016.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><i>*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com</i></b></span></div>
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sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-868032279718052362016-02-20T20:47:00.000-08:002016-07-04T22:15:06.007-07:00It's not just a catchphrase, college students: Get involved <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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Starting a club on your college campus could be your best internship</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5rem;">Get involved! It's a catchphrase of </span><a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/college" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.5rem; text-decoration: none;">college</a><span style="line-height: 1.5rem;"> campuses. By getting involved in your college community, you can make important connections, and learn many skills that you will be able to apply to future jobs and experiences.</span><br />
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One of the many ways you can become involved on your campus is by becoming a member of one or more of the clubs offered. What are your interests? Take a look at the catalogue of clubs at your college and contact the club officers for more information.</div>
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If you are looking for career experience, you can become an officer of a club, yourself. <a href="https://www.educationquest.org/blog/5-reasons-get-involved/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Club officership will teach you many skills.</a><br />
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Another way of obtaining career oriented skills is by simply creating your own club. Doing this could very well be a sort of internship, and maybe even the best kind. Many interns find themselves performing menial tasks in their internships without really learning much about their field. You may not be able to get internship credit for creating a club, but the skills you glean there are priceless as are the connections you'll make.<br />
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Creating and managing your own club means you will gain many skills. Some of these skills include but are not limited to marketing, fundraising, networking, facilitating meetings, scheduling events, training future officers, and so on. These are all skills that you can add to your resume as valid work experience.<br />
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For more information about starting a club on your college campus, contact your <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/student-activities" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">student activities</a> administrators and/or student government. There are also many articles online about how you can <a href="http://www.campusexplorer.com/college-advice-tips/FD80E2FC/How-To-Start-Your-Own-Student-Organization/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">start a your own college organizations</a>.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-89846483338927842482016-02-19T06:46:00.000-08:002016-07-04T22:18:11.315-07:00U.S. Marines position tanks and military equipment in classified caves in Norway<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Proximo Nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;">
The U.S. <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/marines" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Marines</a> are strategically placing tanks and <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/military" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">military</a> equipment inside classified Norwegian caves in efforts to support any possibility of crisis at the <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/nato" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">NATO</a>-Russian border.</div>
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The preplacement of tanks, artillery and logistics equipment comes during renewed tensions between NATO and <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/russia" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Russia</a>. In a statement delivered on Friday, Col. William Bentley, operations officer for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade said: "Any gear that is forward-deployed both reduces cost and speeds up our ability to support operations in crisis, so we're able to fall in on gear that is ready-to-go and respond to whatever that crisis may be."</div>
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<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/18/politics/u-s-tanks-artillery-norwegian-caves/index.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">CNN reports Feb. 18</a> that the NATO-Russian border was heavily militarized during the Cold War. Continuing those efforts, Russian president Vladimir <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/putin" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Putin</a>is<a href="http://wwlp.com/2016/01/15/russia-reveals-new-aggressive-military-plans/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> flexing his military muscle</a>, creating three new divisions in the western border alone, and making five nuclear missile regimens ready for battle within the year.</div>
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The U.S. began stocking the climate controlled caves in 1981 during the Cold War. The stock was primarily meant to help NATO defend against the Soviet Union. When the Cold War ended, the U.S. reevaluated whether it was necessary to maintain those facilities, but the Norwegian government took on the costs of maintaining them in the 1990s.</div>
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There is enough equipment in these caves to support 15,000 Marines. And the equipment has not been sitting their latent. The equipment was reportedly used to aid in operations in Iraq.</div>
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Because of renewed tensions at the NATO-Russian border, the caves are again a strategic asset. "Now that we have a very new security context with Russia, it now makes sense to rethink what is needed," Heather Conley, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Europe Program told CNN.</div>
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More than 16,000 troops are training this month along with NATO allies and partners, using equipment from the classified caves. The development of military capabilities “in a challenging environment” is the goal. The exercise is called “Cold Response 16” and will ensure confidence that NATO and its participating allies will be able to defend the border.</div>
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More military equipment is on the way, with six F-15s due to arrive in Finland in time for the spring exercises. The exercises will occur about 100 miles away from the Russian border.</div>
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The Department of Defense is spending $3.4 billion in efforts to prevent Russia’s pending violence against NATO and its allies in the European Reassurance Initiative. In the initiative, military equipment will be stationed in the Baltic Seas, Poland and Central Europe. "We have to look at Northern Europe, the Northern Atlantic, the Baltics and Eastern Europe as one theater of operations," states Conley. She further states that military exercises are becoming critical.</div>
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Russia’s Northern Fleet recently conducted military drills involving 38,000 troops. Their drills were unannounced.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">* originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-39088238560848407572016-01-24T14:09:00.000-08:002016-07-04T22:23:03.264-07:00Girls on Ice offers free Earth science glaciology program for teenage girls<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Gulkana Glacier, Alaska" height="350" rel="image_src" src="https://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/28/55/2855366d3c33ca4431a320fbbcca9551.jpg?itok=goXK5UPB" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Gulkana Glacier, Alaska" typeof="foaf:Image" width="467" /></td></tr>
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Gulkana Glacier, Alaska</div>
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An exciting opportunity is available for teenage girls between the ages of 16-18 who are interested in taking a mountain adventure during their summer vacation. The program, which offers a wilderness education experience, free of charge, is taking applications through Jan. 29 for its two glaciology expeditions this year.</div>
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<a href="http://girlsonice.org/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Girls on Ice</a>, a non-profit wilderness <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/science" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">science</a> education program for young women, will take two teams of nine girls and three instructors on a 12-day trek into <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/alaska" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Alaska</a> or <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/washington" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Washington</a> for field work in alpine landscapes, <a href="http://www.lakeconews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44893:-free-glaciology-program-for-girls-seeks-applications&catid=43:education&Itemid=324" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Lake County News reports Jan. 22</a>. The teams will explore and study mountain <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/glaciers" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">glaciers</a> and high mountain terrains alongside<a href="http://girlsonice.org/instructors/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">professional glaciologists, ecologists, artists and mountaineers.</a></div>
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Applicants will be placed in two groups:</div>
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<a href="http://girlsonice.org/cascades/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Girls on Ice North Cascades</a> will bring participants to Mount Baker in Washington state. There, participants will explore a glacier, the mountain and the surrounding alpine meadows. The trip is open to applicants from all around the world. The expedition runs from July 10 to July 21.</div>
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The second team of young women will explore the <a href="http://girlsonice.org/alaska/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Gulkana Glacier in the Alaska Range</a> while hiking and camping in the Alaskan alpine landscape. This arm of the program is open to young women from Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, Yukon and California. This expedition runs from June 17 to June 28.</div>
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Participants will learn mountaineering and how to conduct their own science experiments. The program is also designed to challenge participants and help them gain self-confidence on many levels while also integrating lessons in Earth science.</div>
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For more information on how to apply, <a href="http://girlsonice.org/apply/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">visit the Girls on Ice website.</a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
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sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-2843630927721172582016-01-23T13:14:00.000-08:002016-07-04T22:37:22.778-07:00Animals have the ability to think and empathize with others<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Proximo Nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;">
Recent studies and observations show that <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/empathy" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">empathy</a>, an ability that many think only humans capable, is a trait that other animals also exhibit.</div>
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<img alt="Voles, along with many other animals have been shown capable of exhibiting empathy" class="zoomable media__img" data-large="http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width_large/hash/f0/7b/f07b5addc5b696453e58767005cdc5e2.jpg?itok=ghxEebB6" height="350" rel="image_src" src="https://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/f0/7b/f07b5addc5b696453e58767005cdc5e2.jpg?itok=um42rWlm" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; width: 265px;" title="Voles, along with many other animals have been shown capable of exhibiting empathy" typeof="foaf:Image" width="497" /><br />
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While in the past, such observations have been deemed controversial, more studies have been coming to the fore rendering humans’ former beliefs that animals are nothing more than “<a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-animal/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">mindless automata</a>” questionable. Researchers have been pairing <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/science" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">science</a> alongside philosophical queries concerning animal subjectivity and they are finding that their observations are not solely the product of anthropomorphizing projections.<br />
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For example, <a href="http://www.ctsn.emory.edu/faculty/young_larry.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Dr. Larry Young</a>, a researcher at Emory University witnessed what looks like consoling behavior in prairie voles, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/consoling-voles-reignite-debate-about-animal-empathy/425034/?utm_source=inside&utm_medium=link" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports The Atlantic, Jan. 21.</a> In an experiment where two voles were placed in separate cages, one received a small electric shock and then, when it was reunited with its mate, received ten minutes worth of licking and grooming that seemed to calm it down.<br />
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Researchers found that voles witnessing the distress of their cohorts take on the behavior exhibited by their stressed companions. For example, a vole not receiving the shock would continuously groom itself and freeze whenever it heard a tone that heralded an impending shock. Those same voles exhibited higher stress hormone levels when tested even though they had not been shocked. Then, when reunited with their companions, they would groom distressed animals.<br />
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<a href="http://www.livescience.com/24800-animals-emotions-morality.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Voles are not alone</a> in their show of concern and feeling for one another. Elephants conduct funerary rituals over their dead cohorts, burying deceased elephants with leaves and grass and then holding week long vigils. The recognition of their loss does not end there. Elephants visit the bones of those who passed for many years after burying them.</div>
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<a href="http://www.livescience.com/17378-rats-show-empathy.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Rats</a> have been shown to exhibit empathy for their cohorts, freeing trapped rats before pursuing any personal rewards. Dolphins have been shown to not only exhibit love and empathy for their own kind, but for other animals and humans, as well. Many animals have exhibited <a href="http://thebrainbank.scienceblog.com/2016/01/11/animal-consciousness/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">metacognition</a> and still others such as <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201103/empathic-chickens-and-cooperative-elephants-emotional-intelligence" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">chickens</a>, and <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/06/the-emotional-lives-of-dairy-cows/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">cows</a> have been shown to have emotions.<br />
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According to an article published in July by <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150714-animal-dog-thinking-feelings-brain-science/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">National Geographic</a>, animals think and feel. They have consciousness. Environmental writer Carl Safina recently wrote about animal consciousness in his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Words-What-Animals-Think/dp/0805098887" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Beyond Words: How Animals Think and Feel</a> and explains why it’s important to acknowledge animal consciousness. He also explains how neurological science will most likely make humans’ former belief that animals are incapable of such abilities as love and empathy obsolete.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-89252351136088661442016-01-19T17:04:00.000-08:002016-07-04T22:44:22.719-07:00Five planets will align in rare celestial spectacle<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Proximo Nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;">
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Starting Jan. 20, five planets will line up single file in the predawn skies.</div>
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Five <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/planets" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">planets</a> will align in a rare celestial show that hasn’t been seen in more than a decade. The planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn will line up single file in the predawn sky starting Jan. 20 and will be visible to the naked eye.</div>
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The line of planets can be seen around the world until Feb. 20. It is best viewed one to one-and-half-hours before sunrise, <a href="http://www.accuweather.com/en/features/trend/space-rare-mercury-venus-mars-jupiter-saturn-alignment-astronomy/54881846" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports Accuweather Jan. 19.</a></div>
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If stargazers attempt to view the line of planets just before dawn, they may find that it has not completely risen. After dawn, the line of planets will begin to disappear as its visibility in Earth’s <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/skies" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">skies</a> will be cancelled out by sunlight.</div>
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Venus will be the brightest planet in the sky and can assist viewers in finding the rest of the planets. Mercury, Venus and Saturn will be low over the southeastern horizon (in that order) while Mars and Jupiter will reach across the sky into the southwest. Jupiter, which ends the line, will be the second brightest visible planet. Mars may be hard to see low on the horizon, but its faint red color will differentiate it from surrounding stars.<br />
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Viewers will be able to <a href="http://earthsky.org/science-wire/when-will-all-five-visible-planets-appear-simultaneously" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">differentiate the planets</a> from stars because starlight twinkles and the light reflected from planets is more of a steady glow.</div>
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The last time five planets have glowed like this in a singular line was between Dec. 15, 2004 to Jan. 15, 2005.</div>
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Another celestial treat visible via telescope or binoculars in predawn skies is <a href="http://www.space.com/31399-comet-catalina-meteor-venus-photo.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Comet Catalina</a>. The two-tailed comet is passing by Venus. According to Space.com, the comet probably hails from the <a href="http://www.space.com/16401-oort-cloud-the-outer-solar-system-s-icy-shell.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Oort cloud</a>. The comet is on its way from circling the sun and will continue its journey into the outer Solar System. Comet Catalina was <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/comet-catalina-1.3405583" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">closest to the Earth</a> on Jan. 17.<br />
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<b style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-52976055045300153452016-01-18T13:58:00.000-08:002016-07-04T22:44:02.757-07:00Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Proximo Nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;">
<img alt="Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. " height="338" rel="image_src" src="https://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/48/3f/483fa34b6e35eac5adb63f533d1c18a3.jpg?itok=QloZSBXv" title="Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. " typeof="foaf:Image" width="600" /></div>
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<a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/civil-rights" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Civil Rights</a> activist and minister <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-king-jr-9365086" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.</a> was integral to the Civil Rights Movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. His work led to the creation of the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Civil Rights Act of 1964</a>, a document that put an end to legalized segregation and banned workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.<br />
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Dr. King’s activism was led by the nonviolent philosophies of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the leading voice in<a href="http://www.tcnj.edu/~borland/2006-indianindependence/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">India’s independence movement</a> which began in 1857 and ended in 1947. Both leaders taught that a strong body of individuals brought together in solidarity can create long-lasting change for the betterment of everyone.<br />
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Gandhi led nonviolent protests which included week-long fasts and <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gandhi-leads-civil-disobedience" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">marches</a> to protest everything from British occupation to <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gandhi-begins-fast-in-protest-of-caste-separation" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">caste separation</a>. Similarly, Dr. King led boycotts, committees and campaigns to end social injustices, marches and other <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/0115/Martin-Luther-King-Jr.-8-peaceful-protests-that-bolstered-civil-rights/Montgomery-bus-boycott-1955-56" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">peaceful demonstrations and protests</a>.<br />
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Though members of Congress proposed a legislated holiday for the fallen leader directly after Dr. King’s assassination, it wasn’t until 15 years after his death that the day became a national holiday. Many advocates were on board, including Stevie Wonder who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inS9gAgSENE" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">wrote a song honoring Dr. King</a> called “Happy Birthday.” <a href="http://time.com/3661538/mlk-day-reagan-history/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">According to Time Magazine,</a> the song was meant to “make a case for the holiday,” and point out anyone who was opposed to the idea.<br />
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Finally, in 1983, despite then-president Ronald Reagan’s reluctance to pass the bill, he conceded. Dr. King’s birthday became a national holiday. This was an honor that up until that time had only been given to George Washington, the first president of the United States.</div>
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Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. -Dr. <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/martin-luther-king-jr-2" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Martin Luther King Jr</a>.</div>
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To learn more about Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy and words, check out <a href="http://www.mlkonline.net/speeches.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Martin Luther King Jr. Online</a>, <a href="http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/list?field_term_genre_tid=12616" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The King Center</a>, <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/about/king-institute" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The King Institute,</a> or any number of archival websites compiling Dr. King’s work.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-66599549058765807512016-01-16T11:55:00.000-08:002016-07-04T22:46:48.460-07:00David Bowie never limited himself to any one art form<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Proximo Nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;">
The world was rocked when news of <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/david-bowie" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">David Bowie</a>’s death hit Jan. 10. The British singer and multi-instrumentalist had a long career in <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/music" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">music</a> which ended with one last album, a carefully planned farewell to his fans called “Blackstar.”</div>
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<img alt="Fans mourn David Bowie in numerous memorials around the world" class="zoomable media__img" data-large="http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width_large/hash/bc/e5/bce501e6b14b4a34b095f11eea288ab0.jpg?itok=mlqGpOpG" height="350" rel="image_src" src="https://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/bc/e5/bce501e6b14b4a34b095f11eea288ab0.jpg?itok=8vEPS7D9" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; width: 265px;" title="Fans mourn David Bowie in numerous memorials around the world" typeof="foaf:Image" width="289" /><br />
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While most fans know Bowie because of his musical career which spanned more than fifty years, some may be surprised to learn that he wasn’t just a musical artist. He was also a big art collector, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/15/david-bowie-man-read-world-literary-influences-books-orwell" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">a voracious reader</a>, a visual artist and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10360.David_Bowie" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">writer</a>. He was a creative who supported many other facets of the arts just as much as he was influenced by them.</div>
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“Bowie <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/11/david-bowie-style-icon-fashion-legacy-aladdin-sane" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">was curious about everything in the world</a>, whether it had to do with gender issues, jazz, movement—he understood the <a href="http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/occult-universe-david-bowie-meaning-blackstar/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">symbolic significance</a> of any gesture or thought form. He was able to use it as food for his own art,” wrote avant garde pianist <a href="http://www.matthewshipp.com/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Matthew Shipp</a> in an exclusive email exchange with Examiner.com. “Bowie was a great model for all <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/artists" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">artists</a>of any genre because he utilized the symbolic nature of everything. He was also fearless in his ability to explore the many aspects of his many selves.”</div>
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One of Bowie’s many talents included painting. He had started painting as a practice in 1976 to help distract him from depression and the stressors of the the music business. He returned full-fledged to music and picked up visual art again in the 1990s, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/arts/design/painting-offered-a-different-palette-for-david-bowies-talents.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports the New York Times Jan. 14</a></div>
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During that time, Bowie joined the board of the British magazine <a href="http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/art/modernp.htm" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Modern Painters</a> and personally interviewed many contemporary artists of note including: Balthus, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Jeff Koons and Julian Schnabel. During his stint with the magazine, he also created a lot of <a href="http://www.bowieart.com/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">work of his own.</a> He was prolific, creating hundreds of pieces of art using paint, chalk, charcoal and other mediums.</div>
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<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/david-bowie-how-i-exposed-the-pop-stars-fake-artist-a6814981.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">According to the Independent,</a> Bowie even helped create a fictitious artist named Nat Tate, a man who was a supposed Abstract Expressionist who destroyed 99 percent of his work and killed himself by jumping off the Staten Island ferry. Tate’s story was told in a book written by William Boyd, a best-selling UK writer who was integral in the creation of the hoax. The book was published with a publishing venture that Bowie created called “<a href="http://www.21publishing.com/21pub/about.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">21</a>.”</div>
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<a href="http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/bowienews/news.htm" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">David Bowie</a> never stopped creating, not even during his seeming <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/article54722835.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">retirement from celebrity in 2004.</a> He continued painting, designing, and exploring new expressions of art while intermittently contributing more music to his canon.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-27177190173759838462016-01-03T11:10:00.000-08:002016-07-04T22:53:23.526-07:00First Black Female-owned comics shop on the East Coast opens in Philly<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">
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Amalgam <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/comics" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Comics</a> & Coffeehouse is Philadelphia's first Black Female-owned comic book store. In fact, the comics and coffee shop is the first Black Female-owned comic book store on the East Coast, reports <a href="http://fabulizemag.com/2016/01/the-first-black-owned-comic-book-store-is-owned-by-a-black-woman-in-philly/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Fabulize Magazine Jan. 2.</a><br />
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Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse / Facebook</div>
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Amalgam Comics owner <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20151229_Caffeine_and_Kryptonite__New_Kensington_comic_book_coffee_shop_focuses_on_diversity.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Arielle R. Johnson said</a> that the idea was brewing for 12 years. “My favorite coffee shop was directly across the street from my comic book store of choice. So, each Friday, I would buy my books at Fat Jack's, go across the street to Crimson Moon, and read everything I bought,” she said. "When the coffee shop closed its doors, I was devastated. That's when the idea came to me."<br />
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Amalgam Comics aims to promote diversity and community with events, workshops, movie, TV screenings, book signings and BYOG (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/amalgamphilly/photos/a.716160711824507.1073741830.563537553753491/905186409588602/?type=3&theater" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bring Your Own Game</a>) nights. In a recent interview, she noted that when she was developing the idea for Amalgam, she really yearned for a place where people could not only buy their comics, but sit and read them, and even have conversations with others about their love for the medium. “I thought that a space like that would be conducive to some fun conversations, and who doesn't love that?”</div>
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Along with today’s mainstay titles in comics, the store will showcase comics from <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/amalgam-comics-ariell-johnson/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">indie</a> and marginalized communities not often represented in the world of comics.</div>
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We think that comics are for everyone and anyone that loves comics-women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. We will actively look to stock titles that showcase people in these groups, right along with Superman, Batman, Captain America, and Thor.</div>
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Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse opened its doors on <a href="http://www.colorlines.com/articles/15-remarkable-women-color-who-rocked-2015" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Dec. 14.</a> The shop has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/amalgamphilly/photos/a.716160711824507.1073741830.563537553753491/885667141540529/?type=3&theater" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">received much community support</a>. From the spaciousness of the shop to the knowledge and friendliness of the staff, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/amalgamphilly/reviews/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reviewers</a> only have good things to say.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><i>*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com</i></b></span></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-60148472355448741732015-12-28T12:34:00.000-08:002016-07-04T22:56:03.240-07:00'Spud Launchers' set to launch potato into space to see if it will grow <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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A group of middle school students from Buffalo New York want to test out potato gardening by sending a spud into space with a little help from their friends at NASA.</div>
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Last fall, when “<a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/the-martian" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">The Martian</a>” hit movie theatres, fact-checkers speculated whether <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/potatoes" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">potatoes</a> could really grow on<a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/mars" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Mars</a>. Now, a group of middle school students from Buffalo New York want to test out potato gardening by sending a spud into <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/space" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">space</a> with a little help from their friends at NASA.</div>
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<a href="http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/buffalo-public-schools/buffalo-students-launching-spud-into-space-with-nasa-20151227" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Buffalo News reports Dec. 27</a> that three students from Hamlin Park School 74 ‒ Gabriella Melendez, Toriana Cornwell and Shaniylah Welch ‒ will see their <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/science" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">science</a> experiment entitled “Tuber Growth in Microgravity” sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in the spring/summer of 2016. Their experiment will answer whether the potato can sprout in the ISS laboratory and survive a trip back to earth for subsequent planting.</div>
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The self-named “Spud Launchers” were inspired by the film “The Martian” when they came up with their<a href="http://www.buffaloschools.org/news.cfm?story=5240&school=18" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> project idea</a>. “We wish to try to grow potatoes on the International Space Station so we can see if the plants will be able to grow on other planets…because of the distinct lack of grocery stores in outer space,” they said.</div>
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The project won in a national competition hosted by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) and was selected to be tested on the ISS. The three students worked with researchers from the the Biological Sciences Department at the University at Buffalo and the Agricultural and Life Sciences Department at Cornell to fine-tune their data and research. It wasn’t just a big win for the students, but also for the world of science which has been working to increase interest in the sciences in today’s youth.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
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sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-73311133860866153852015-12-28T10:54:00.000-08:002016-07-04T22:59:20.664-07:00You can have dinner in this massive gingerbread house<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Proximo Nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;">
At the <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/ritzcarlton" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Ritz-Carlton</a>, Dove Mountain resort in Marana, Arizona, there is a life-size <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/gingerbread-house" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">gingerbread house</a> where you can have your dinner. It’s like something out of Hansel and Gretel and comes complete with a roaring fire. But don’t worry, you won’t run into the evil child-eating witch on these premises.<br />
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<a href="http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/04/41/04413b75d324694dddff787f1fb9011b.jpg?itok=IwgzW2jV" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="This isn't your little kitchen table gingerbread house. Just like the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel", this house comes complete with a dining table and a roaring fireplace." border="0" class="zoomable media__img" data-large="http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width_large/hash/04/41/04413b75d324694dddff787f1fb9011b.jpg?itok=EZxEIXSv" height="350" rel="image_src" src="https://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/04/41/04413b75d324694dddff787f1fb9011b.jpg?itok=IwgzW2jV" style="background-color: transparent;" title="This isn't your little kitchen table gingerbread house. Just like the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel", this house comes complete with a dining table and a roaring fireplace." typeof="foaf:Image" width="263" /></a>What you will find is a three-course menu, <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cbba680bb508467bac43dc0888e223ca/arizona-hotels-dine-gingerbread-house-hits-sweet-spot" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports the Associated Press Dec. 26.</a> Anyone can walk through the 19-foot high gingerbread house for free so long as no one has reserved it. $150 can get up to six people seating in a space that smells and looks good enough to eat. Then the party can order food and beverages from the hotel kitchen and bar.<br />
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The house was built from scratch using gingerbread bricks that were created by top-of-the-line pastry chefs. They used 200 pounds of ginger powder, 400 pounds of ho<span style="line-height: 1.5rem;">ney, 50 pounds of cinnamon and 10 pounds of nutmeg for the house. More than 4,000 bricks in all were created to make the building. The bricks and windows were decorated with gumdrops and candy canes.</span><br />
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The house has been up since Thanksgiving but pastry chefs began construction in June. They made batches of red-tinted gingerbread everyday and then cut them into bricks. It took 13 people and four days to put the house together after the bricks were ready.<br />
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The inside of the house<a href="http://www.cleveland19.com/story/30709489/life-sized-gingerbread-house" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> features a handmade dining table</a> which makes up part of the elegant place setting.<br />
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The gingerbread bricks are safe to eat (though staff urges visitors to not take souvenirs). Staff saw some children licking gingerbread walls but luckily no one ran off with parts of the house.<br />
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The life-sized gingerbread house is a project Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain would like to do in some form or another for the 2016 <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/holidays" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">holidays</a>. Although the<a href="http://www.eater.com/2015/12/13/9886824/gingerbread-house-roundup-holiday-2015?utm_campaign=eater&utm_content=article%3Afixed&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> house isn’t an original idea</a>, it is a bit different than others’ life-size houses which usually just put up a gingerbread facade and ignore the insides of the house.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-15833548059470265282015-12-26T11:10:00.000-08:002016-07-04T23:05:44.081-07:00Robot Drinky is the drinking buddy you've been waiting for<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lrlV3VWGMps" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1545189&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D1545189" rel="nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Proximo Nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5rem; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Companion robots</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "proximo nova" , "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "proximo nova" , "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;">as complex as the “Star Wars” droids R2-D2, C-3PO, and BB-8 don’t seem to be too far in the future.</span><br />
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The caliber and complexity of current innovations in robotics has taken approximately <a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-technology/steam-powered-pigeon-archytas-flying-machine-antiquity-002179" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">2400 years</a> to evolve. But robot models in circulation have many helpful qualities that do much more than help with cleaning the floors or baking and cutting your next loaves of bread. From <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/11/02/delivery-robots/#Hw6aq5AoWsqb" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">robot delivery drivers</a> to <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/207130-terapio-autonomous-medical-robot-can-assist-nurses" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">robot nurses</a> (like Baymax from “Big Hero 6”), the world of robotics is creating the very droids you may indeed be looking for, even if you just need a drinking buddy.</div>
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<a href="https://www.rt.com/news/327124-drinking-robot-buddy-drinky/?utm_source=inside&utm_medium=link" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5rem; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">RT reports Dec. 26</a><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;"> that a South Korean inventor has done just that. Park Eun Chan along with his wife created Robot Drinky, a friendly skully cap wearing robot who clinks his glass against yours, downs booze, and acts just like your favorite drinking buddy.</span></div>
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This is much better than <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBF7EE2xnN4" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">robot bartenders</a> who simply mix your drinks and don’t even talk to you. As Robot Drinky’s cheeks light up after downing some alcohol, he looks you straight in the face, seemingly listening and responding to your actions and words. Drinky won’t tell others your secrets (he doesn’t talk). Further, since Robot Drinky lacks a digestive system (his lower body is made up of a jar that catches his drinks) you could snag the contents for your own cup and continue letting Robot Drinky drink you under the table.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><i>*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com</i></b></span></div>
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sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-65502721923441901762015-12-21T14:04:00.000-08:002016-07-04T23:09:17.435-07:00Digital detox: Internet addiction may require rehab <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Proximo Nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;">
According to the ITU – the United Nations agency for information and communications technologies – <a href="http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2015/17.aspx#.Vng6pyCrRB1" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">more than three billion people</a> around the world currently use the internet. Those numbers are on the rise and as they do, so does a new <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/mental-health" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">mental health</a> issue called <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/internet-addiction" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">internet addiction</a> disorder, a health problem that for some may require a visit to rehab.</div>
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<a href="http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/12/21/digital-addiction-is-the-worlds-next-great-health-crisis/?utm_source=inside&utm_medium=link" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">TNW News reported Dec. 21</a> that though internet addiction disorder is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical <a href="http://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Manual of Mental Disorders</a>, some patients have been admitted into rehabilitation programs because of their codependency on the net. These programs take many forms, including<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/the-rise-of-the-internet-addiction-industry/414031/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">survival and wilderness camps</a>, retreats, medication, talk therapy and support groups. Each program is designed to promote <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/digital-detox" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">digital detox</a> and train participants to redirect their attentions to more productive activities such as school, work and offline relationships.<br />
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Medical professionals don’t agree on whether internet addiction should be considered an addiction at all, let alone how to treat it. Still, digital detox centers and programs are increasing in number. Do a quick Google search and numerous programs offering treatment appear. Some of these programs cost patients thousands of dollars and they often are not covered by their insurance policies.<br />
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Excessive internet use can cause problems in an individual’s daily life. For example, some parents watch as their children spend hours on their computers, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/internet-addiction-disorder_55f20f4ae4b093be51be5d25" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">playing video games</a> or keeping up with social media. The time spent on the internet can cause issues with school work. Youth may experience a lack of initiative and also see their relationships with friends and family suffer. Excessive internet use has also been linked to <a href="http://www.netaddictionrecovery.com/the-problem/internet-addiction/324-excessive-internet-use-linked-to-depressive-symptoms.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">depressive symptoms in teens</a>.<br />
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A slew of other studies point to issues that are created from being constantly connected to the net. From social media’s tendency to promote <a href="http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/21517-you-re-so-vain-u-m-study-links-social-media-and-narcissism" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">narcissism</a> and anxiety to smartphones causing <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/for-a-restful-night-make-your-smartphone-sleep-on-the-couch/?_r=0" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">insomnia</a>, being so connected seems to be hindering interactions with everyday life and possibly even making users <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/18/small.vorgan.internet.empathy/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">less empathetic</a> to those around them.<br />
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Internet addiction disorder is described as an impulse-control issue and can include addictions to computers, cyber-relationships, <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/information-overload" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">information overload</a> (web and database surfing), gaming and other net compulsions such as gambling, stock trading and using <a href="http://www.helpguide.org/articles/addiction/internet-and-computer-addiction.htm" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">auction sites like Ebay</a>. Signs and symptoms of the disorder can include losing track of time while online, having trouble staying focused on tasks at home or in the workplace, isolating one’s self from family and social interactions to be online, euphoric feelings when engaged in internet activities and attempts to lessen time on the internet without success.<br />
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A full-blown therapy program may not be necessary. Some experts suggest unplugging from all computers and devices for a predetermined amount of time ranging from a full day to weeks or longer. The aim of a digital detox is to reduce stress and to take time to focus more on social interaction and activities outside of the internet.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-76123072568505980622015-12-20T12:44:00.000-08:002016-07-04T23:13:03.259-07:00Kurdish women warriors considered angels of death to the Islamic State<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Proximo Nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;">
There are many enemies of the <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/islamic-state" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Islamic State</a> but a group they fear more than others is a group of Kurdish women fighters who set out to reclaim their cities with an undaunted ferocity.</div>
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These women warriors are part of the People’s Protection Units, or Yekîneyên Parastina Jin (YPJ) which was founded in 2012. The YPJ account for <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Kurdish-Women-Turning-Kobani-into-a-Living-Hell-for-Islamic-State-20141014-0072.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">up to 35 percent</a> of the Kurdish troops fighting the Islamic State from northern Syria. Numbers of women fighters could range as high as 10,000.</div>
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YPJ warriors work alongside their male counterparts (YPG) to force Islamic State militants out of their lands. Men of the Islamic State fear them so much because they believe that dying by a woman’s hand doesn’t lead to martyrdom but instead to an <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/12/17/the-women-warriors-giving-isis-nightmares/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">eternal afterlife in hell.</a></div>
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<a href="http://iranian.com/posts/hunting-isis-with-kurdish-female-fighters-documentary-hd-kurds-61899" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Iranian.com on Dec. 19</a> posted a short “60 Minutes” documentary led by Australian television presenter Tara Brown. In the documentary, Brown observes and reports from alongside the women fighters who work day and night to battle the Islamic State, and describes what she saw there as “triumphant and terrible.”</div>
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YPJ’s women have pushed Islamic State militants back thousands of miles and reclaimed hundreds of towns and cities. Yet, although they have stationed themselves in the Kurdish north, pushing Isis State militants farther and farther out, they still run the risk of militants making their way back across.</div>
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“We are ready to sacrifice ourselves to protect humanity, to save society, the civilization here,” said one of the YPJ fighters in an interview with Brown. Many women warriors of the YPJ feel the same and work tirelessly to that end.</div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com</span></b></i></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-54571043267436486152015-12-19T13:41:00.000-08:002016-07-04T23:15:44.058-07:00Federal Reserve raises interest rates; many still struggle in economic recovery <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FkG0fbFRm6o" width="560"></iframe><br />
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The <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/federal-reserve" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Federal Reserve</a> hiked interest rates last Wednesday after determining the U.S. economy and labor market healthy enough to handle the increase. This puts the longest lasting stimulus program to rest after almost seven years, and expresses the “confidence” Federal officials have in current <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/economic-recovery" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">economic recovery</a>.</div>
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The new rate is up about .25 percent from nearly zero after the Federal Reserve’s observations on the economy. In labor markets, unemployment has fallen <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">below recession highs</a> which are down to about five percent from 2009’s 10 percent peak, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-federal-reserve-makes-a-good-judgment-call-in-raising-interest-rates/2015/12/18/7954e1c6-a4f8-11e5-ad3f-991ce3374e23_story.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports The Washington Post, Dec. 18</a>. </div>
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Household spending has increased across the nation. In the Federal Reserve’s eyes, the U.S. economy is recovered enough from <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/the-great-recession" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">the Great Recession</a> to warrant less assistance.</div>
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<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-idUSKBN0TY2EX20151218" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Federal Reserve admits</a> that they do not know how the rate increase will affect businesses and individuals in regards to mortgage rates, consumer loans and credit.</div>
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The statistics used in the Federal Reserve’s decision look really good at <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/12/16/3732979/federal-reserve-interest-rates-economy/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the surface level.</a> However, while unemployment rates may be down, there are still people who are working part time and seeking full time work, those who have been unemployed since the recession and those who are making below a livable wage.</div>
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Despite jobs being added to the market and the employment rate increasing, <a href="http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2015/january/unemployment-wages-labor-market-recession/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">wages have stagnated</a>. As a result, low-wage earners haven’t felt the effects of economic recovery. Minorities, single-parent families and youth entering the workforce struggle the most. </div>
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Economic security and opportunities to <a href="https://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/poverty/news/2010/02/03/7300/rebuilding-the-economy-from-the-bottom-up/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">build a solid financial foundation</a> seem just out of reach for those who are struggling to make ends meet. There is still a long way to go towards full recovery.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-7861724587031298092015-12-14T13:01:00.000-08:002016-07-04T23:17:56.562-07:00'Star Citizen' breaks crowdfunding record and builds the MMO of gamers' dreams<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xf4zCCjBwOA" width="560"></iframe><br />
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‘<a href="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Star Citizen’,</a> a new massively multiplayer online game, has made <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/crowdfunding" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">crowdfunding</a> history. With over 1 million backers, the <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/mmo" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">MMO</a> has raised more than $100 million, making it the most successful crowdfunded project ever.</div>
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<a href="http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/14/star-citizen-crowdfunding-passes-100m-mark-with-over-1m-backers/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Venturebeat reports Dec. 14</a> that the game was first announced in 2012. Video game developer Chris Roberts (Wing Commander, Freelancer) made $2.1 million via Kickstarter a couple of years ago. Then, he <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2014/09/23/the-man-who-made-50-million-ditching-kickstarter.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">continued the crowdfunding campaign</a> outside of Kickstarter with a campaign <a href="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">that Roberts runs himself.</a></div>
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“I don’t want to build a game. I want to build a universe,” states Roberts on his webpage for the game. The game’s creator aims to make an MMO that works as its own world with “unparalleled immersion” and allows for <a href="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/about-the-game/universe" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">unlimited game play.</a></div>
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<a href="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/enlist?jumpto=%2Ffunding-goals" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Gamers who contribute</a> to the crowdfund campaign are “enlisted” into the “<a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/star-citizen" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Star Citizen</a>” universe and are given access to the game as well as a ship to begin exploring the virtual world.</div>
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Roberts aims to build a community with the game. While people keep giving to the project, he emphasises that the money was never the main goal, though the money does enable more features in the game. “You’ve trusted us with your money so we can build a game, not line our pockets,” he said.</div>
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“This is the dream game that all of us have wanted to build all our lives,” said Roberts. He notes that while the game may not always run without a glitch, he and his team are working to keep working on the game until it is also the game of gamer’s dreams.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-60108008581057501932015-12-14T11:55:00.000-08:002016-07-04T23:26:20.795-07:00Electric car sales boom in China; government offers generous incentives <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Proximo Nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;">
In <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/china" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">China</a>, <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/electric-car" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">electric car</a> sales are booming. As the haze thickens over China’s heavily populated and polluted cities, the country has seen an increase of more than three times the electric car sales from last year.</div>
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By October 2015, more than 170,000 electric and hybrid cars were sold, more than five-fold what was sold last year. In Shanghai, future electric and<a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/hybrid-car" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">hybrid car</a> owners are on a wait list that is currently six months long, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/12/14/459637364/what-s-driving-the-electric-car-trend-in-china" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports NPR News Dec. 14.</a> The country is set to surpass electric and hybrid car sales in the U.S. by a great margin. <a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2015/12/14/commentary/world-commentary/to-see-the-future-of-electric-cars-look-to-china/#.Vm8I3CCrRB0" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">According to Japan Times,</a> sales are predicted to reach up to 250,000 plug-in cars sold for the year. The U.S. is only predicted to sell approximately 180,000 hybrid and electric vehicles.<br />
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The heavy pollution in China’s crowded cities is what fuels the trending interest in plug-in vehicles. Officials are setting out to combat the pollution problem which has reached <a href="http://beta.iol.co.za/business/international/haze-in-china-fuels-interest-in-electric-cars-1959021" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">“red alert”</a> status. Officials are aiming to increase the usage of alternatively fueled vehicles while limiting petrol-powered vehicles on the road.<br />
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In China, petrol-fueled cars are limited to staying parked on heavy pollution days. Electric and hybrid cars, however, have no limitation for the amount of time they can be on the road.</div>
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The government provides other incentives for drivers, as well. Government subsidies are generous and could save drivers thousands of dollars with their purchase. Local governments also offer free parking incentives, free car registration, access to carpool lanes and more.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7557206862975664762.post-33571016494414737222015-12-14T08:13:00.000-08:002016-07-05T05:19:07.827-07:00First women elected to serve on Saudi Arabian municipal councils; many more vote<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Proximo Nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5rem;">
In 2011, the late King Abdullah changed the course of <a class="inline_link omniture-click-processed" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/saudi-arabia" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Saudi Arabia</a>’s history by setting a decree declaring that women could vote in local elections. On Saturday Dec. 12, Saudi Arabian women lined up to vote for the first time and many were also in the running for candidacy.<br />
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<img alt="Women voted for the first time in Saudi Arabia over the weekend. Many women also ran for municipal offices and won." class="zoomable media__img" data-large="http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width_large/hash/cd/af/cdafd6df9fda0e8ba076d2e8f26d57eb.jpg?itok=g4Z6LUWS" height="350" rel="image_src" src="https://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/cd/af/cdafd6df9fda0e8ba076d2e8f26d57eb.jpg?itok=4RnKbxq5" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; width: 265px;" title="Women voted for the first time in Saudi Arabia over the weekend. Many women also ran for municipal offices and won." typeof="foaf:Image" width="525" /><br />
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Photo by Jordan Pix/Getty Images</div>
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Up to 19 women were elected for local offices over the weekend in cities such as Mecca, Riyadh, Jawf, Madrakah, Tabuk, Qassim, Jeddah and Qatif. 979 women ran in their municipal elections next to almost 6,000 men in 284 city councils for 2,100 seats across the country.<br />
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<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/women-win-seats-landmark-saudi-arabia-elections-151213054750832.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Al Jazeera reports Dec. 13</a> that Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi was the first woman to be elected to a city council. She was elected in Madrakah, a village of the Makkah Province in western Saudi Arabia.<br />
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Many women went to the polls to exercise their electoral rights, seeing the action as the first of many steps towards a <a href="https://twitter.com/HatoonALFASSI/status/675562642988249088/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">brightening future for women</a> in Saudi Arabia. Women voters will be able to express their needs through the voting process. Having women officials will help to bring women’s needs and concerns to the table.<br />
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Fahda al-Rwali, one of the women voters told Al Jazeera, “As a woman, I need some services, some needs in my neighbourhood, like nurseries. I need social centres for youth and retirement, like this. So maybe the woman can concentrate more than the man on those needs."<br />
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Saudi Arabian women hope that the landmark elections will lead to a more inclusive society, not only for them, but for their youth. The voting age has recently been reduced from 21 to 18.<br />
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<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/saudi-election-women-win-1.3363216" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">According to CBC News, </a>this election saw 130,000 female registered voters, 82 percent of whom cast their votes along side of 600,000 male voters. 1.35 million men had registered. Women voters said that there would have been more of them out at the polls if they were able to to circumvent bureaucratic obstacles, the lack of how the voting process works, how important it is and the lack of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/12/14/saudi-women-historic-elections-anderson-pkg.cnn/video/playlists/top-news-videos/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">transport to the polls.</a><br />
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In Saudi Arabia, women are <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/60339/eleven-things-women-in-saudi-arabia-cant-do" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4489e3; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">still not allowed to drive</a>. They are not allowed to leave their homes without a male chaperon. Photographs of them during the electoral process, as well as during the course of their work is banned. Luckily, in these elections, photos of male candidates were also banned.<br />
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The most conservative of Saudi Arabia’s cities, Riyadh, saw the most women candidates being elected. This in the face of numerous critics who see women getting the vote as a step towards Westernization.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com</span></i></b></div>
sireneatspoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07444570993241035609noreply@blogger.com0