Reflections on Creating Change--from Lisa

I learned a great deal about busting binaries work through Creating Change this year. Most importantly, I learned that the deepest form of binary busting is working across issues and communities in the most intersectional way possible. Prior to this experience, I had not quite articulated binary busting work in that way. Yet it is now clear to me that busting binaries has to result in something deeply radical beyond the act of challenging either/or thinking and practice. It must result in a deeper understanding of the overlaps and contradictions—in essence the messy places--- as they relate to issues and identities. Binary busting makes doing intersectional work both possible and urgently necessary.

I also learned more about how to concretely organize in this way. I realized that one thing that we sorely underestimate in our movements is relationship and community building. Having completely honest and accountable relationships with community is key to gaining invited access to those messy, contradictory and hard places where issues and identities overlap. In order to understand the intersections and overlaps it requires one to “hang out” in those vulnerable and hard places with folks for as long as it takes to move the work to a deeper place. Each step of the way requires transparency, openness and a strong commitment to supporting people in “go there” on there own time—not yours!

In the end, I gained tremendous clarity about how busting binaries/intersectional work demands flexibility in ways that one may not initially anticipate. To do this work in the most accountable way it’s important to develop a collective vision—yet be flexible around the ways in which that vision is achieved. Whether one is working within a specific community in an intersectional way or across communities in an intersectional way flexibility is key to getting as deep into the nuances and contradictions as possible. It is my experience that organizers often underestimate the importance of flexibility and therefore the nuances are overlooked. It’s this lack of attention to nuance and overlap that divides communities, fuels anger and mistrust and segments our movements.

This experience certainly gave me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of how this work is done—and it has further strengthened my resolve that binary busting work (as a framework for doing intersectional work) is exactly where we must move our movements.

Creating Change 2006, Kansas City, MO - from Ana

Some of the fundamental questions I ask myself in attending a conference often have to do with the approach and the framing of the work. What was amazing to me this year was how `intersectionality’ served as a framework for many of the institutes and workshops at this year’s Creating Change.

Here is a definition of intersectionality: “the Ontario Human Rights Commission offers a very simple definition of the phenomenon [of intersectionality] as `…multiple forms of discrimination occurring simultaneously’” from the Peel District School Board School paper: Manifesting Encouraging & Respectful Environments & the Future We Want – Issue Paper on the isms.

The People of Color Institute on the first day asked us to focus on privilege, language & generational experiences. What I discovered in this space is that it’s still hard for us as people of color to talk about carrying/walking with privilege. The idea that that is possible and also necessary to examine is still difficult for folks. Wow. I think one of the fundamental aspects of being a bridge person is that we’re constantly having to negotiate privilege and oppression within multiple frames, and it can feel really unsafe to unpack that. And yet, there are many, many points of connection between different kinds of experiences of privilege that would allow for the formation of bridges between people. For example, connections between the privilege because of U.S. citizenship and the privilege arising out of wealth. Something else that struck me is how shaped we are by our generation. I don’t mean the generation arising out of our individual ages, but out of our movement generation. I was in the group that has been in the movement 10-20 years. We were all struggling with questions of sustainability, and looking at the driving force for this work. There came a moment where we had to look at the question of “how does one frame work for liberation in the midst of responding to crises?”

It was wonderful to be at the conference together with Lisa. And to watch how the work around busting binaries is affecting how we talk about movement building, and organizational development, intersectionality and capacity building. Very exciting.

Submission Guidelines: email attachment only to ikerlee@unm. edu; Chicago
manual style w/limited endnotes; full guidelines at www.femtap.com

In the recent past we have seen an increase in violence against
communities of color and LGBTQ communities, some televised and others
completely ignored by mainstream media. We have also witnessed a
conservative backlash against models that embrace intersectional
analysis and a critical look at privilege from all sectors. Yet, we
believe feminist models are uniquely capable of addressing increasing
inequities, particularly those models that argue that we must put the
most oppressed women at the center of our analysis (see Smith 2006,
Brenner 1998, Anzaldua 1984, etc.). As such, FemTAP is accepting
submissions that critically engage models, methods, theories, and
practices of feminist social justice that highlight race, gender, class,
and sexuality as co-equal.

All essays should include intersectional analysis including the critical
interrogation of whiteness, heterosexuality, and/or class privilege
where applicable. We are particularly interested in grounded studies
and ethnographic essays but accept essays from a feminist
perspective across disciplines.

Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. A feminist response to un/natural disasters: Katrina, mining on
indigenous lands, environmental degradation and environmental racism, etc.

2. Reproductive justice in communities of color, working class and LBT
communities of all colors - we are particularly interested in responses
to sterilization projects that target poor women, incarcerated women,
etc., holistic projects that seek to deal with multiple-intersecting issues,

any feminist organizing around transgendered and same-sex

parenting rights or reproductive justice, and scientific examinations

of the impact of use and/or research on NRTs for women of color,

working class women of all colors, and LBT women of all colors.

3. Rural feminisms: rural vs. urban queer organizing, rural women's
organizing as specific and generalizable, rural feminists' responses to
poverty, etc.

4. Alternative spaces: women of color and LBT women of all colors
resource centers, women of color and/or LBT women of all colors
grassroots organizing, LBT women of all colors and/or women of color
organizations or retreat-conferences as alternative feminist visions,
artist collectives, etc.

5. Historical essays - examination of "unknown" or unwritten histories
of women of color, LBT women of all colors, and/or poor women's organizing.

6. Models and methods: successful cross-cultural and/or cross-class
feminist organization models, successful trans-feminist organizing,
successful rural-urban organizing, etc.

7. Confronting current issues impacting women of color, LBT women of all
colors, and/or poor women of all colors - urban renewal, funding
collectives, food collectives, welfare reform programs, parenting
students organizations, police and/or court watch programs, housing
safety and security programs, programs confronting the rise in hate
crimes, etc.

8. Academia - the impact feminists of color, working class feminists of
all colors, LBT feminists of all colors on policy, curriculum, and
organizing (please note the summer edition is on pedagogy so pedagogy
essays will be given the least importance in review ranking for this
edition but will *still* be considered; if we believe your essay would
be more appropriate for the summer edition we will advise you.)

9. DEFINING FEMINIST SOCIAL JUSTICE - theoretical essays that examine
what is or can be meant by "feminist social justice," praxis essays that
examine the meaning of "feminist social justice" and the means by which
to actualize it in feminist practice.

We accept essays from graduate students, PhDs, and community scholars.
For full guidelines, review policies, etc. see appropriate links on
website.

Editorial Board:
Erika Feigenbaum, PhD (Feminist philosophy)
Ime Kerlee, PhD (Women's Studies)
Annette Rodriguez (American Studies)

Questions contact: ikerlee@unm. edu (answers will come from entire board;
most questions answered on website: www.femtap.com

Dr. Ime Kerlee, Women Studies Program
1 University of New Mexico/MSC06 3900
Albuquerque NM 87131-0001
Phone: (505) 277-3467 office: MVH 2136
E-mail: ikerlee@unm. edu

A. Lynn Bolles, Anthropologist
Professor of Women's Studies
2101 Woods Hall
University of Maryland College Park