Paradigm Shift

Venue: New Century Artists Gallery in Chelsea, NYC

Juror: Lisa Phillips, Director of the New Museum, NY

Eligibility: Open to all women artists

Dates: February 1 to February 12, 2011

Deadline: November 19, 2010

Artists are invited to explore their idea of their Hidden City , real or imagined, in an array of media. The theme may be broadly interpreted from an activist, political or personal context.

No matter our place in society, we all have our Hidden City — a place of refuge from gender, race, class and sexual exclusions, a place that shapes the feminist viewpoint. Some cities, like wrapped boxes, conceal unexpected gifts, others are riddles and lyrical abstractions. These are performative spaces where we may imagine retribution for injustices, righting wrongs or conversely, delving into the dark side. Convince the viewer of its viability, a live space filled with passion and imagination!

Download prospectus and enter online at:  www.nationalwca.org

Questions?  Contact Karen Gutfreund, National Exhibitions Coordinator, wcashows(at)gmail.com

To join WCA, visit www.nationalwca.org.

Organized by the Women’s Caucus for Art  (WCA) as part of  the LIVE SPACE: WOMEN + ART+ ACTIVISM Conference in New York City , the exhibition runs concurrent with the College Art Association 2011 conference.  WCA is an affiliate society of CAA and a founding partner of The Feminist Art Project.

A note from Gabrielle David and I am Executive Director of
the Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc., a NY-
based nonprofit organization that promotes multicultural
literature and literacy.

I am pleased to announce the launch of our interactive literary
website, phati’tude (www.phatitude.org), a series of literary
programs that uses printed magazine, website, television
programming and events to keep the written word alive. Check
out our feature interview on Nuyorican poet Jesús Papoleto
Meléndez (Papo); a lively interview with Gabrielle David of
phati’tude and Papo on WBAI radio in NY; featured poet Iraqi-
Israeli poet Ronny Someck, as well as video clips, news
announcements, poetry, articles and more!

We’re also announcing the publication of phati’tude Literary
Magazine. Our submission deadline is March 1, 2010 for our
Spring 2010 issue, to debut in April 2010 in time for National
Poetry Month (check out our submission guidelines). One more
thing . . . we’re running a contest on our website at www.
phatitude.org – just fill in our survey and you can win a $100
gift certificate from Amazon.com. The survey helps us to better
serve the writers, artists and constituency we seek to serve.
Please let your members know about our services, I would
appreciate it if you would “catch phati’tude” and pass it on to
your members!

If you have any questions or inquiries, please feel free to
contact me at gdavid@phatitude.org.

phati’tude is a program incentive developed by the
Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc. (IAAS), a NY-
based nonprofit organization that promotes multicultural
literature and literacy (www.theiaas.org).

by Meredith Villano

In honor of Feb. 21-27, 2010 Paradigm Shift is seeking blog, graphic art, and video submissions related to eating disorder recovery.  Please let us know how you would like to be credited (by name or anonymous)- deadline, Friday March 5th.

Email submissions to: blog@paradigmshiftnyc.com

Since the early 1980s, and especially in the last 5-10 years, much has been written about the personal experience of EDs, societal/cultural pressures to be thin, negative media images, and the cult of the emaciated celebrity, while the experience of the recovery process hardly gets mentioned- which is to the detriment of those effected.  EDs are also far more complex than the mass media would have you believe. According to the there is a biological basis for EDs, “unlike a neurological disorder, which generally can be pinpointed to a specific lesion on the brain, an eating disorder likely involves abnormal activity distributed across brain systems. With increased recognition that mental disorders are brain disorders, more researchers are using tools from both modern neuroscience and modern psychology to better understand eating disorders”.  Studies have identified links between a specific gene variation as well as other biological predispositions for EDs.  On the other hand, some think that EDs stem only from a culturally based internalization of sexism.  Most will agree that it’s a combination of biological, environmental, emotional and behavioral factors.  A metaphor that has been used while thinking about how one develops an eating disorder (and best relates to my personal insight and observations):  biological factors (such as brain chemistry/genetic pre-dispositions) are like a gun, personality traits are the bullets, and environmental factors pull the metaphorical trigger.  ED recovery is a complex process that involves more than promoting and creating healthy media images and role models, and this process deserves more attention in order to save the lives, and better the lives of those effected.

We welcome your thoughts on the recovery process and treatment, in order in give hope to others and to better understand what has worked.

Ideas for submissions focusing on recovery:

• your experience of recovery and/or treatment- what keeps you healthy
• your professional experience of working in the field of EDs
• struggles with recovery, claiming the terms “in recovery” or “recovered”
• health insurance coverage
• how you have supported a friend, family member, partner or loved one
• feminism and ED recovery

Books on Feminism and EDs from a variety of perspectives:

By Jessica Yee

Call for submissions for book: Feminist education now: youth, activism, and intersectionality (working title – tentatively to be changed)

To be published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Winter 2011

Where is feminist education today? This is a question many people are asking, and I’d like to answer them in a book I’m putting together. Where do young people get to learn about feminism? And what the heck does feminism even mean to young people today? (and I’m talking about young, young people, not you 3rd year women’s studies person who might roll your eyes at my next set of questions. Maybe think of yourself before you got into women’s studies. Or if you ARE/WERE in women’s studies and think it’s kinda messed up, I’d like to hear about that too.) How come as a “theory” we don’t really hear about it unless we get to go to post-secondary type schooling, but in practice lots of us have been feminists of sorts throughout our entire lives. Why does it still look like a white-woman’s thing? Or not entirely sex-positive? What do young men have to say about it? Has there really been any intergenerational information sharing between those who might have “paved the way” and those who are thinking about identifying as feminists now?

With the working title of “Feminist education now: youth, activism, and intersectionality” I’d like to talk about all these issues and everything in between. Don’t like the word feminism? Please be my guest and talk about that – or if it helps to use words like “womanist” or “humanist” instead, or working for women’s rights, women’s empowerment, girls stuff, etc. then go that direction. I’m really interested in talking about the intersectionality of feminist education and breaking down the barriers of what constitutes “education”, where that might be, and according to whom. Education does not have to solely be within a school or school-type setting – if it happened on the street, in your kitchen, if it’s not happening at all, if you want it to happen some particular place – I want to hear about it.

What do I mean by feminism? No I don’t mean that it’s just about women, I mean all identities/definitions/euphemisms/pseudonyms than the English language of the colonizer can do justice to. Expand your mind.

What do I mean by intersectionality? Think of a street intersection and put yourself in the middle. There are lots of things that intersect the way people identify – for example I identify as a woman, as Indigenous, as bisexual, as multiracial and all of those things and way more come into play when I think about the way I want to learn things, i.e. feminist education. For me, I don’t exist as just one thing or another. In this book – I’d like to know about how feminism intersects (or doesn’t intersect) who you are.

Why is the word activism in the title? Because I think a lot of us are activists and even feminists and do education about the things we believe in without necessarily being sign-waving, chanting, picket-lining groups en-masse. I’ve often said some of the best activists I know are the ones who do it at home, wherever “home” might be – since that can sometimes be the hardest place to be passionate and true to the things you are fighting for.

What are we looking for in this book? Written, artistic, and otherwise creative submissions between 700 to 3000 words length if it’s an article. You are also very welcome to submit a photograph, an art piece, a poem, spoken word, etc. as well.

Can only “youth” submit something? Yes and no – preference will be given to young people under the age of 30 to be published in this book, however if you are over the age of 30 and would really like to say something – please submit and we’ll try and find a place for it, especially if you talk about young people in your piece.

Why would I want to write/create something for this book? Some folks like to have their name and stuff published, others just want their voices and ideas out there. You decide!

When do we want submissions by? Submission deadline is Monday, July 5th 2010

What if I don’t really understand what you are asking for or want help putting something together? Please feel free to get in touch with me and let’s chat! E-mail me directly at jessica.j.yee@gmail.com

All written, artistic, and creative submissions should be e-mailed with a Word doc. attachment and a 3 line author bio to Jessica Yee at jessica.j.yee@gmail.com no later than Monday July 5th 2010. If you would like to mail yours to a physical address instead, please let me know.