Originally posted at Elephant Journal.

The Tantric Dance of Feminine Power with Nita Rubio.

Watching Nita dance is watching poetry in motion.

Witnessing Nita is witnessing the Goddess.

Nita has long been a secret treasure for women in Los Angeles and Orange County,whose reach and influence is growing. Flowing with grace, wisdom and strength, Nita empowers women by “aligning them with their internal compass.” In a female-only space, women have the opportunity to turn inward, identify beauty devoid of the male gaze and dance spirit into being.

For over a decade, Nita has been passing on the ancient wisdom of the divine feminine, a sacred element contained in every woman waiting to be accessed. Through this work, Nita guides women as they access that wisdom. In doing so, women come in contact with the knowing of the body and are able to enliven, heal, create community and recognize the Goddess as they stand before the mirror and behold themselves.  Tapping into these gifts is made possible by the energetic container that Nita facilitates, a container marked by female solidarity and support. 

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Originally posted at Elephant Journal.

Sisterhood, the Divine Feminine and Magic Making…in the Joshua Tree Highlands.

What do you get when you take 12 women of different ages, races, sizes and socioeconomic classes and place them in a large dome in the desert? No, this isn’t a pitch for yet another reality show or a tabloid headline. But if it was, the answer would be “catfight!”

After all, according to the most prolific genre of television today and the looming tabloids that greet us at every check-out counter, girls and women are competitive, back-stabbing, smack-talking “mean girls.” You know, those bitchy girls who don’t have friends but have plenty of “frenemies” that they keep under close scrutiny as they vie for the same prize, namely male attention…as a barometer of self-worth.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not just the toxic pop culture environment that we’re all swimming in (whether we like it or not) that unfairly portrays girls and women in this superficial way. Truth be told, I’ve had my fair share of bad experiences with women over the years. Those experiences left enough of a bad taste in my mouth that I’d proudly proclaim in my snarky Valley girl way, “I’m not friends with girls. All girls are bitches. I’m just friends with guys.”

I felt privileged and cool to be part of the “boys club.”

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Via Zoe Nicholson. Information posted on Facebook and cross posted here.

6th Annual Social Justice Summit @ Cal State University, Fullerton

Saturday, April 17, 2010 @ 800 N State College Blvd. Fullerton CA 92831

9:00am-5:00pm

The Social Justice Summit provides a forum for people to exchange ideas about improving the state of our communities, offers space to dialogue about the obstacles to creating effective change, provides effective tools for social action, and offers tangible grassroots solutions.

Learn about human rights issues, environmental concerns, inequality and oppression on a local, national and global level.

The Social Justice Summit is a FREE event, open to the public.

***Summit Highlights***

Empowering Workshops: Workshops will focus not only on educating participants, but also empowering them to bring about change in our community.

Resource Fair: The Resource Fair will feature campus and community organizations that provide attendees opportunities to get involved in social action.

Great music by: JAYAR

The Social Justice Summit is dedicated to providing a Green Summit through utilizing recycled and biodegradable materials, sweatshop-free apparel, organic and vegan food. The purpose of having a Green Summit is to encourage participants to make everyday choices based on environmentally conscious and socially responsible decisions.

As Thursday’s presenter Carla Ohrendorff said, “the bad-assery” was tangible.  WAM! Los Angeles brought together media makers, activists, and feminists for 2 days of films, video remix, critical analysis, and collaboration.

Blogging/videoblogging, tweeting, and lecturing are powerful tools that allow the feminist movement’s momentum to continue, connecting and expanding the community of activists. But, nothing beats the opportunity to get a bunch of fabulous people together providing the time and space to teach, learn and inspire, leaving us all feeling connected to something larger than ourselves and our immediate peer group. And that’s what WAM! allowed us to do.

After 2 days of events that included the opportunity to socialize, laugh and share ideas for future projects over the communal potluck at Friday night’s movie mixer, I felt high. The collective spirit was palpable and energizing. And while we were “waming” it in Los Angeles, feminist media activists were waming it in Boston, Chicago, New York, D.C., and San Antonio. Knowing that women and men were taking part in similar events, tapping into and invoking the “bad-assery” in their respective communities, not only connected me to the larger national collective but to the spirit of consciousness-raising groups of the second wave of feminism that were integral in creating social and political change.

Like most, I am prone to moments of doubt and self-sabotage (do I have anything to say? does this make a difference?), but the solidarity evident last week in Los Angeles and knowing there other cites across the United States were drumming up the same collective momentum in the same way second-wavers did in CR groups is more than enough to shake off the self-doubt and move forward.

That’s exactly what WAM! is about.

The revolution will be televised by people like me and people like you (thanks to Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency who ended her segment on Thursday with the following clip.)

Recently, Kamala Lopez and Tobie Loomis, partners on the ERA Today campaign and the film A Single Woman, visited my classes to discuss the ERA Today campaign and the many large and small ways we can make our voices heard and create change.

The class discussion was electric and we all left feeling empowered and inspired. Kamala and Tobie have continued to dialogue with the class and myself through blogging and email (I’ll blog more on the incredible collaborative outcome in the future). This post is simply to share the following email from Kamala, received yesterday.

One of my former students sent me a link to Nicholas Kristof’s latest op-ed piece in the New York Times. He explores the world of child marriages and makes a correlation between societal violence and the degree of female repression in that society.

It’s hard to imagine that there have been many younger divorcées — or braver ones — than a pint-size third grader named Nujood Ali.

Nujood is a Yemeni girl, and it’s no coincidence that Yemen abounds both in child brides and in terrorists (and now, thanks to Nujood, children who have been divorced). Societies that repress women tend to be prone to violence.

Not only was I excited to read yet another piece by Kristof detailing the global injustices waged against girls and women, I was excited that Samantha had sent me that link the morning after I had attended the Half the Sky event in celebration of International Women’s Day. The event created  an educational platform to foster dialogue about global women’s rights violations, make these violations center stage and offer solutions and examples of triumph. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn authored the book that inspired the movement and last night’s event.

Last night’s event and this morning’s message from Samantha linking me to Kristof’s article came after an inspiring morning with my classes yesterday and the women from Global Girl Media and Heroica Films. The morning was an inspiring mix of presentation and brainstorming. The power of the new media, online social networking and spreading the word became inspiring themes, themes that are not unfamiliar to many of us but themes that came alive for many for the first time and became alive again for many others (myself included).

These 3 events combined have stoked the fire anew. After decades of activism and consciousness-raising, I can never be reminded enough about the power of community, the connections that spark our imaginations and hearts and the power of spreading the word by any means necessary.

So often we women are quick to judge other women and I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone given the suspicion and competition that is encouraged between girls and women in the media and the culture at large.

Skinny bitch. Slut. Ho.

Those are just some of the names we hurl at other women that we don’t think we have anything in common with. We judge other women on their hair, clothing, color, size and relationship status. We assume that we won’t like one another and don’t bother to take a chance. Now, I am not saying we’ll have commonalities and connections with every women we may come across but we certainly have the potential for connection and solidarity with a more diverse group of women than we imagine.

I wrote about this in September 2008 after I returned from one of the many women-centered retreats I have helped organize and attended with my teacher, Nita Rubio, and the women I have circled with over the years. But, since that last retreat, I entered my second trimester, had a beautiful baby boy and lost my sense of self and sisterhood in the process.

It’s easy to do when you’re recovering from a c-section and adjusting to the needs of new baby. Somewhere in the process my individual identity got mixed up with the dirty diapers and pumping.

This past weekend was my first weekend away from my boy since he was born last February. It was my first weekend immersed with a group of women that gathered with intention in a sacred female space in over a year.

I forgot how much I needed this despite my clear sense of longing and isolation as I nurtured my newborn babe.

Even so, I found myself with the same tendency to judge. We were 13 women among the Joshua Trees of the desert, away from partners, children, and careers. I have known many of the women for years in circle, many I had never met. Despite teaching Women’s Studies and lecturing on the division that is encouraged among women and despite the enriching experiences I have had with my community of women, I still find myself quick to stereotype and judge.

As always, I was confronted with my judgements and the walls I erected hastily were smashed and I was able to meet a plethora of amazing women of various walks of life. I am grateful for the ability to move past these superficial boundaries more quickly than I was able to as a young woman but the fact that these judgements still arise is noteworthy and troubling.

By the end of our 4 days communing together in the desert over delicious food, in the hot tub, in the sacred dance, late night wine, laughter and deep conversation I felt deep gratitude for the lessons I was offered and the reminder that we women have a lot to offer one another if we can move beyond our culturally embedded assumptions and suspicions.

Sisterhood is still powerful.

To read Nita Rubio’s post on this past weekend, click here.

Picture taken by Nita Rubio. Joshua Tree Highlands, 2010.

The documentary chronicles the women’s movement in Liberia that helped put an end to more than a decade of civil war, rape and terror.  Never underestimate the power of the collective.

Bob Mondello reported on the upcoming documentary and interviewed Gini Reticker and Leymah Gbowee:

In telling their story, Gini Reticker’s passionate documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell uses testimony from women who joined forces, with parallel efforts in the Christian and Muslim communities, to fight back with moral rectitude as their sisters and daughters were being raped, their husbands murdered, their babies maimed.

Leymah Gbowee recalls turning a dream she had — of gathering women to pray for peace — into public activism. Other women recount horrific tales of the ways in which gun-toting 10-year-old boys brutalized whole towns.

And Reticker’s camera follows along as the women slowly, patiently create a national movement that engages in increasingly dangerous confrontations with a ruthless dictator — and ultimately, at peace talks, with brutal revolutionary warlords who are at least as dangerous as the man they’re all fighting.

Yes, we can.

This piece by Marianne Schnall is moving, inspirational and a powerful example of the collective spirit of women.

Marianne Schall’s intention in writing this piece is as follows:

“As a woman, I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed and shaken by this election season, the highs and lows of it all. On the one hand, I have been feeling powerful — everyone is talking about women and our decisive influence in this election. Even the cover of the September 22nd issue of Newsweek is asking, “What do women want?” It’s a good question. So many important themes and dialogues have been raised during this election season — about identity politics, what we expect from a woman leader, sexism in the media, diversity in the feminist movement, what masculine and feminine values are, and about Sarah Palin and the “Palin effect.” It all made me want to talk to other women, to get clarity, to gain insight. I tried to think about what I, personally, could do to contribute to this dialogue.

I realized that, through my many years as a writer and as founder of the women’s website and non-profit organization, Feminist.com, I possessed extensive contacts with a diverse cross-section of well-known and respected women. So, I decided to pose identical questions by e-mail to some of these dynamic women and just see what came in. Some of the responses I got were by e-mail, some by impromptu phone interviews, but, it was clear that people felt the urge to talk and vent their thoughts.”

One of my favorite (of many) quotes:

Isabel Allende:
“Sisters, look at the issues, not color, gender or age of the candidates. Obama represents hope and change, he has ideals, he brings light and intelligence to a stagnant political situation that has lasted too long and has left the country economically bankrupt, trapped in a never ending war and divided. Sisters, be informed, work for the best candidate, vote and make sure that everybody around you votes too. Show up or we will all regret it. Obama is the girls in the race.”

I just spent a weekend in the glorious land of Big Sur with 14 phenomenal women from a broad array of backgrounds.  Heterosexual. Lesbian. Bi. Mothers. Daughters. Sisters. Lovers. Single. Married. Formally educated.  Educated by personal experience. Comfortable.  Working class. Extroverted.  Shy and introspective. Young. Mature. Timeless.

I’ve been  a member of this particular community for three years and a consciously identified feminist for 17 years.  I am still confronted by my own internalized sexism and suspicion when I circle or gather with women.  I am still prone to judgment and competition.  As a young girls, we are socialized to see other girls as a source of competition.  Very often, our best friends are our most intense rivals. As an educator, I constantly hear young women referring to other women as “skinny bitches,” “sluts,” “bitches” and “hos.”

Who’s surprised?  Growing up in a patriarchal culture, girls/women understand from an early age that we will be measured according to the patriarchal standard.  We are measured by the male gaze.  We vie for attention and resources are limited.

In the vein of consciousness-raising groups of second wave feminism, these communities are invaluable to me, specifically, because they bring these deeply entrenched feelings to the surface and allow them to evaporate in an environment of support. Something remarkably different emerges when women gather with intention and purpose.

As I gathered with these beautiful women over the course of three days last weekend, I was given the incredible gift of insight, wisdom and solidarity.  I can not deny the power of this kind of company or the inspiration this type of community provides.

When I read the piece by Marianne Schnall, I was given pause to reflect and cherish the multiple communities of women I am bound to.  I was and am in deep gratitude.  When I read the voices of the remarkable women Schnall featured in her article, I was and am in deep gratitude for their ability to reach thousands of other women. Each of these women weave in and out of their own communities and collectively we embody a solid mass of women.

We are all remarkable and we all have the power to use our voice.  I am in deep gratitide for women all across the globe that, seen or unseen, commune and strive for social and political change that is equitable and just.