Attending a general interest conference or workshop (3 pts)

 

From September 12 to 13, I had the opportunity to travel with faculty from the Women's Research and Resource Center to Beverly Hills, California, to attend Ms. Magazine's launch of their digital archive and an accompanying workshop. Ms. Magazine is well-known as one of the first mainstream feminist publications, with its first issue being published in 1971. The Spelman College Women's Research and Resource Center has a long-standing relationship with Ms., and on this particular occasion, Ms. Holly Smith, our beloved college archivist, and Dr. M. Bahati Kuumba, Associate Director of the Women's Research and Resource Center, as well as my mentor, were both leading sessions on archives and gender and social movements, respectively. 

The launch night featured a keynote conversation between renowned reproductive justice activist Loretta Ross and public historian Lorissa Rinehart. Ross discussed her work in the reproductive justice and broader feminist movement, as well as the many lessons she learned along the way, along with her analysis of the current political moment and what we must do to contend with it. She emphasized her concept of "calling in" versus calling out and the need to build alliances with those with whom we may not agree. I have mixed feelings about this idea, because while I understand the need for solidarity across differences, I am also wary of capitulating to values with which I am vehemently opposed under the guise of making peace. 

The next day featured several concurrent sessions that addressed a variety of topics related to feminism and gender as a whole. In a session titled "Ms. + Sister Feminist Archives", Ms. Holly Smith, along with others, discussed the work that they did at their institutions to promote feminist and queer archives, with Ms. Holly focusing on the work that the Spelman Archives does to preserve the legacies of radical Black and queer feminist writers Audre Lorde and Toni Cade Bambara. Ms. is attempting to do similar work through curating their own archive.

Although I enjoyed a few aspects of the event, especially those featuring Spelman representatives, I was overall disappointed with what I observed of Ms. as a publication and organization. As pictured, I wore my keffiyeh as a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinian people and the current genocide that they are experiencing. I was dismayed to find that Palestine nor the genocides occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, or elsewhere were being addressed. Despite their claims of "multiculturalism", Ms. is still dominated by a liberal white feminist orientation that I simply don't align with. I am still grateful that I had the opportunity to go, because it gave me some insight into what the "mainstream" feminist movement looks like, and it has made me more grateful for my exposure to radical Black feminist thought.

- Gabrielle Cassell