All blog posts written by Megan - Shameless Magazine - your daily dose of fresh feminism for girls and trans youth

All posts written by Megan Griffith-Greene

Page 2 of 4

- Arts
- Event Listings
Parkdale Street Writers are at it again!

November 21, 2008 • Megan Griffith-Greene

I’m a shameless fan of the Parkdale Street Writers, an awesome writing workshop full of cool, creative youth. We were thrilled to have some writing from the first workshop in the last issue. Well, a new set of workshops are slated to begin (info below). For more information, check out the website!

PARKDALE STREET WRITERS
(Coordinated by award-winning author Emily Pohl-Weary)
Calling all bloggers, poetry scribblers, epic e-mailers, and daydreamers thinking about writing an entire novel… The Parkdale Street Writers is for you! This series of free writing workshops for at-risk youth runs every Tuesday, from 4 to 6 pm, starting December 2, 2008. Learn about many different genres, including song lyrics and poetry, film scripts, short stories, interviews and reviews. Work directly with professional writers, comics creators, hip hop lyricists, novelists and illustrators to learn about the industry, get tips, and publish your work.

PARKDALE BOOK ARTISTS
(Coordinated by graphic novelist and illustrator Willow Dawson)
A series of free book art and illustration workshops for youth at risk in the Parkdale area. The program runs every Thursday from 4 to 6 pm, starting November 27 and ending June 25. Youth will work directly with local authors, illustrators and designers to create drawings, paintings, collages, graffiti, comics and other book or magazine related artwork. The program will culminate in the summer, with a group gallery exhibition and a publication showcasing their work.
- News Flash
Obamarama!

November 5, 2008 • Megan Griffith-Greene

Obama is the president elect. Holy crap!

For weeks now, I’ve been superstitiously yelling at anyone who said this was a sure thing, and now, exhausted from anxiety and the memory of four years ago, I’m absolutely, shamelessly delighted. And emotional.

Also: South Dakota defeated the proposed abortion ban. Hurrah!

More to say tomorrow. Now the sweet dreams of victory!
- Event Listings
- Media Savvy
Help Rabble raise a ruckus!

October 20, 2008 • Megan Griffith-Greene

This Thursday, we can’t think of a better way to celebrate Media Democracy Day than to help Rabble.ca raise a ruckus at their rocking relaunch.

Help Rabble.ca relaunch on Media Democracy Day!

As part of the celebration, there will be a panel that includes Linda McQuaig, Maude Barlow, Duncan Cameron and our own Shameless blogger, Jessica Yee, followed by a party with music from LAL (whose new album, Deportation, we raved about in the new issue).

Tickets are pay-what-you-can, and the event is all-ages. More information at rabble.ca/relaunch.
- All About Shameless
The new issue is finally here!

September 26, 2008 • Megan Griffith-Greene

Shameless magazine, issue 12

The new issue of Shameless is here! It’s packed with great stories, including:

Things we didn’t learn this summer: Monique Woolnough reflects on her years at camp and asks why the lessons about Native culture are so wrong

Abby Blinch teaches us how to build a better bonfire

Nicole Cohen watches the credits on Hollywood blockbusters and wonders who the writers are

Kate Bornstein talks about why we need more gender outlaws

Saintsierra Leonty shares what it’s like to live without residency status

The Parkdale Street Writers show us their stuff

Zahra Rasul gives us a history lesson about a controversial fashion accessory

plus: decode your political personality in our first Shameless quiz! (Why should bad women’s magazines have all the fun?)

If you’re in Toronto this weekend, make sure to come grab a copy at Word on the Street. If you’re outside the city, look for issues on a newsstand near you or subscribe online.
- Media Savvy
Dispatch from Shameless HQ

September 16, 2008 • Megan Griffith-Greene

I was also depressed by this morning’s sad note from Bitch. In fact, I was in the middle of drafting my own note about why saving Bitch Magazine is important, but Stacey May beat me to the punch. But I wanted to add a small note anyway about the situation from where I am sitting.

Shameless HQ is a little room in my apartment filled with back issues, mailing envelopes, letters and the piles of work which will soon materialize as a new, shiny issue. (I swear, it is on its way.) This is part of the reality of independent media: we don’t have an office; we toil away as volunteers after we come home from work and school, working on messy desks, like mine, in our own apartments. We don’t get huge cheques from advertisers and investors. Instead, we usually point out that advertisers sell most people short , especially young women.

Independent media is something we all feel quite passionate about, even if it means that Shameless will never be our full-time jobs. We stay independent because it means we can write about anything, because nobody owns us and there is no corporate board room demanding a higher profit margin. And we get to be in a community of other magazines that we think are pretty amazing - like Bitch and THIS - which a larger media empire might see as competitors. We prefer to see them as family.

We at Shameless HQ think it’s pretty important. (OK, the current staff in the Shameless HQ is me and a grumpy printer that’s running low on ink - but I think you get the picture.)

So thanks to our readers for your amazing support. If you can afford to, donate some money to Bitch (I just did). If you have some extra money, help us out by buying a subscription. The new issue is out really soon, and we’re quite determined that it will not be our last.
- On The Job
Tinkerbell protests for workers’ rights

August 15, 2008 • Megan Griffith-Greene

(AP via CNN)

Tinkerbell and Cinderella were arrested earlier this week, in the middle of a protest for workers’ rights. Don’t get too excited: Disney hasn’t come out with an unexpectedly awesome new movie. Instead, a group of Disneyland workers, many in costume, shut down a major thoroughfare in California trying to prevent Disney from taking away their benefits.

According to CNN:

The dispute involves about 2,300 maids, bell hops, cooks and dishwashers at three Disney-owned hotels: the Paradise Pier, the Grand Californian and the Disneyland Hotel.

The workers’ contract expired in February and their union says Disney’s latest proposal makes health care unaffordable for hundreds of employees and creates an unfair two-tier wage system. The union also says Disney wants to create a new category of part-time employees who would receive greatly reduced benefits.

Personally, I just like the image of Snow White with a picket sign, chanting slogans and getting hauled away in handcuffs. It’s actually a role model I could get behind, much more than Belle saving an abusive relationship with the Beast or any of the other gender and cultural stereotypes that Disney is well known for (and we’ve posted about them before here and here and here).
- All About Shameless
- Media Savvy
Shameless on CBC Radio!

August 15, 2008 • Megan Griffith-Greene

This week, Shameless co-founder Nicole Cohen was a guest on Q, CBC Radio’s arts and culture show. Nicole joined BUST founder Debbie Stoller in a lively discussion on why feminist magazines matter.

BUST just turned 15, a huge accomplishment for independent media. (When BUST turned five, Stoller was quoted as saying “much like crime, BUST doesn’t pay.”)

If you missed the show, catch it again online.
- Body Politics
The stress case

June 30, 2008 • Megan Griffith-Greene

I have a lot of stress. I have a day job, a secret identity as the editor of this very fine magazine, a whack of hobbies (some of which, like making wedding cakes, are a lot of work), a ton of great friends, a fantastic relationship, and at the end of the day, I still have to find time to cook, do laundry, and, once in a while, sleep. I’ve always been a “workaholic”, and so have many amazing, super-accomplished women I know. Leisure time, what’s that?

Of course, society has taught us all to believe that stress is harming us: it makes us more likely to get sick, and less likely to get a good night’s sleep, conceive a child and all kinds of good, healthy things. Which is why I enjoyed Peggy Orenstein’s column in last weekend’s New York Times Magazine. It makes the case that some of what we believe about stress is anti-feminist crap.

(more inside…)
Teen writing workshop and other events that make us want to Scream (in a good way)

June 20, 2008 • Megan Griffith-Greene

The Scream Literary Festival is coming up again, and there are a few events that we at Shameless are particularly excited about.

First of all, Julie Wilson, who runs the delightful Seen Reading blog is going to be running a writing workshop for teens called Seen Writing. The workshop, which is free, will be followed by readings by young poets Rupi Natt and Aaryn Zhou. Check out the event on Saturday, July 5th at 4:30 at the Tinto Cafe, 89 Roncesvalles Ave.

On July 11, the Toronto Women’s Bookstore is going to be hosting poets Camille Martin, Harmony Rice and Monica Rosas.
Camille Martin, a poet and collage artist, works with both found and original materials; Harmony Rice is a reporter for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, publisher of SPIRIT Magazine and a burlesque dancer; Monica Rosas is an educator/agitator/artist whose work aims to challenge and provoke discussion on gender, the environment and the visible minority experience. Readings will touch on issues of language, authorship and power, space and place, land and its ownership, the body, and belonging.

And last but not least, on July 14, the Scream in High Park mainstage event has a terrific lineup this year including Dani Couture, rap-storytelling-poet Motion and Skim author Mariko Tamaki. Sigh.

Find out more about the Scream Literary Festival on the website.
- Activist Report
- Body Politics
Abortion boat runs aground on the way to Ecuador

June 17, 2008 • Megan Griffith-Greene

Women on Waves, the amazing Dutch abortion activism group, has hit a snag, but isn’t letting that stop them. We wrote about WOW in the last issue: the group captains a ship called Harmony, which drops anchor in international waters off the coast of countries where abortion is illegal, and gives women access to safe, medical abortion. In doing so, they have been successful at getting reproductive rights back on the public agenda (and Portugal, where Harmony was met by warships four years ago, finally legalized abortion last year).

After dealing with bureaucratic mess where the ship lost its Dutch license, Harmony was back on the water, headed this time to Ecuador, where the World Health Organization estimates that 95,000 illegal and dangerous abortions take place every year. Unsafe abortion leads to 30,000 hospitalizations and is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in Ecuador.

Unfortunately, the ship ran aground in a tropical storm. But they’re not letting that stop them. (more inside…)