damn.
i just got back from detroit and the Allied Media Conference, and my mind feels sluggish and overloaded. it was amazing. and saying amazing says nothing, right? it made me feel alive to be around people capable of imagining the world being different, and not just waiting for those changes to happen, but being part of it all.
and maybe was was so powerful was not so much witnessing all the inspiring projects and work that people are doing aorund the country, the inventiveness and committment, or the strenght and humility. what hit me was how comfortable i felt in that space, where i didn’t have to chose one identity, one self, but i could be me, a woman, a parent, a non- american person, a poor person, someone that has a disability, a not straight person,and everything else that i am.
the ones i met also had complicated identities, and there was no need to make them simpler in order for us to relate, or understand each other. it was a space of acceptance, but also inquiry and curiousity.
still, my mind was blown by many actual projects people are organizing, namely the “generation 5” project, “the center for digital storytelling“, and “Silence Speaks“.
undoubtedly coming back to bloomington comes with a range of feelings. i have been questioning for a long time whether this could be the place i call home, and not just where i went to college. i have tried to imagine how i could make my life the way i want it here, and no matter the amount of openness, the answer is pretty clear. i can’t shake the sense of isolation that lingers in seeing the priorities of the people around me being so different. not better or worse, but different.
1 Comment
June 25, 2008 at 9:48 am
Hey there,
It was great to meet you at the AMC. Sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk more. (conferences overwhelm me and it takes me a couple of days to figure out how to socialize and by then, the conference is over!)
A couple of years ago, another mama zinester friend and I put together a pamphlet called “don’t leave your friends behind” on basically the same theme (the need for community support of radical parents and families). The pdf is here: http://bengal. missouri. edu/%7Emaxwellr/DontLeaveYourFriendsBehind. pdf
I forgot to put the url on the handout that mai’a and I passed around. It’s got stories and anecdotes of ways in which mothers have felt supported (or ostracized) by their communities. Feel free to copy it, use it, pass it around and I hope that it helps the folks that you interact with understand a bit more about supporting the parent in their midst.
Travel safe!
v