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Thanks to Jessica Hoffmann for alerting me to a new project I'm thrilled to spread the word about:

Enough: The Personal Politics of Resisting Capitalism

Enough is a space for conversations about creating shared values and practices around wealth redistribution, how to sustain grassroots movements, how to resist capitalism in our everyday lives.

Please go there now!  Read, comment, send your thoughts and ideas, submit your essays, and spread the word...

Isn't our new website pretty?  I'm really excited about it. Except that when I clicked on the blog page, I freaked out when I saw all of our staff/founder images, with little bits of information about us. In fact I freaked out so much that I called our web design team and begged them to take it down; it felt so exposing and self-important!  They suggested I write a blog post instead and ask some questions to y'all, so here's a stab... 

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I often think about how to build community around the work we're doing without replicating (among other things) the cult of celebrity. That's a tall order in our culture, where even in progressive and radical communities, we often see the same few talking heads saying the same things. But if we're committed to real systemic change, I believe we have to reckon with this.

I promise I won't always hijack my blog to write about my dad, but on the heels of the first Father's Day since my dad died, today would have been his 68th birthday. I sit here reflecting further, trying to connect to him emotionally/psychically, swimming in memories, thankful that the experience of walking him to his death shifted the focus of my mind and heart to sweet moments rather than sites of pain and struggle in our relationship. Thankful, too, that it's further pushing and inspiring my own political analysis, helping me put words to what's been (growing) inside. I continue to work through this complicated web of feelings, continue the process of opening my heart, continue looking for words and ways to speak, heal, connect, create an integrated/politicized identity/experience that feels both respectful and loving to myself and my experience and accountable/honest to others. And I think about how to best open doors for others to come through and speak (I don't mean to imply here that others need my assistance to speak, but that I strive to be always-conscious of the privilege being affiliated with Bitch brings, and the many ways I can actively work toward building an inclusive and collective movement for liberation). About experiences and identities that are often overlooked or ignored. About family politics... The politics of love and death... The politics of the ways we live our lives... The politics of unlearning and (re)building... The politics of justice, compassion, home, intimacy, "safety"... 

Since today is Father's Day, I want to take some time to reflect on my dad, and try to start giving voice to some ideas and pain and anger that have been simmering in my mind.

My dad died this past winter after a shitty and long battle with cancer (he was a life-long smoker). He was 67. Now I know this might seem like a particularly loaded way of bringing politics down to the level of personal (and thus emotional), but here's the thing. I've been doing a lot reading lately. Of books, of blogs, of zines, magazines, chapbooks, of vision statements and organizing principles of self-described radical organizations and people... I've also been doing a lot of listening. And struggling to find the language to pull these ideas and feelings out of my head/heart, thoughts about identities and experiences. Critiques of which ones are validated/politicized and which ones aren't, and which others aren't even considered as possibilities for political analysis. And I've been struggling to even speak because, who knows? Maybe I haven't considered enough. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe I haven't been as thoughtful as I think I have. Maybe I haven't searched hard enough.

Please join these participatory discussions about how—and whether—feminism can become a transformative, justice-centered movement for social change.

• How can we drive attention to the power, privilege, and marginalization that continue to play out in feminist communities, and how can those of us with power and privilege become genuine and effective allies to those without it?
• How can we collectively create a feminist/media/justice movement that doesn't rely on white supremacy, class privilege, and economic exploitation?
• Can the idea of feminism shift to foreground an uncompromising, transformative commitment to systemic social change, or is it time to evolve to new language?