Gloria Feldt's Blog, page 19

She's Doing It: Jamia Wilson Learns Resilience and Power of Inter-generational Bonds

I'm a little biased about Jamia Wilson having had the pleasure of knowing her and working with her as we both went through several career transitions during the last decade.

She's an inspiration to me because of her seamless commitment to social justice and her positive way of putting her ideas into action.

Her responses to my questions continue the series in which I ask people I interviewed for No Excuses what they've learned since then. You can connect with Jamia on Facebook and Twitter.

Gloria Feldt: In No Excuses, I asked, "When did you know you had the power to _____?"  What have you learned about your power to _____ during the past year or so?

Jamia Wilson: In the past year or so, I have learned so much about faith and perseverance.  I have faced many triumphs and challenges during a transitional time in my life and have learned so much.

The rough edges and moments where I stared fear in the face taught me about the importance of courage and authenticity above all else. I have learned that I have the power to choose to be who I am authentically without apology and let that guide me towards realizing my dreams and my highest power.

As Janis Joplin said, "Don't compromise yourself, you're all you've got".  2010-2011's greatest gift to me was an appreciation for my own resilience and that to me is one of my most sacred superpowers.

GF: Was there a moment when you felt very powerful recently?

JW: I have learned so much about being powerful in the midst of times when I have felt powerless. The last few years have taught me a lot about the power of letting go.

I feel powerful each time I release myself from the clutches of fear and anxiety about conforming to a specific standard or potential judgment from others and trust in myself.

In Return to Love, Marianne Williamson wrote "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us".

The last few years has taught me so much about accepting, honoring, and nurturing my light and celebrating  my truth without fear.

I had several experiences over the last year that pushed me to trust in my personal power, fight fears and step up and amplify my voice—this included going on TV for my first appearance on The Today Show, speaking on a panel with dynamic women like Gloria Feldt, Shelby Knox, and Gloria Steinem, and presenting at the Anita Hill 20th anniversary conference. I felt powerful being "me" in each of those spaces—and understanding and trusting in my voice.

If I were to align this lesson with a power tool I would say, I have felt most powerful by working toward defining myself on my own terms and basking in the glow of what that practice engenders. Being in the presence of women who embody, voice, and live this same purpose has helped me realize this vision and practice for myself.

 GF:  Which of the 9 Ways Power Tools have you used or do you particularly resonate with?

JW: It is so hard to pick one tool! I love them all—Know your history  and Tell Your Story are two power tools that resonate with me the most.

My story has been informed by my ancestors and all of their sacrifices to make the world a place where I can thrive and realize my fullest potential. Their stories of transformation, and endurance guide me through the darkest times and have led me to use the power that I possess to make the world a better place for generations that follow. Honoring those who came and fought for justice before me motivates me to share my story and make an impact in my own unique way.

GF:  For the first time in history, gender parity at work, in civic life, and in personal relationships seems possible—if we choose to make it so. That's my take. What's yours? What are the signs that tell you I'm right, or that make you think I'm overly optimistic?

JW: I believe that we have the power to choose how to respond to every situation that we face with the tools, resources, consciousness, and capacity to understand that we have at any given moment.

My father  recently he gave me some excellent advice, he said: "You can only play the hand you're dealt, because the hand you're dealt is the only hand you control. Just make sure you play the cards you do have right".

I appreciated his wisdom because it was hopeful while realistic about some of the barriers that exist within a world that is not always fair, just, or equitable for women, and women  of color like myself and others from marginalized communities.

Even though the laws on the books might have changed, there are still social and cultural inequalities that make it so that many of us have to navigate the workplace, educational system, and civic participation differently.

I'm enthusiastic about the potential for change but know we haven't arrived yet. We have lots of work to do.

At the same time, I will acknowledge that the change we make within ourselves and the efforts we make to be our best selves with the resources is always a positive step in the right direction toward parity. It is extremely important for us to "be the change" no matter what we face if we ever hope to take things to the next level.

GF:  What other observations about women's relationship with power or leadership do you want to share?

JW: I have gained a tremendous amount of wisdom by engaging, cultivating, and maintaining strong inter-generational bonds and partnerships with diverse women. Participating in several women's circles and connecting with mentors and partners from a variety of different spaces has helped me grow and change exponentially.

I feel very powerful when surrounded by smart, dynamic, and fierce women—I always feel that my energetic frequency is elevated when it is a part of a community of women with strong, brave, and brilliant hearts and minds.

I have also learned that writing is an extremely cathartic and empowering form of expression and wielding one's powerful voice. I am so blessed to have contributed chapters in two new books in the last year:  Madonna and Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop and Women, Spirituality, and Transformative Leadership: Where Grace Meets Power.

I hope to use my power to raise my voice even more in 2012 and beyond.

Slutwalks and Such: Who’s Making Women’s History Today?

Big thanks and kudos to Catherine Engh for contributing some terrific posts this Women’s History Month. As we end WHM for 2012, here’s one more from Catherine that I know you’ll enjoy, and I hope you’ll think about and take a moment to share your comments. I’ve written a different take on Slutwalk but Catherine has almost persuaded me…

This last year, women around the world made history, protesting victim-blaming online as well as on foot. The Slutwalk movement began after a Toronto police officer told a group of college women that if they hoped to escape sexual assault, they should avoid dressing like “sluts.”

Victim-blaming last year was by no means isolated to this public incident. A young woman who pressed rape charges against two New York City police officers could not be believed, in part, because she was drunk. When an 11-year-old Texas girl was allegedly gang-raped by 19 men, The New York Times ran a story quoting neighbors saying that she habitually wore makeup and dressed in clothes more appropriate for a 20-year-old. The maid who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of rape has been discredited for being a liar, and The New York Post claimed she was a prostitute.

The women and men who marched in Slutwalks in more than 70 cities around the world last year were fed up with this kind of symbolic violence. The Slutwalk movement was organized around one central message: the relentless interrogation of women’s characters and narratives after they have been raped is deeply problematic and not to be tolerated. Whether wearing a bikini or a power suit, women and their stories are to be respected, not subject to demeaning scrutiny based upon their performance of gender or sexuality.

The movement drew a mixed response from the feminist blogosphere. As protesters donned bras, halter tops and garter belts, feminists worried that the women’s physical embodiment of the term ‘slut’ re-produced the oppressive stereotypes (virgin/whore binary) that operated to control their narratives, bodies and experiences in the first place. Did these women’s reclamation of the slur obscure the root of the issue—victim blaming? Some saw the provocative term and accompanying spectacle as a necessary and effective way of garnering widespread public attention. Others worried about exclusion, noting that certain cultures that value ‘public dignity’ would be unable to participate. Some feminists of color pointed out that the term slut is predominately used to denote white women, while black women are called hoes. Thus, the most marginalized, those who are most susceptible to public shaming in our culture, were not spoken for by the movement.

Considering SlutWalks in relation to women’s History, I couldn’t help but draw a few parallels to the Taking Back the Night marches of 1970s second wave feminism. Both Slutwalks and Take Back the Night have taken up the issue of violence against women’s bodies with mixed responses from the feminist community.

Take back the Night first appeared in the Unites States in 1975 when citizens of Philadelphia rallied together after the murder of young microbiologist, Susan Alexander Speeth, who was stabbed by a stranger a block from her home while walking alone. Three years later, Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media used the slogan to organize a march through the red-light district of San Francisco in protest of rape and pornography, which they identified with the sexualized subordination of women. At this same time, women around the world were taking up the issue of sexual violence, locally organizing marches, most notably in Belgium, West Germany, Leeds and Rome.

Radical Feminist Andrea Dworkin spoke at the march in San Francisco, pointing out that, at night, women are forced to choose between confinement and danger. She urged women to fight for their freedom to move without fear in public space. As the movement sought to raise public awareness about the ways that violence permeates the lives and bodies of women around the world, Dworkin’s radical anti-pornography feminism marked a divide that was to splinter the feminist movement.

Radical feminists such as Dworkin and Susan Brownmiller saw pornography as violently re-capitulating a culture in which women’s bodies are objectified, in which they exist solely as objects of male desire. Other feminists saw the limitations to a logic in which all feminist analysis was reduced to conceptualizations of female sexuality as always Other, always oppressed, and ultimately without existence.

Take Back the Night events have continued on college campuses to this day. The women-only policies have caused controversy on some campuses; activists arguing that male allies and sexual assault survivors should be allowed to march in support of women. In response, events have evolved on some campuses. At Wesleyan University, men as well as women are given the opportunity to speak up about their experiences of sexual assault.

Take Back the Night and SlutWalks have bravely sought to communicate their respective messages through grassroots organization, fighting symbolic and manifest violence enacted on women’s bodies by cultures infused with mysogyny. While critics found the execution and language of Slutwalks to be problematic and Take Back the Night’s insistence on patriarchal sexual domination limiting, both movements certainly stirred up the public conversation and got us thinking about how to best conceive of a feminist politics that accommodates for difference.

So at the end of Women’s History Month, I would like to express gratitude to all those fearless women who have taken to the streets to combat social policing of gender and sexuality. I would also like to acknowledge the value of smart dissent. The opinions of those who have been outspoken about their problems with these movements are invaluable, whether they took issue with exclusion or the problematics of a universalizing feminism. As the organizers of SlutWalks NYC say on their website, “We cannot forget our past mistakes. If we do, we’ll never be better feminists; that’s what we want more than anything.” Feminist activism, analysis and organization can only benefit from the action of all those who marched, organized and took their stand.

Slutwalks and Such: Who's Making Women's History Today?

Big thanks and kudos to Catherine Engh for contributing some terrific posts this Women's History Month. As we end WHM for 2012, here's one more from Catherine that I know you'll enjoy, and I hope you'll think about and take a moment to share your comments. I've written a different take on Slutwalk but Catherine has almost persuaded me…

This last year, women around the world made history, protesting victim-blaming online as well as on foot. The Slutwalk movement began after a Toronto police officer told a group of college women that if they hoped to escape sexual assault, they should avoid dressing like "sluts."

Victim-blaming last year was by no means isolated to this public incident. A young woman who pressed rape charges against two New York City police officers could not be believed, in part, because she was drunk. When an 11-year-old Texas girl was allegedly gang-raped by 19 men, The New York Times ran a story quoting neighbors saying that she habitually wore makeup and dressed in clothes more appropriate for a 20-year-old. The maid who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of rape has been discredited for being a liar, and The New York Post claimed she was a prostitute.

The women and men who marched in Slutwalks in more than 70 cities around the world last year were fed up with this kind of symbolic violence. The Slutwalk movement was organized around one central message: the relentless interrogation of women's characters and narratives after they have been raped is deeply problematic and not to be tolerated. Whether wearing a bikini or a power suit, women and their stories are to be respected, not subject to demeaning scrutiny based upon their performance of gender or sexuality.

The movement drew a mixed response from the feminist blogosphere. As protesters donned bras, halter tops and garter belts, feminists worried that the women's physical embodiment of the term 'slut' re-produced the oppressive stereotypes (virgin/whore binary) that operated to control their narratives, bodies and experiences in the first place. Did these women's reclamation of the slur obscure the root of the issue—victim blaming? Some saw the provocative term and accompanying spectacle as a necessary and effective way of garnering widespread public attention. Others worried about exclusion, noting that certain cultures that value 'public dignity' would be unable to participate. Some feminists of color pointed out that the term slut is predominately used to denote white women, while black women are called hoes. Thus, the most marginalized, those who are most susceptible to public shaming in our culture, were not spoken for by the movement.

Considering SlutWalks in relation to women's History, I couldn't help but draw a few parallels to the Taking Back the Night marches of 1970s second wave feminism. Both Slutwalks and Take Back the Night have taken up the issue of violence against women's bodies with mixed responses from the feminist community.

Take back the Night first appeared in the Unites States in 1975 when citizens of Philadelphia rallied together after the murder of young microbiologist, Susan Alexander Speeth, who was stabbed by a stranger a block from her home while walking alone. Three years later, Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media used the slogan to organize a march through the red-light district of San Francisco in protest of rape and pornography, which they identified with the sexualized subordination of women. At this same time, women around the world were taking up the issue of sexual violence, locally organizing marches, most notably in Belgium, West Germany, Leeds and Rome.

Radical Feminist Andrea Dworkin spoke at the march in San Francisco, pointing out that, at night, women are forced to choose between confinement and danger. She urged women to fight for their freedom to move without fear in public space. As the movement sought to raise public awareness about the ways that violence permeates the lives and bodies of women around the world, Dworkin's radical anti-pornography feminism marked a divide that was to splinter the feminist movement.

Radical feminists such as Dworkin and Susan Brownmiller saw pornography as violently re-capitulating a culture in which women's bodies are objectified, in which they exist solely as objects of male desire. Other feminists saw the limitations to a logic in which all feminist analysis was reduced to conceptualizations of female sexuality as always Other, always oppressed, and ultimately without existence.

Take Back the Night events have continued on college campuses to this day. The women-only policies have caused controversy on some campuses; activists arguing that male allies and sexual assault survivors should be allowed to march in support of women. In response, events have evolved on some campuses. At Wesleyan University, men as well as women are given the opportunity to speak up about their experiences of sexual assault.

Take Back the Night and SlutWalks have bravely sought to communicate their respective messages through grassroots organization, fighting symbolic and manifest violence enacted on women's bodies by cultures infused with mysogyny. While critics found the execution and language of Slutwalks to be problematic and Take Back the Night's insistence on patriarchal sexual domination limiting, both movements certainly stirred up the public conversation and got us thinking about how to best conceive of a feminist politics that accommodates for difference.

So at the end of Women's History Month, I would like to express gratitude to all those fearless women who have taken to the streets to combat social policing of gender and sexuality. I would also like to acknowledge the value of smart dissent. The opinions of those who have been outspoken about their problems with these movements are invaluable, whether they took issue with exclusion or the problematics of a universalizing feminism. As the organizers of SlutWalks NYC say on their website, "We cannot forget our past mistakes. If we do, we'll never be better feminists; that's what we want more than anything." Feminist activism, analysis and organization can only benefit from the action of all those who marched, organized and took their stand.

She’s Doing It: Kristal Brent Zook Defines Her Own Chaos

Continuing the series of asking women I interviewed when I was writing No Excuses “What have you learned about your relationship with power since we talked?” here is a beautiful essay from Kristal Brent Zook explaining her answer about a very personal choice.

How Gloria Feldt’s No Excuses Reminded Me of My Power

By Kristal Brent Zook

Not long ago, my friend Gloria Feldt, author of No Excuses, asked me to take another look at her 9 ways women can embrace power to see if any of the strategies had resonated lately, in the year or so since the initial release of her book.

Since we all know how political the personal will always be, I thought immediately about the upheavals of the past year in my home life.

Last February, my husband and I decided—on a whim, really—to relocate from Manhattan to the suburbs of Long Island.

“Why not leave the city?” we asked ourselves. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Get some fresh air. A yard. A real house. It would shorten my commute to Hofstra University; and of course, we would be saving all that money.

A charming, two-story 1923 Colonial about 30 miles east of the city caught our eye: it was more than 5,000 square feet, with two sun rooms and front and back yards. The rent was $1,200 less than our midtown high-rise, and ditching New York City taxes meant another $1,000 a month in savings.

“Let’s do it!” we agreed excitedly, handing over a check for the first month’s rent.

Photo: The WomenGirlsLadies intergenerational panel; l-r Deborah Siegel, Gloria Feldt, Kristal Brent Zook, Courtney Martin

We replaced our Metro subway cards with a 2011 Volkswagen Tiguan in Cherry Red and fantasized about how we’d slide back the sunroof on weekends and explore the shoreline, trolling for golf courses (we’d learn) and beaches. It would be a sweet country life existence, we decided. Paintings were hung, boxes were recycled. And just like that, we were settled in.

But if I’d been honest with myself, I would have realized that I was doing it not because I wanted to, but because I thought I should. Because it was the responsible, rational thing to do. Because it was what couples of a certain age, with certain aspirations to family life, did. Because deep down, I thought such “good” behavior would help me earn my dreams the “right” way.

“So, do you like it here so far?” ventured my husband, about three weeks after our move.

“Sure. Do you?”

We looked into each others’ eyes.

“I mean… I miss the city a little,” I confessed.

His face fell open.

“I’m not a suburbs kind of guy,” he blurted, relieved.  “I thought I could be, but I’m not!”

It was true. He’d grown up in big European cities and traveled internationally for work. He had more stamps on his passport than a diplomat.

“And you’re not a suburbs kind of girl either,” he added. Also true. Before our move, I’d lived in New York City happily for nearly ten years.

Power Tool #2: Define your own terms

The truth was that in the city I felt most able; most myself; most powerful. It was where I’d discovered myself capable of dreaming my biggest dreams, and flying at my highest possible height.

We were New Yorkers through and through. Both of us. And so, we packed it all up and came back to Manhattan – just nine months after we’d left.

Power Tool #5: Carpe the Chaos

Embrace it. Chaos opens you up to new ways of thinking, as Gloria says. Change shifts energy, and leads us to new opportunities.

Literally jumping for joy, we reinstalled ourselves in our midtown west neighborhood. But something had changed, at least for me. I returned with a new state of mind, and a new understanding. Never again would I compromise so profoundly the needs of my heart, for the worries of my mind. Never again would I allow that which was outside of myself to define what makes or breaks a dream.

And this, Gloria, is my most recent homage to Power Tool #9: Tell your story.

About Kristal Brent Zook

Kristal Brent Zook is director of the M.A. Journalism Program at Hofstra University, and the author of “Black Women’s Lives: Stories of Power and Pain.” She has lived in New York City for eleven years, minus nine months.

She's Doing It: Kristal Brent Zook Defines Her Own Chaos

Continuing the series of asking women I interviewed when I was writing No Excuses "What have you learned about your relationship with power since we talked?" here is a beautiful essay from Kristal Brent Zook explaining her answer about a very personal choice.

How Gloria Feldt's No Excuses Reminded Me of My Power

By Kristal Brent Zook

Not long ago, my friend Gloria Feldt, author of No Excuses, asked me to take another look at her 9 ways women can embrace power to see if any of the strategies had resonated lately, in the year or so since the initial release of her book.

Since we all know how political the personal will always be, I thought immediately about the upheavals of the past year in my home life.

Last February, my husband and I decided—on a whim, really—to relocate from Manhattan to the suburbs of Long Island.

"Why not leave the city?" we asked ourselves. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Get some fresh air. A yard. A real house. It would shorten my commute to Hofstra University; and of course, we would be saving all that money.

A charming, two-story 1923 Colonial about 30 miles east of the city caught our eye: it was more than 5,000 square feet, with two sun rooms and front and back yards. The rent was $1,200 less than our midtown high-rise, and ditching New York City taxes meant another $1,000 a month in savings.

"Let's do it!" we agreed excitedly, handing over a check for the first month's rent.

Photo: The WomenGirlsLadies intergenerational panel; l-r Deborah Siegel, Gloria Feldt, Kristal Brent Zook, Courtney Martin

We replaced our Metro subway cards with a 2011 Volkswagen Tiguan in Cherry Red and fantasized about how we'd slide back the sunroof on weekends and explore the shoreline, trolling for golf courses (we'd learn) and beaches. It would be a sweet country life existence, we decided. Paintings were hung, boxes were recycled. And just like that, we were settled in.

But if I'd been honest with myself, I would have realized that I was doing it not because I wanted to, but because I thought I should. Because it was the responsible, rational thing to do. Because it was what couples of a certain age, with certain aspirations to family life, did. Because deep down, I thought such "good" behavior would help me earn my dreams the "right" way.

"So, do you like it here so far?" ventured my husband, about three weeks after our move.

"Sure. Do you?"

We looked into each others' eyes.

"I mean… I miss the city a little," I confessed.

His face fell open.

"I'm not a suburbs kind of guy," he blurted, relieved.  "I thought I could be, but I'm not!"

It was true. He'd grown up in big European cities and traveled internationally for work. He had more stamps on his passport than a diplomat.

"And you're not a suburbs kind of girl either," he added. Also true. Before our move, I'd lived in New York City happily for nearly ten years.

Power Tool #2: Define your own terms

The truth was that in the city I felt most able; most myself; most powerful. It was where I'd discovered myself capable of dreaming my biggest dreams, and flying at my highest possible height.

We were New Yorkers through and through. Both of us. And so, we packed it all up and came back to Manhattan – just nine months after we'd left.

Power Tool #5: Carpe the Chaos

Embrace it. Chaos opens you up to new ways of thinking, as Gloria says. Change shifts energy, and leads us to new opportunities.

Literally jumping for joy, we reinstalled ourselves in our midtown west neighborhood. But something had changed, at least for me. I returned with a new state of mind, and a new understanding. Never again would I compromise so profoundly the needs of my heart, for the worries of my mind. Never again would I allow that which was outside of myself to define what makes or breaks a dream.

And this, Gloria, is my most recent homage to Power Tool #9: Tell your story.

About Kristal Brent Zook

Kristal Brent Zook is director of the M.A. Journalism Program at Hofstra University, and the author of "Black Women's Lives: Stories of Power and Pain." She has lived in New York City for eleven years, minus nine months.

Who Will the Woman of Tomorrow Be?

"What do you want to be?" we ask our daughters and sons when they are growing up.

It seems only right that as Women's History Month draws to a close, we don't just look backward but that we also focus forward to ask what we as women want to be and what women of the future might or should become.

This article on Canadian women's economic power  indicates economic parity is on the way. A new study published in the Harvard Business Review says women are better leaders than men on almost every measure of leadership. But does that translate to women moving from the current 18% to parity in top leadership positions?

Since the power to define the woman of tomorrow is to a large extent in our hands (See Power Tool #3) and based upon the history we make today (see power tool #1), I'm asking what you think:

What do you want to be next?
Who do you think will be the woman of tomorrow?
How would you define her character and characteristics?
What external forces will influence her?
How will she define herself?
Will she be a "Powered Woman"?
Will she have "sister courage"?
What are your aspirations for women's lives five, ten, 25 years hence?

It's a worthy conversation. Please post your comments here and let's discuss.

“Black Woman Novelist” -Toni Morrison Defines Her Own Terms

Get power-to without leaving home!

Join me for a No Excuses Facebook chat on my fanpage Sunday, March 25, at 3pm eastern, 2pm central, 1pm mountain, noon pacific, etc. I’ll be on video, you’ll be able to ask questions and talk with others via chat box. It’s easy. Really. And there will be giveaways! Let me know if you’re coming here.

“I’ve just insisted – insisted! – upon being called a black woman novelist…And I decided what that meant, because I have claimed it. As a black and a woman, I have had access to a range of emotions and perceptions that were unavailable to people who were neither.”

It’s Women’s History Month and I can’t resist profiling Toni Morrison, a prolific writer who has worked to represent through fiction the experience of black people—particularly women–in America. Ms. Morrison’s novels focus on marginalized characters struggling to find their place in a society built upon the legacy of slavery and the violence of racial prejudice. Most known for her imaginative fiction, Morrison has also written essays, non-fiction, plays, a libretti, and children’s books.

Ms. Morrison developed her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970), while raising two children and teaching at Howard University. She later took a job as an editor at Random House, where she played a vital role in bringing black literature into the mainstream, editing books by authors such as Toni Cade Bambara, Angela Davis, and Gayl Jones.

Commercially successful and critically acclaimed, her 1987 Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved was chosen by a New York Times survey of prominent writers to be the best work of American fiction of the previous 25 years. In Beloved, Morrison imagines what it would have felt like to be Margaret Garner, a fugitive slave woman who chose to kill her infant daughter rather than see her grow up in slavery.

In an interview with the Paris Review, Morrison says about Margaret Garner: “I really don’t know anything about her. What I knew came from reading two interviews with her. They said, ‘Isn’t this extraordinary. Here’s a woman who escaped into Cincinnati from the horrors of slavery and was not crazy. Though she’d killed her child, she was not foaming at the mouth. She was very calm; she said, I’d do it again.’ That was more than enough to fire my imagination.”

Ms. Morrison, who has won the Nobel Peace Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for her fiction work, is one of the most acclaimed American writers of our day. The popularity of her work is indicative of an American reading public open to narratives that are not written and centrally peopled by white males. Reader’s receptivity to Morrison’s work marks a shift in the cultural imagination, a fundamental challenge to norms prescribing what narratives are read and whose histories deserve commemoration.

As we strive everyday to improve our thoughts, words, and treatment of other people, we must challenge our opinions by opening ourselves up to different perspectives and subject positions. Toni Morrison’s work allows us to do just that.  She allows us to feel the struggles of lives and bodies that have been marked in a history of American oppression, making us better able to thus identify race, gender or class based subjugation in our everyday lives.

If you haven’t read anything of hers, consider picking up a novel next time you’re browsing Amazon, the bookstore or the library. And look forward to the publication of her next novel Home, to be released this May.

"Black Woman Novelist" -Toni Morrison Defines Her Own Terms

Get power-to without leaving home!

Join me for a No Excuses Facebook chat on my fanpage Sunday, March 25, at 3pm eastern, 2pm central, 1pm mountain, noon pacific, etc. I'll be on video, you'll be able to ask questions and talk with others via chat box. It's easy. Really. And there will be giveaways! Let me know if you're coming here.

"I've just insisted – insisted! – upon being called a black woman novelist…And I decided what that meant, because I have claimed it. As a black and a woman, I have had access to a range of emotions and perceptions that were unavailable to people who were neither."

It's Women's History Month and I can't resist profiling Toni Morrison, a prolific writer who has worked to represent through fiction the experience of black people—particularly women–in America. Ms. Morrison's novels focus on marginalized characters struggling to find their place in a society built upon the legacy of slavery and the violence of racial prejudice. Most known for her imaginative fiction, Morrison has also written essays, non-fiction, plays, a libretti, and children's books.

Ms. Morrison developed her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970), while raising two children and teaching at Howard University. She later took a job as an editor at Random House, where she played a vital role in bringing black literature into the mainstream, editing books by authors such as Toni Cade Bambara, Angela Davis, and Gayl Jones.

Commercially successful and critically acclaimed, her 1987 Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved was chosen by a New York Times survey of prominent writers to be the best work of American fiction of the previous 25 years. In Beloved, Morrison imagines what it would have felt like to be Margaret Garner, a fugitive slave woman who chose to kill her infant daughter rather than see her grow up in slavery.

In an interview with the Paris Review, Morrison says about Margaret Garner: "I really don't know anything about her. What I knew came from reading two interviews with her. They said, 'Isn't this extraordinary. Here's a woman who escaped into Cincinnati from the horrors of slavery and was not crazy. Though she'd killed her child, she was not foaming at the mouth. She was very calm; she said, I'd do it again.' That was more than enough to fire my imagination."

Ms. Morrison, who has won the Nobel Peace Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for her fiction work, is one of the most acclaimed American writers of our day. The popularity of her work is indicative of an American reading public open to narratives that are not written and centrally peopled by white males. Reader's receptivity to Morrison's work marks a shift in the cultural imagination, a fundamental challenge to norms prescribing what narratives are read and whose histories deserve commemoration.

As we strive everyday to improve our thoughts, words, and treatment of other people, we must challenge our opinions by opening ourselves up to different perspectives and subject positions. Toni Morrison's work allows us to do just that.  She allows us to feel the struggles of lives and bodies that have been marked in a history of American oppression, making us better able to thus identify race, gender or class based subjugation in our everyday lives.

If you haven't read anything of hers, consider picking up a novel next time you're browsing Amazon, the bookstore or the library. And look forward to the publication of her next novel Home, to be released this May.

She’s Doing It: What Courtney Martin Learned This Year

Get power-to without leaving home!

Join me for a No Excuses Facebook chat on my fanpage Sunday, March 25, at 3pm eastern, 2pm central, 1pm mountain, noon pacific, etc. I’ll be on video, you’ll be able to ask questions and talk with others via chat box. It’s easy. Really. And there will be giveaways! Let me know if you’re coming here.

When I speak on college campuses, I score points with students when they find out I know Courtney Martin, author, among several books, of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters and Do It Anyway. Though she’s the youngest of the four of us on the WomenGirlsLadies intergenerational feminist panel, she is usually the most together. The one who knows where we’re supposed to be when, gets the power point together, and remains calm when things go awry.

Follow Courtney @courtwrites and find her commentaries on The American Prospect and many other publications. Courtney is the Founding Director of the Solutions Journalism Network, along with New York Times columnist David Bornstein. In addition, she is the leader of the Op-Ed Project’s Public Voices Fellowship Program at Princeton University–coaching women academics to become part of public debate. She is a partner in Valenti Martin Media, a communications consulting firm focused on making social justice organizations more effective in movement building and making change and is an Editor Emeritus at Feministing.com.

Here’s what Courtney says she learned since I interviewed her for No Excuses:

Gloria Feldt: In No Excuses, I asked, “When did you know you had the power to _____?” What have you learned about your power to _____? during the past year or so?

Courtney Martin: I’ve learned that my power deserves to be used with collaborators that respect and match me in integrity, accountability, and courage.

GF: Was there a moment when you felt very powerful recently?

CM: I recently convened the activists featured in my book, Do It Anyway, for the second time to serve as the teachers and mentors for a conference with 200 teenagers from 85 different countries. It was amazing to realize that my hard, daily work and instinct to gather people together for these kinds of in-person experiences had helped create such a powerful experience for so many people.

GF: Which of the 9 Ways Power Tools have you used or do you particularly resonate with?

CM: I love them all, but I’d have to say that “tell your story” is the one that speaks most directly to the mission of my life. I’ve realized that I have a gift in learning and telling both my own story and others stories in service of changing the world. It all lines up with my favorite quotation by a nun named Mary Lou Kownacki: “Engrave this on your heart: there isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you heard their story.”

GF: For the first time in history, gender parity at work, in civic life, and in personal relationships seems possible—if we choose to make it so. That’s my take. What’s yours? What are the signs that tell you I’m right, or that make you think I’m overly optimistic?

CM: I feel as if we’ve truly come a long way when it comes to formal and institutional parity, but cultural liberation still seems like a very hard nut to crack. Of course women and men are considered equally, at least before the law, for the same job, but how much do men see themselves as caretakers and how much are women able to fully embrace their own professional prowess? This is why your book, Gloria, is so critical. I think it’s chipping away at old internalized sexism.

GF: What other observations about women’s relationship with power or leadership do you want to share?

CM: I’ve been thinking a bit about how most of the powerful women that I know appear to spread themselves way too thin. Sometimes I wonder if we haven’t reached parity, in some respects, because we refuse to believe that we deserve to focus on one professional goal at a time, like the guys. Instead we try to take it all on at once and don’t do it as excellently as we could. Just a theory….

She's Doing It: What Courtney Martin Learned This Year

Get power-to without leaving home!

Join me for a No Excuses Facebook chat on my fanpage Sunday, March 25, at 3pm eastern, 2pm central, 1pm mountain, noon pacific, etc. I'll be on video, you'll be able to ask questions and talk with others via chat box. It's easy. Really. And there will be giveaways! Let me know if you're coming here.

When I speak on college campuses, I score points with students when they find out I know Courtney Martin, author, among several books, of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters and Do It Anyway. Though she's the youngest of the four of us on the WomenGirlsLadies intergenerational feminist panel, she is usually the most together. The one who knows where we're supposed to be when, gets the power point together, and remains calm when things go awry.

Follow Courtney @courtwrites and find her commentaries on The American Prospect and many other publications. Courtney is the Founding Director of the Solutions Journalism Network, along with New York Times columnist David Bornstein. In addition, she is the leader of the Op-Ed Project's Public Voices Fellowship Program at Princeton University–coaching women academics to become part of public debate. She is a partner in Valenti Martin Media, a communications consulting firm focused on making social justice organizations more effective in movement building and making change and is an Editor Emeritus at Feministing.com.

Here's what Courtney says she learned since I interviewed her for No Excuses:

Gloria Feldt: In No Excuses, I asked, "When did you know you had the power to _____?" What have you learned about your power to _____? during the past year or so?

Courtney Martin: I've learned that my power deserves to be used with collaborators that respect and match me in integrity, accountability, and courage.

GF: Was there a moment when you felt very powerful recently?

CM: I recently convened the activists featured in my book, Do It Anyway, for the second time to serve as the teachers and mentors for a conference with 200 teenagers from 85 different countries. It was amazing to realize that my hard, daily work and instinct to gather people together for these kinds of in-person experiences had helped create such a powerful experience for so many people.

GF: Which of the 9 Ways Power Tools have you used or do you particularly resonate with?

CM: I love them all, but I'd have to say that "tell your story" is the one that speaks most directly to the mission of my life. I've realized that I have a gift in learning and telling both my own story and others stories in service of changing the world. It all lines up with my favorite quotation by a nun named Mary Lou Kownacki: "Engrave this on your heart: there isn't anyone you couldn't love once you heard their story."

GF: For the first time in history, gender parity at work, in civic life, and in personal relationships seems possible—if we choose to make it so. That's my take. What's yours? What are the signs that tell you I'm right, or that make you think I'm overly optimistic?

CM: I feel as if we've truly come a long way when it comes to formal and institutional parity, but cultural liberation still seems like a very hard nut to crack. Of course women and men are considered equally, at least before the law, for the same job, but how much do men see themselves as caretakers and how much are women able to fully embrace their own professional prowess? This is why your book, Gloria, is so critical. I think it's chipping away at old internalized sexism.

GF: What other observations about women's relationship with power or leadership do you want to share?

CM: I've been thinking a bit about how most of the powerful women that I know appear to spread themselves way too thin. Sometimes I wonder if we haven't reached parity, in some respects, because we refuse to believe that we deserve to focus on one professional goal at a time, like the guys. Instead we try to take it all on at once and don't do it as excellently as we could. Just a theory….