Hey ladies and gents,
I’m writing you because I’m taking a course as a graduating senior here at IUP right now called Capstone where you basically get to create and present a final project of our own making. Essentially this project is an opportunity to showcase my academic and artistic talents and serve as a reflection of something I’m really interested in.
Because I’m both a writer, an artist, and somebody who has an investment in women’s rights and the well being of my sisters (and my brothers too of course), I’ve decided to do a project that allows me to showcase all of my talents in a way that is interesting and important to me while at the same time being able to address a big part of my life, which is my own sense of womanhood and the sisterhood of other women: It’s trials, tribulations, wonders, and mysteries.
So, for my final project I’m in the process of collaboratively creating a zine with a fellow classmate of mine with similar interests called “Good Luck” that covers a variety of topics under the umbrella theme of “Sisterhood.”
The contents of the zine will includes poetry, fiction, non-fiction, prose, recipes, DIY tutorials, art (photo, drawings, illustrations, comics, etc), relevant political content, music, women’s healthcare information, and interviews (with fellow zinesters and artists, professors, and students). Some of the content is self created and we are also featuring the works of other relevant artists and writers that support or work in conjunction with our theme.
To the ladies: Since you are all my sisters, it’s important to me to have your voice in this project of mine as not only have you all shown support and love to me and share some kind of kindred spirit, but you all have helped me at some point to evolve in positive and meaningful ways. My relationships with all of you are inestimable, and I have the utmost respect for the kind of women that each of you are. Your ideas and your values are powerful and good.
To the gents: This project is on Sisterhood but it involves the gents too. You all have mothers and sisters and friends that are women, and your perspectives and experiences with sisterhood are bound to be really interesting and absolutely have a place in this project. As a woman, my relationships with all of you have also been inestimable. You show respect and support to me and many of your sisters and have your own opinions on women as well. I want to hear from you! Tell me about your experiences with sisterhood and women. Where have you found a special kind of support within women or sisterhood, where do you feel a disconnect? What do you hate about sisterhood, what do you love?
What I’d like for each of you to do, if you are willing, is to write a blurb on what sisterhood means to you. You can write about anything you want, your relationships with your friends your sisters your your family your mothers, you can write about what you think has contributed to your sense of womanhood or your idea of what sisterhood is, you can write about GRRL PARTY, you can write about what challenges you face as a woman in whatever it is that you do, you can write about how sisterhood challenges or enhances your life as a male, you can write about how you overcome these challenges, what sucks, what rules, what makes the relationships you have with your sisters special and different than the ones you have with men … You can talk about anything you want.
There is no one definition of sisterhood because it means something different to every woman and every man, and so let yourself be you and say what you feel. There is no way to answer wrong or incorrectly. Your response can be as short or as long as you want, as formal or informal as you want. It’s all about you. You may find it all starts flowing out of you, this often happens to me. You don’t have to address all of the questions above, you can pick one or two, or create your own! I just want your voice because I love your voice and you are special to me. Without all of you somewhere in my project, it just feels incomplete.
If you are willing to write a little something, I was hoping to have it by this Monday (11/26) or Tuesday (11/27). Please e-mail responses to goodlucksisterhood@yahoo.com and follow our project at http://goodlucksisterhood.tumblr.com/ where soon we are going to start uploading what’s going on in our zine! If you are not tagged in this, that does not mean your voice is not wanted. I was only able to tag so many people, so if you would like to contribute please know I want to hear you.
