feminist book club vancouver

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FBC Reads: “I Am Woman” by Lee Maracle

- Monday, 28 May 2012
- 7pm-9pm
- At Spartacus Books!
Join us in reading “I Am Woman,” a pivotal book on indigenous feminism by the truly inspiring First Nations activist, Lee Maracle.

This book will be available at Spartacus Books in the next week or so.

A review from goodreads:
…
“Writen in free-form manner, Lee Maracle weaves poetry, politics, and personal antecdotes into a thought compelling narative. She hides neither her subjectivity nor her anger, but instead makes it the core of her work.”

Short Bio: http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A47

Lee Maracle was born in 1950 and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. After dropping out of school to join the hippie subculture and to work as a political activist, she attended Simon Fraser University. Besides being a professor at the University of Toronto, she has also been the Stanley Knowles Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at the University of Waterloo.

She was one of the founders of the En’owkin International School of Writing in Penticton, BC (1981); a learning institute with an Indigenous Fine Arts Program and an Okanagon Language Program.

In 2001, Maracle was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor of Canadian Culture at Western Washington University to engage in activities focused on promoting Canadian culture and awareness.

She is a member of the Red Power Movement and Liberation Support Movement. Maracle has been the Traditional Cultural Director of The Centre for Indigenous Theatre and has worked as an instructor of dramatic composition and theatrical representation. Maracle’s works reflect her antipathy toward racism, sexism, and white cultural domination.See more

Spartacus Books

684 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC

View map · Get directions

2012-03-27 0 notes

Next Meeting - FBC Reads Love Cake on April 18 @ Rhizome Cafe

- Wednesday, 18 April 2012
- 18:30 until 21:00

***Special FBC Meeting***
We usually meet at Spartacus Books, but this month we will be meeting at another feminist hot spot, Rhizome Cafe! The meeting will start at 7, but everyone is encouraged to come half an hour early for dinner and chats. Rhizome Cafe has a wonderful menu with tasty vegan & gluten free options. You are also welcome to order during the meeting.
***

Love Cake is an intimate collection of poems that speak from the heart about so many issues. Here is an excerpt from a Rabble review written by a member of the vancouver feminist community - Ellie Gordon-Moershel.

“In an interview, Piepzna-Samarasinha tells me her new collection is really about “surviving violence from a queer and trans people of colour perspective…it looks at the ways in which as communities we find to heal and be resilient from abuse, violence, war and imperialism.” Very heavy and complex topics for such a small book but in these few, carefully planned words her poems pierce through suffocating legacies of oppression:

Sri Lankan resiliency miracle love poems 1-9:

5.
Me learning how to cook Sri Lankan food at 23
from cookbooks in the library
taking a name researched in books
I don’t know for sure is mine
but know for sure is not
the Dutch East India employee
who raped-I’m sorry, “married”
-my great-great-great-great
grandmother
Who
I know
is mine
unquestionably.”

http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2011/12/love-cake-poetry-and-resistance

Love Cake is available at Spartacus Books! Pick up your copy today.

—————————————————————
This accessibilities audit of Rhizome Cafe was performed in June of 2011 by the Radical Access Mapping Project. You can learn more about the Mapping Project and find other audited spaces here
http://buildingradicalaccessiblecommunities.blogspot.com/p/accessibilities-audits.html

If you would like a space audited, or have questions about
accessibilities in general, please contact rampvancouver@gmail.com and
let’s talk!

Rhizome Access Overview
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pUC1YbkDiD2dAx-iYhg-VzTIcSmISRzW9Nr930q6MYU/edit

Rhizome Full Access Audit
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkEveutSlMoVdGxmVVNVWDZNUDVjeVJnNHZHSG5GTFE

Leah

2012-02-23 1 note

FBC Reads: Missed Her by Ivan E. Coyote - March 15

Date and Time: Thursday, 15 March 2012, 7pm until 9pm.

Location: Spartacus Books, 684 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC

A note on the meeting day : Thursday, March 15. Yes, that’s right, Thursday! Your fbc coordinator is taking a course on Mondays for the next couple months so I’m going to be trying out alternative meeting days for the group. Sorry for the inconvenience.

—-

FBC is finally reading our very own local queer lit hero, Ivan E. Coyote! We know you can hardly wait to start reading this one, so we’ve already ordered the books in at Spartacus and they have already sold out! More copies of “Missed Her” will be arriving at Spartacus Books - If you can’t wait, they probably have copies at the Peoples Co-op Bookstore on the Drive and at other independent bookstores around town.

Review from the Straight:

Missed Her depicts Commercial Drive sidewalks, Yukon bars, rural diners, and the sprawling highways that connect them, all with equal warmth. For Coyote, they are all evocative of home. She was born and raised in Whitehorse, now resides in East Vancouver, and frequently travels across the country to perform her stories, poems, and music to audiences of all stripes. The bulk of the stories in this collection are drawn from Coyote’s life over the past three years, during which she lived briefly in Ottawa, toured often through Western Canada, and returned to Whitehorse to witness the passing of her grandmother, Florence Amelia Mary Lawless Daws. Coyote dedicated the book to her.

As the title suggests—Missed Her sounds like “mister”—the collection deals with fluidity in gender and sexuality, much like Coyote’s previous work.

Her intimate storytelling seldom grows tired, and her wry, unadorned writing style is unique in its conversational simplicity. Stories about her grandmother’s young life, her own northern, hockey-playing childhood, and teaching a seniors’ writing workshop flow seamlessly into others with excellent titles like “Boner Preservation Society” and “Uncle Ivan’s Lonely Hearts Club Plan”.

Full review here: http://www.straight.com/article-353022/vancouver/missed-her

2012-01-23 2 notes

FBC Reads: The Princess (Web Comic)

- FBC Reads: The Princess (Web Comic)
- When
  
  Monday, 13 February 2012 @ Spartacus Books
- Time
  
  7pm-9pm
Description

This month, we’re switching things up. Instead of a book, per say, we’re going to be reading and discussing a webcomic entitled “The Princess.” I have a feeling you will enjoy it very much - and because it’s free online it’s super accessible for those of us with regular computer access.

There are also computers in Spartacus to use (free of charge) if you need them.

Hope to see you at the meeting!

What Feministing has to say about “The Princess”

http://feministing.com/ 2010/02/19/the-princess/

The Princess is a webcomic by Christine Smith that launched a few months ago about a young trans girl named Princess Sarah. It’s a spin off from Christine’s webcomic Eve’s Apple, which I like, but I love The Princess so far.

The story has focused on Princess Sarah’s parents’ differing reactions to her identifying as female, changing her name, and wanting to wear girls clothes. There is also a plot line about Princess Sarah and her best friend Irma, who’s a tomboy, as well as one about a bully in their class. Christine handles all these stories with sensitivity and humor.

The Link To The Actual Comic:
http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Princess/5186771/

2011-12-09 3 notes

FBC Reads: Parable of the Sower

Our Next Book Pick!
Monday, 16 January 2012
Place: Spartacus Books on E. Hastings
Time

19:00 until 21:00

Description

Feminist Sci Fi!

Some words on Butler from Bitch Magazine:

“Octavia E. Butler is most likely the best writer I’ve ever encountered. That’s certainly true technically: she’s flawless. I mean that there is literally not a thing I would change in her writing, and that is a…bsolutely unique. But it’s her incisive, loving explorations of a broken world that will blow your mind wide open.”

http://bitchmagazine.org/ post/ iconography-octavia-e-butle r-and-rewriting-the-other

Here is a review of Parable of the Sower from GoodReads:

When unattended environmental and economic crises lead to social chaos, not even gated communities are safe. In a night of fire and death Lauren Olamina, a minister’s young daughter, loses her family and home and ventures out into the unprotected American landscape. But what begins as a flight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny… and the birth of a new faith.

And some words from the author:

“I’m a pessimist if I’m not careful, a feminist, a Black,…an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.”
― Octavia E. Butler

The book will be ordered into Spartacus in the next couple weeks and should be available in second hand book stores near you…

2011-12-05 1 note