Gayle E. Pitman's Blog

Happy birthday to you . . .

Happy birthday to you . . .

Happy birthday, dear FEMINISM FROM A to Z . . .

Happy birthday to you!!!

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These last few weeks, about a dozen people, including Alex Gino, Carol Jenkins, Margarita Engle, and Phyllis Lyon, shared their thoughts about what feminism means to them. Everyone had something different to share. And all of it was incredibly powerful. Their voices confirmed for me that feminism is far from dead, it’s relevant to everyone, and it’s needed in a big, big way. Especially now.

So here it is! FEMINISM FROM A to Z is an alphabetical primer of feminist theory, history, and activism. Each chapter brings readers into theory, and translates that into actions you can take TODAY. It’s written from a teen-centered perspective, although I think it’s a great book for adults too – especially if you’re unfamiliar with what feminism is all about.      I promise you that by the time you’re finished reading it, you’ll be more informed about feminism – and you’ll have some new tools that will help you tap into your voice, your strength, and your power.

You can get a taste of FEMINISM FROM A to Z by watching my book trailer. And then you can come to one of my book launch events and pick up your own copy! Here’s where I’ll be:

Thursday, October 26, Avid Reader in Davis, 5pm.

Friday, October 27th,  Avid Reader on Broadway, 5pm. 

Saturday, October 28th, Sacramento Storybook Festival, 9am to 2pm.

Saturday, November 4, Laurel Book Store in Oakland, 2pm.

Whew! That’s a lot of parties! But FEMINISM FROM A to Z is worth celebrating. So come join me! I’d love to see you at one of my events.

I first met Margarita Engle several years ago at a conference sponsored by the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Fresno State University. The conference was titled “Outlawed!”, and it featured a star-studded list of authors whose work had been censored, challenged, or banned outright. Margarita is one of the most down-to-earth, friendly, and engaging people I’ve ever met. Her books, such as THE SURRENDER TREE, a beautifully written novel-in-verse set in 19th century Cuba, are always captivating. And guess what? She has TWO new books out! One, titled FOREST WORLD, is a great example of eco-fiction – novels or other works of fiction that revolve around nature and the environment. The other, ALL THE WAY TO HAVANA, is a picture book ride through the streets of Havana, Cuba.

For centuries, Cuba has been at the epicenter of political, economic, and environmental strife, and those issues form the backdrop for many of Margarita’s books. So I was interested to hear how she’d respond to the question, “What does feminism mean to you?”

She e-mailed me back with this:

Feminism means equality,

plain and simple.

There is no excuse

for inequality

in modern times.

Brief, poetic, and evocative in its simplicity. That’s all that needs to be said.

Thank you, Margarita!

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Margarita Engle is the 2017-2019 national Young People’s Poet Laureate, and the first Latino to receive that honor. She is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, including The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor winner, and The Lightning Dreamer, a PEN USA Award recipient. Her verse memoir, Enchanted Air, received the Pura Belpré Award, Golden Kite Award, Walter Dean Myers Honor, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and Arnold Adoff Poetry Award, among others. Drum Dream Girl received the Charlotte Zolotow Award for best picture book text.

Her newest verse novel about the island is Forest World, and her newest picture books are All the Way to Havana, and Miguel’s Brave Knight, Young Cervantes and His Dream of Don Quixote.

Books forthcoming in 2018 include The Flying Girl, How Aída de Acosta learned to Soar, and Jazz Owls, a Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots.

Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives.  She was trained as an agronomist and botanist. She lives in central California with her husband.

www.margaritaengle.com

@YPPLaureate

FEMINISM FROM A to Z is now available for pre-order!

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If you aren’t already following Mike Jung on Twitter, you should. (@Mike_Jung. You’re welcome.) Author of middle-grade books like GEEKS, GIRLS, and SECRET IDENTITIES and UNIDENTIFIED SUBURBAN OBJECT, Mike tackles complex social issues (mixed with humor and a good dose of self-reflection) and creates absolute poetry about them – using just 140 characters. His deep self-awareness, along with his insights about privilege and marginalization, made me curious as to how he would answer my question.

So I asked Mike: “What does feminism mean to you?”

Here’s how he answered:

I’ve always spent more time in the company of women than men – most of my friends and colleagues have been women, I’m married to a woman, we have a daughter who’s well on her way to becoming an amazing woman, etc. – but I still lapse into behaviors that perpetuate the destructive effects of toxic masculinity. For example, I recently made a joke on Facebook about stalking an author friend at a conference. That was inexcusable, and the fact that I’ve always spent more time with women than men didn’t absolve me for a choice that was made 100% by me. Ultimately it doesn’t matter how many conversations, friendships, and partnerships I’ve had with women, because the need to dismantle age-old systems of sexism and misogyny isn’t conditional; it’s the objectively right thing to do. Feminism shows me how effortless it’s always been for me to be part of the problem, and how essential it’ll always be to try as hard as I can to be part of the solution.

For more about privilege and toxic masculinity, check out my chapter titled “T is for TOUGH.” As a reminder, FEMINISM FROM A to Z is now available for pre-order, and will be released on October 23!

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Thank you, Mike!

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Mike Jung is the author of GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES, UNIDENTIFIED SUBURBAN OBJECT, and the forthcoming THE BOYS IN THE BACK ROW. He’s also contributed essays to the anthologies DEAR TEEN ME, BREAK THESE RULES, 59 REASONS TO WRITE, and the forthcoming (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY. Mike is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books™, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his family.

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Over Labor Day weekend, I posted a call on my Facebook author page asking for responses to “what feminism means to me.” About ten minutes later, I heard from my friend Angela Kūliaikanu’u Alforque, who formerly taught Theatre Arts and directed the Ethnic Theatre program at Sacramento City College, and who now teaches at the Parker School in Waimea, Hawaii. This is what she sent me:

More than coconut bras and grass skirts: “14 extraordinary women in Hawaii history everyone should know.”

I read the article. You should too, because I bet most of these women are unknown to you. (I was familiar with Patsy Mink, who’s featured in FEMINISM FROM A to Z, and Mazie Hirono. That’s it.) Then I followed up with Angela, and asked if she had a more specific response to my question. This was her answer:

Hi, again! I have been thinking about your question since I read your post this morning. I also have been consumed this weekend by thoughts on immigration, Filipina/o American history, DACA, Labor Day, and the unique subsets of privileges and oppressions that underscore my past and present feminist practices. In short, I do not have a concise response to your question. If you can make conclusions about what feminism means to me, at least presently, from my fb and instagram posts in the past few days, I invite you to refer to and repost them. Aloha!

Sometimes pictures speak louder than words, and reveal more complexities and nuances. So I’m sharing a series of images and captions Angela posted on her Instagram account just before Labor Day:

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Filipina/o immigrant and domestic workers cleaning our rooms, making our beds, resisting sexual assault, and fighting for justice in your hotels, here in the U.S. and abroad.

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Decades and generations of intelligent, skilled, caring Filipina/o immigrants and Filipina/o-Americans providing critical health care in the U.S.

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Fish brought to us, and justice fought for us, by Filipino cannery workers and union organizers.

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Produce brought to us, and justice fought for us, by Filipino and Mexican workers. Artwork by Angelo Lopez. 

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I stand with DACA. 

WOW. Angela’s posts remind me that words aren’t everything, and that there are many forms of communication and expression.

Thank you, Angela! Aloha.

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Angela Dee Kūliaikanu’u Alforque was born in San Francisco and grew up in South Sacramento, California. She earned her B.A. in Drama/Social Science and M.A. in Multicultural American History & Performance from Sacramento State University; and an Ed.D from Saint Mary’s College of California. She trained and worked as a singer, actor, dancer, teacher, choreographer, director and playwright, and served as Theatre Arts/Ethnic Theatre Professor at Sacramento City College; Associate Director for the Sinag-tala Filipino Theater & Performing Arts Association; and member of Ebó Okokán Afro-Cuban Drum & Dance Ensemble. In 2012 she moved to the “Big Island” of Hawai`i and since then has served as Performing Arts Director at Parker School. She lives in Waimea with her husband, Mario Hill, their daughter, Malaya, and their dog, Kenobi.

FEMINISM FROM A to Z is now available for pre-order!

Have you ever attended a Take Back the Night march? If not, you should. There’s one coming up right here in Sacramento on October 14th, and hundreds of other Take Back the Night marches will be happening throughout the nation and around the world. It’s an opportunity to take to the streets, to engage in a form of direct action against rape, sexual assault, and other forms of violence against women.

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The first Take Back the Night march took place in November of 1978. Thousands of women took to the streets of San Francisco, protesting against rape and other forms of violence against women. The organizers included Laura Lederer, Andrea Dworkin, Kathleen Barry, Susan Griffin, and Diana Russell – my mentor during my graduate school years.

I asked Diana, “What does feminism mean to you?” Here’s what she said:

I consider myself a radical feminist; and radical feminism has been the guiding ideology and politics in my life for many decades. I cannot imagine what my life would have been like without being dedicated to raising public awareness about the prevalence of several different forms of violence against women and girls (e.g., rape, including wife rape, woman battering, incestuous and extrafamilial sexual abuse of girls, femicide [the killing of females by males BECAUSE they are female], the exploitation of females in pornography and its pernicious impact in all cultures and societies in which it is prevails, as well as other international manifestations of misogynistic forms of patriarchal violence such as genital mutilation, so-called “honor” femicides, and female sexual slavery.

I have been equally dedicated to engaging in feminist activism to combat many of these forms of misogynistic violence against women and sexual abuse of girls — the most significant example of which was initiating the first and only International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women that occurred during four days in Brussels, Belgium, in March 1976. Simone de Beauvoir described this international feminist event “as the beginning of the radical decolonization of women.” It was also the beginning of the internationalization of the feminist movement.

I feel extremely fortunate to have been born at a time when the second wave of the feminist movement began and grew to transform the United States and many other Western nations. I grieve now, however, because feminism no longer plays the transformative role that it did in the past.

I found Diana’s last statement to be intriguing – and disturbing. It’s not the first time I’ve heard that sentiment. Quite a few older feminists worry that the rights they worked so hard to secure are being taken for granted by younger generations of girls and women. In fact, I think they worry that girls and women aren’t even aware of the ways in which sexism and gender oppression operates in their lives.

So I decided to reach out to a younger feminist, who has organized our local Take Back the Night march here in Sacramento. Her name is Aisha Engle, and she is the director of the Women’s Resource Center at California State University, Sacramento. Here’s what she had to say about feminism:

Feminism is the overarching belief in equality for all. It encompasses recognizing difference, intersectionality and the pursuit of change for all marginalized groups. For some it means just women’s right. The reality is feminism means a vast inclusion of all groups . This means all people are needed to create change. Feminism is declaring a voice, making change, asserting agency, crushing institutions and advocating change for all genders. It is not limited to the needs of just one group but is inclusive of all genders. Feminism is the symbol of language that reveals the critical analysis and action necessary to exact change locally as well as globally. Feminism means liberation and freedom.

I think it’s safe to say that while feminism might look very different today, it is alive and well. Thank you, Diana and Aisha!

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Dr. Diana Russell is one of the foremost pioneers and experts on sexual violence and abuse of women and girls in the world today. She has a long history of feminist activism in the United States, South Africa, and several other countries. In 1974, she mobilized other feminists to organize the first feminist International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women. She was a founding member of Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM) in 1977 — the first feminist anti-pornography organization in the United States and internationally.  Her book The Secret Trauma, published in 1986, was the first scientific study of incestuous abuse ever conducted, and it was the co-recipient of the prestigious C. Wright Mills Award. In 1987, Diana traveled to her native South Africa to conduct interviews with revolutionary women activists in the anti-apartheid liberation struggle, which culminated in her book titled Lives of Courage: Women for a New South Africa (1989). After focusing for 40 years on conducting research, writing and publishing books and articles, public speaking, and political activism to combat male sexual violence against females, Diana is now working on the first volume of her memoirs.

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Aisha Engle grew up in Philadelphia and Oakland, and has spent the last several years in Auburn, CA. She received her B.S. in Women’s Studies from California State University, Sacramento and is currently working on her M.A. in Gender Equity. She has served as the Program Coordinator of the Women’s Resource Center at CSU Sacramento since August 2016, and has been active in community projects like Sacramento’s Women Take Back The Night and continues to make feminist strides.

Do you know the librarians who work at your local school or public library? If not, you should. Librarians are Magical Creatures, you see. Spend a few minutes talking to them, and they’ll be able to find you the book that you never knew existed, but is PERFECT for you. Ingrid Conley-Abrams is one of those Amazing Magical Librarian Creatures. She’s a former American Library Association Rainbow List committee member, and she’s currently serving as a member of the Stonewall Book Awards committee. She blogs, tweets, and Facebooks as “The Magpie Librarian.” And she’s unabashedly feminist in everything she does.

I asked Ingrid, “What does feminism mean to you?” This is what she had to say:

As a school librarian, feminism is a cornerstone of an inclusive curriculum. For me, it means making sure that I’m presenting my students with a well-rounded view of woman-hood, girl-hood, and childhood as a whole.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” is shown at nearly every “diversity” or “inclusion” training I attend, so much to the fact that I can nearly recite the whole TED talk at this point. However, in its near-consistent repetition, I have not forgotten its important message: I am doing a disservice to my students if I’m showing them one side of any story. That means that peppering my shelves with the pink, glittery, princess books is still important. Pink glitter is not the enemy. Stereotypically girly things are valid and important and can be fun for all kids. In fact, I want the fairy princess narrative to be a viable option for students of all genders, so I make sure that Morris Mickelwhite and the Tangerine Dress, Jacob’s New Dress, and This Day in June have a home in my library. I want a child of any gender to take home an “Elsa from Frozen” book without judgement from me or any student.

The Pink Princess is just one tiny slice of what girlhood can look like, so it’s imperative that students see themselves, their classmates, and their communities reflected in the books we offer. Young readers today certainly have more options than I did when I was a child (though I, fortunately, had great literary friendships with Claudia Kishi and Marcy Lewis), but I still feel frustration at the lack of inclusive, multi-faceted offerings. I do feel lucky to be able to share titles like Kate Beaton’s The Princess and the Pony. I sometimes wonder if students notice that Princess Pinecone is multiracial or even that she’s an atypical princes. I think they’re having too much fun laughing at me saying the word “fart” and watching massive, epic battles play out. I make sure that the Lumberjanes series sits face-out on the shelf as much as humanly possible. I take joy in showing students that our copy of George was signed by Alex Gino in purple, glittery ink. I get chills every time I read Not Every Princess in class, which reminds readers that ballerinas can be strong and skateboarders can be kind. I am grateful for titles like My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay, Worm Loves Worm, I am Jazz, Bayou Magic, and Drum Dream Girl, which each add yet another necessary perspective on growing up as a girl.

The school library is just one access point for how students see themselves and their peers represented in the world. To me, feminism is making sure that children know that there’s no “right way” to be who they are. With every picture book or comic or chapter book, the library’s aim should be, at least in part, to show the students that they are fine as they are, and that they are not alone in their experience. Representation is powerful validation.

Bet you didn’t think you’d come out of this blog post with a reading list and a TED talk, huh? That’s one of the many reasons I love librarians so much.

Thanks, Ingrid!

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Ingrid Conley-Abrams is a new-ish school librarian and a veteran public librarian. She is a current Stonewall Book Award committee member and a former Rainbow List committee member. She has spoken about LGBTQ+ books for kids and teens (and sometimes, but rarely, other topics) for the New Jersey Library Association, Book Riot, the Ontario Library Association, School Library Journal, and others. Ingrid is an ALA Emerging Leader who has been featured in two books: This is What a Librarian Looks Like by Kyle Cassidy and Birds of Paradise by Lee O’Connor.

FEMINISM FROM A to Z is now available for pre-order!

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I met Sarah Prager this past summer at OutWrite!, an LGBTQ+ literary festival sponsored by the DC Center for the LGBT Community.  Sarah is the author of Queer There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World. You DEFINITELY need to check this one out!

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Sarah and I did a panel presentation at OutWrite! called “Hidden Histories,” where we talked about how we share our collective queer histories through our writing. I talked about the research I did to gather information for my picture book biography of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, When You Look Out the Window.

Here’s a photo of us, proudly showing off our books.

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Those big smiles on our faces? Part of that is the afterglow of just having seen – and touched – a necklace and a shawl owned by José Sarria. Sarah and I fangirled HARD over this. It was a bonding moment, let me tell you.

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I asked Sarah, “What does feminism mean to you?” This is what she said:

Equity! We should all have equal opportunities and rights regardless of gender. I say equity instead of equality because different genders sometimes have different needs so getting equal opportunities and rights may not look exactly the same for everyone. For example, a person who can get pregnant needs certain benefits and protections that a person who can’t get pregnant doesn’t need. These aren’t “special rights” – they are what are needed for equity. If you are of a privileged gender (male, cisgender), please speak up for those less privileged. Feminism needs everyone!

Yes, feminism needs everyone! Thank you, Sarah!

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Sarah Prager is the author of Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World, a young adult book published by HarperCollins in May 2017 that tells the true stories of queer people from history from the 200s to the 2000s. The book has received three starred reviews (including the Kirkus Star), a nomination for a New England Book Award, and is an official selection of the Junior Library Guild. Sarah is also the creator of the Quist mobile app which shows its thousands of users what happened on this day in LGBTQ+ history. An activist and writer who has spoken on queer history across four countries, Sarah lives in Connecticut with her wife and daughter. More information at www.sarahprager.com.

FEMINISM FROM A to Z is now available for pre-order!

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Michael Genhart is another Magination Press author whose books frequently address social justice issues. OUCH! MOMENTS , for example, educates children and adults about the harmful effects of microaggressions (subtle insults, hostilities, and negatives, both intentional and unintentional, against members of a marginalized group). His upcoming book, I SEE YOU, is a wordless picture book that depicts the all-too-frequent invisibility of  people who are experiencing homelessness.

Given that sexism intersects with so many other forms of marginalization, I wondered what Michael might have to say on the subject of feminism. When I asked him, “What does feminism mean to you?” here’s what he said:

Many -ism words are those you’d not want associated with who you are (e.g., racism, sexism, classism). Feminism is also a word that for some people you might get a strong reaction upon hearing, “I believe in feminism.” It can conjure up ideas of radical politics and divisiveness held by left-leaning women and their supporters.

To me, at the core of feminism, when you remove any negative associations to the word, is a belief that women and men should share equality across all areas of life – socially, economically, politically, etc. And anyone can be a feminist: men and women alike can hold such beliefs. Because it’s a about fighting for equal rights for all people – where no one is a second-class citizen.

So many people associate the word “feminism” with something bad or negative – even though feminism is really about equity, fairness, and humanity. This is a point I expand on in the chapter titled “R is for RADICAL.” But Michael’s right – feminism is all about enjoying social, economic, and political power. All of us should have access to that!

Thanks, Michael, for your response!

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Michael Genhart, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in San Francisco and Mill Valley, California. He lives with his family in Marin County.

He received his BA in psychology from the University of California, San Diego and his PhD in clinical and community psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of several picture books including: Ouch! Moments: When Words Are Used in Hurtful Ways (2016), Peanut Butter & Jellyous (2017), Mac & Geeeez! (2017), Cake & I Scream! (2017), So Many Smarts! (2017), and I See You (2017), all from Magination Press, as well as Love Is Love (Little Pickle Press/Sourcebooks, 2018). You can read more about these books at: http://www.michaelgenhart.com.

FEMINISM FROM A to Z is available for pre-order now!

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I met Jessica Taylor a few years ago at a local SCBWI event, where she was a workshop presenter. I’m sure her presentation was chock-full of good information. But I took away only one thing from her workshop – the fact that she completed a law degree, then walked away from a potential law career to write full time.

WOW.

A MAP FOR WRECKED GIRLS is Jessica’s second novel. See what happens when you follow your dreams?

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Here’s how Jessica responded to the question, “What does feminism mean to you?”

As a twelve-year-old girl, after a boy was sexually aggressive toward me, I first became aware of the concept that men would feel they had a right to my body—that my body wasn’t my own—simply because I was female. More than anything in the world, I wanted this not to be so, even if I couldn’t find a word to describe that feeling. Later in life, the word feminism became a word to hang my hope upon.

The more distance I got from my oppressive and conservative hometown—both emotionally and physically—I could more clearly see the ways different kinds of discrimination overlap and combine. It was at that point that my feminism became what I considered to be intersectional, a diverse group coming together to strive for equality. That ideal may feel farther out of reach than ever, but feminism is once again a word brimming with what we all need most in these dark times—hope.

Thank you, Jessica!

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Jessica Taylor adores atmospheric settings, dangerous girls, and characters whosneak out late at night. She started her first novel-length writing attempt in the middle of finals during her second year of law school, and over those three weeks managed to finish it. That first embarrassing effort is now locked away, just like her grades from that semester. Throughout college, she worked as a cosmetic artist and through law school as a certified legal intern for the Sacramento District Attorney’s office. Desperately she tried to tuck away her creative side and embrace something more sensible, but even when she wasn’t committing words to paper, she still found herself writing—in the car, the shower, and even the courtroom. After stumbling upon a few real-life tales of people becoming castaways not too far from civilization, her latest novel, A Map for Wrecked Girls, came to life. Jessica now lives in Northern California, not far from San Francisco, withalawdegreeshe isn’t using, one dog, and many teetering towers of books.

FEMINISM FROM A to Z is now available for pre-order!

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I met Christine Baldacchino at the 2015 American Library Association Stonewall Award ceremony in San Francisco. Her picture book, Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, was honored the same year This Day in June won the Stonewall award. When she got up to accept her award, the first thing she said was, “I’m so nervous I could pee my pants!” And I thought, This woman is my soul sister. We’ve been friends ever since.

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Here’s what Christine had to say in response to the question, “What does feminism mean to me?”

For me, feminism means working towards a place where I don’t have to wonder whether things would be different if I wasn’t the person I am. It’s about honoring those who worked to get us, as a larger group, just a little closer to that place, and educating ourselves so that we have the tools to pick up where our predecessors left off. It’s about celebrating achievements along the way, but never resting on our laurels. It’s about not slowing our forward momentum until all of us arrive at that place – each and every one of us.

Thanks so much, Christine! And I promise, one day I’ll come visit you in Canada.

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Christine Baldacchino is a former early childhood educator, and the author of the widely-acclaimed Stonewall Honour book Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress. As a champion of both self-expression and anti-bullying, Christine believes that kids should be given the leeway and encouragement to discover who they are, whether it be in denim overalls or a taffeta dress. She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario with her husband and three cats, and likes popsicles, Prince, and writing her author bios in the third person.

FEMINISM FROM A to Z is now available for pre-order!

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