International Women's Day: taking action

Casa Myrna Vasquez in Boston urges us to support

the International Violence Against Women Act.

So does Amnesty International-USA.

Feast of Mary of Magdala, Apostle

Same sermon as the last two years, different art. Happy feast!

For Padre Pablito, who needs some refreshment

The incomparable Narciso Yepes performing Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez:

Part I

Part II

Part III

And also by Rodrigo, the Fantasía para un Gentilhombre. Again, with Yepes performing on guitar and a superb orchestra.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Take your pick, or listen to both.

Now that I think of it, you might want to listen to the second one first if you need that extra relief from All Lambeth All The Time.

If you are short on time, just listen to (and watch!) the third or fourth movement of that second work, the Fantasía.

(Older) lesbian wisdom

In honor of San Francisco, Paris, and many other cities' Pride Day, Acts of Hope brings you the wisdom of our friend janinsanfran, who has written two essays that will interest many of you.

1. Jan's monthly essay for "Gay and Gray" reflects on the changes among elders in the lgbt community following the advent of gay/lesbian marriage.

2. "Obama: a dyke's eye view" is Jan's essay on her blog for this Pride Weekend. A must-read for persons of all genders and sexual orientations. And not just for U.S. citizens, but for folks abroad as well.

As a hetero woman who loves men but is also highly suspicious of overly charming and good-looking men who know they are charming, I found this essay helpful. Even with my hermeneutic of suspicion of both handsome men and politicians, I need a dose of lesbian political wisdom from my friends. Jan says she suspects her post will not be popular. I think her analysis is right on.

P.S. * SF Pride story and photos here.

YSL, RIP

This was a designer who liked women. They don't all.

Rest in peace, Monsieur Saint Laurent.

The scoop in French is here and here.

A chronology of YSL's life and work is here.

And, again in French, some quotes from the master. I shall translate a few of them tomorrow once I have had some rest from my travels and given the proper attention to Mademoiselle Maya Pavlova, who is elegant in slender grey with white gloves and boots.

As promised:

High fashion [couture] is a mistress who costs a lot of money; she only has seven years to live. (1974)

Nothing is more beautiful than a naked body. The most beautiful clothes a woman can wear are the arms of the man who loves her. But for those who have not had the good fortune to find that happiness, I am there. (1983)

I have always thought that style was more important than fashion. Those who have made an imprint with their style are rare, whereas fashion-makers are legion. (1993)

I have participated in the transformation of my era. I did so with clothing, which is certainly less important than music, architecture, painting (...) Be that as it may, I did it. (2002)

Gratuitous Red Sox photo

Because it's spring.

This photo of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez is from several weeks ago, at the beginning of the baseball season.

Gay and gray - and loving and thoughtful

My friend Jan of Happening Here is now writing a regular column called Gay and Gray, and her latest, which she just mentioned on her personal blog, is about two men from San Francisco, their partnership, and their impending move to Ohio. Read it here. It's interesting, moving, and well written.

(JohnieB: one of the men is a Vietnam vet, too.)

Jan's Gay and Gray column appears on the blog Time Goes By.

Blogswarm against the war, 3

From Newsweek's Perspectives page:

You shoot at men who are fathers: war is completely stupid.

******- France's last surviving World War I veteran, Lazare Ponticelli, reflecting on his experience of war shortly before his death last week in Paris. He was 110.

First a sermon on Scarlett, now a trip to Atlanta

We are being SO Southern.

One of my students and I are off to a conference tomorrow (an annual gig for professors and scholars of religious studies in the region, i.e. the U.S. Southeast, and a regional unit of the big huge conference I go to in November) to learn various things and make a presentation.

The presentation is a workshop of the AAR/SBL Consultation on Teaching Feminism/Womanism and it is called "Religion, Ecofeminism, and Environmental Justice: A Pedagogical Workshop on Engaged Learning & Community Commitments." (I know, very crunchy-granola plus liberation-theology. Yes, I do teach History of Christianity, but that is another course -- which is not easy and has acquired the street name of "the Organic Chemistry of the Religious Studies Department" according to one of my colleagues, though it does have its own grooviness.)

Undergraduates do not usually present at these conferences or even attend them, but it seemed like a bad idea to have a pedagogy workshop on a particular course without the perspective of a student who actually took the course. The same student was my teaching assistant the following year for an introductory-level offshoot of this course called "Health, Spirituality, and Justice." (Another interdisciplinary crunchy-granola course. One a year, whether I need it or not. ;-)) This is also a more feminist way of doing things. And we're driving, not flying. (I don't know how pedagogical that is, it's more like girlz gotta go on road trips.)

I will be making a blog after the conference which will have resources related to this course and to the workshop. Stay tuned.

The other workshop of the AAR/SBL Consultation on Teaching Feminism/Womanism will be by A. Nevell Owens on the topic "Can A Man Teach Women Anything About Women in Religion?: A Pedagogical Workshop on Men in the Feminist Classroom."

Also, Dr. Musa Dube, who was here in the Triangle and Triad regions of North Carolina this week, will be the keynote speaker at the conference, which covers a range of topics but has a focus this year on religion and health.

Her talk is entitled "Go tla Siama, O tla Fola: Doing Biblical Studies in an HIV & AIDS Context" and it will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday. If you are in Atlanta, write me if you want details, I think we may be able to make arrangements for non-members to come and hear this one. Leave a note in the comments section or write to me at missmayapavlova at gmail dot com.

When I return after the weekend it will be Spring Break, GLORY BE TO GODDE!

We're number one... in rate of incarceration

Shame, shame, shame. One in a hundred U.S. inhabitants is in prison.

Let me repeat that. ONE IN A HUNDRED UNITED STATES PEOPLE IS IN PRISON.

Among the details:

One in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars.

One in 9 --yes, one in nine-- Black men is in prison.

h/t to truthout for the article in the Toronto Globe and Mail. (And thanks to Our Neighbors to the North for reporting the news and to the Pew Center for the States for conducting the study.)