Robyn Okrant

Living Oprah: My One-Year Experiment to Walk the Walk of the Queen of Talk

On January 1, 2008, Robyn Okrant, a 35-year-old Chicagoan, embarked on a unique one-year mission: to live every aspect of her life as Oprah Winfrey directed. From creating vision boards, practicing guided meditation, and participating in the Best Life Challenge; to learning to live with cellulite, de-cluttering her home, and buying “necessities” such as leopard flats and a fire pit, Okrant followed every piece of advice offered through The Oprah Winfrey Show, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Oprah.com. Her blog tracking the project attracted more than half a million visitors; now she’s compiled the experience in this funny, captivating and provocative memoir.

Sappho’s Salon: A Provocative Night of Lesbian Diversions

Featuring Ifa Bumi, Barrie Cole and DJ SpinNikki

$7-$10 sliding admission includes food and wine

This month’s installment of our popular salon night for lesbians and their friends features the performance work of two outstanding queer artists. Barrie Cole, deemed “Chicago’s Champion of Lyrical Oddness” by the Chicago Reader, has had her plays, monologues, and collaborative performances staged throughout Chicago and elsewhere. Atlanta-based lesbian erotic writer, performance poet and musician Ifa Bumi is author of the collection Liquid Toffee, and the spoken word CD, Museotry. She’ll be joined by a collaborative dancer. As always, DJ SpinNikki will play us in and out of sets.

All proceeds benefit the artists and the Women’s Voices Fund.

This month's book is Impossible Motherhood by Irene Vilar

Violence as the Ultimate Trump Card: What it means to be the Slayer
Eps to Watch:
Prophecy Girl, Season 1, Episode 12
Anne, Season 3, Episode 1
Restless, Season 4, Episode 22
The Weight of the World, Season 5, Episode 21
Showtime, Season 7, Episode 11
End of Days, Season 7, Episode 21

Essays to read:
"Feminism and the Ethics of Violence: Why Buffy Kicks Ass", by Mimi Marinucci
found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy, edited by James South

"What would Buffy do?: Feminist ethics and epistemic violence", by
Shannon Craigo-Snell
http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc48.2006/BuffyEthics/index.htm

Friday, March 5

7:30 p.m.

Nancy Stohlman

Searching for Suzi

            When Suzi, a thirty-something ex-stripper now married with kids, begins to question how she arrived at this point in her life, her search for herself means accepting her sexuality in all its contradictions and claiming herself. Denver-based writer Stohlman, who is founder and co-editor of the annual flash fiction collection, Fast Forward, reveals Suzi’s story in a novel-in-flashes.

This month's book is My Antonia by Willa Cather

Sunday, March 7

4:30 p.m.

Neena B. Schwartz

A Lab of My Own

            What was it like to be a woman scientist battling the “old boys’ network” during the 1960s and ‘70s? In her new memoir, Neena Schwartz, a prominent neuroendocrinologist based at Northwestern University, tells all. Mixing details and anecdotes from her personal life as an out lesbian, with the socio-political history of American women in science in the later 20th century, Schwartz makes a case for mentoring young women in science, and why it matters that women both do and teach scientific study.   

Friday, March 12

7:30 p.m.

Staceyann Chin

The Other Side of Paradise            We are thrilled to once again be hosting the electrifying spoken word artist Staceyann Chin, this time to celebrate the paperback release of her searing and groundbreaking memoir, The Other Side of Paradise. Following a tradition of fierce Caribbean lesbian writers that includes Audre Lorde and Michelle Cliff, Chin’s narrative charts her course from the heartbreak and tragedy of her Jamaican childhood, to her thriving adult like in New York City. Dorothy Allison raves, “[Chin] shows me a culture I knew far too little about – the everyday life of young people in Jamaica and the threat of violence over anyone who might be too independent or queer or outrageous. How wonderful that this outrageous, talented, determined woman has given us her story.”

Saturday, March 13

6:00 p.m.

Cynthia Kraack

Minnesota Cold

            Writer Cynthia Kraack’s book, Minnesota Cold, has been called a lovely, haunting tale, firmly grounded in the ways of the heart. Set in 2035, this is the story of Sallie Dodge, a 70-something woman living within the sociological results of the aggressive merger of government and big business, where it’s considered frugal policy to dictate the lifespan of citizens. When Dodge chooses to defy her turn to “pass,” she embarks, instead, on the journey of a lifetime. Guests are invited to join Kraack for a reception at In Fine Spirits at 5420 N Clark directly following this reading.  

This month's book is What Would Jane Say? by Janice Metzger

Chicago Area Women’s History Council

Women and Children First: Memories and Archives

Relive the excitement of W&CF’s 30th Anniversary Celebration last October as the Chicago Area Women’s History Council presents a premiere showing of the videotaped interviews conducted at the event. CAWHC members will discuss how you can participate in their larger project “Documenting the Women’s Movement in Chicago, 1960s – 1980s,” while Beth Myers from the Women and Leadership Archive at Loyola will share information about this important repository and the W&CF collection there. If you have memories or documents about W&CF, don’t miss this event.  If you were part of the feminist movement in Chicago, CAWHC needs your help!

Saturday, March 20

7:30 p.m.

Sappho’s Salon: A Provocative Night of Lesbian Diversions

Featuring Jennie Brier and Elana Dykewomon, with special guest host Chelsey Clammer and guest DJ Chandra. Co-sponsored by the Lesbian Leadership Council, Chicago Foundation for Women

$7-$10 sliding fee scale includes food and wine

            The latest monthly installment of our popular salon night for lesbians and their friends features writers Jennie Brier and Elana Dykewomon. In her book Infectuous Ideas: U.S. Political Response to the AIDS Crisis, UIC Professor Jennie Brier charts the complex social and political climate of the 1980s and ‘90s through the lens of the AIDS crisis. Elana Dykewomon, formerly editor of the journal Sinister Wisdom, is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning brilliant lesbian classic, Beyond the Pale. Her new novel, Risk, examines the life of Carol Schwartz, a community activist and idealist who routinely puts it all on the line; but when the stakes become too high, will she gamble more than she can afford to lose? This event is co-sponsored by the Lesbian Leadership Council of the Chicago Foundation for Women. Proceeds benefit the artists and the Women’s Voices Fund.

This month's book is Exile & Pride: Disability, Queerness & Liberation by Eli Clare.