And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: "Andre P. Cramblit" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sunday, August 1, 1999 Subject: Conference "Violence Against Women of Color" Conference The Color of Violence: "Violence Against Women of Color" April 28-29, 2000 (Originally scheduled for April 14-15, 2000) University of California, Santa Cruz The Color of Violence: Violence Against Women of Color will bring together activists whose work challenges violence against women of color to explore and strategize around the relationships among racism, colonialism, and gender violence in the lives and histories of women of color. The purpose of this conference is to analyze the connections between sexual and domestic violence in communities of color and the political and economic structures of violence nationally and globally. This conference will explore the ways in which colonization is itself an act of sexual violence directed against colonized communities. This conference will also analyze the ways in which modern capitalism is constituted through the sexual exploitation of women in the Third World and women of color in the US, as evidenced by the global trafficking of women and the super-exploitation of female labor in multinational industries. The Color of Violence will also explore the relationship between the prison system and sexual/domestic violence. KEYNOTE PRESENTERS Angela Y. Davis. Co-founder of Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex Haunani Kay Trask, Ka Lahui Hawai'i Speakers confirmed to date: Bernadine Atcheson and Mary Ann Mills (Traditional Dena'ina): Activists against medical experimentation on Alaska Native communities. Roma Balzer (Maori): Domestic violence advocate Anannya Bhattacharjee: Andolan: Organizing South Asian Workers and SAMAR Kum Kum Bhavnani: Co-editor, Women of Color Series, New York: Routledge. Peggy Bird (Santo Domingo Pueblo): Mending the Sacred Hoop Tillie Blackbear (Lakota): White Buffalo Calf Women's Shelter Chrystos (Menominee). Author of several books of poetry which address sexual violence in Native communities. Her titles include Not Vanishing, Fugitive Colors, and Dream On. Nancy Cooper (Ojibway): Community Council of the Aboriginal Legal Services Clinic. Kimberle Crenshaw: Author, Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement. Author of several essays that address violence against women of color. Adrienne Davis. Professor of Law at Washington College of Law in American University. Rosa Linda Fregoso: Professor at UC Davis. Work focuses on media representations of Latinas and violence. Yoko Fukumura: Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence Ines Hernandez-Avila (Nez Perce) Professor of Native Studies, UC Davis Kata Issari: Former President of National Coalition Against Sexual Assault Isabel Kang: Founder of KAN-WIN, a Korean battered women's hotline. Val Kanuha: Anti-violence advocate Kamala Kempadoo: Author and editor of Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance and Redefinition, and Sun, Sex and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean. Mimi Kim: Long-time activist with the Asian Women's Shelter, which provides shelter Asian American battered women. Nantawan Lewis: Author of forthcoming book on Thai women and sex tourism. Lourdes Lugo: Puerto Rican Cultural Center Leni Marin: Family Violence Prevention Fund Margo Okazawa-Rey: San Francisco State University Beth Richie: Domestic violence activist. Author of Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Battered Black Women. Loretta Rivera (Seneca): Domestic violence activist Loretta Ross: Center for Human Rights Education Luana Ross (Salish): Author of Inventing the Savage: The Social Construction of Native American Criminality. Lourdes Santaballa: Immigrant and Refugee Battered Women's Task Force Meg Henson Scales: Publisher of the Harlem Howl Aishah Shahidah Simmons: Film Maker Gail Small: Native Action Alexandra Suh: Rainbow Center Neferti Tadiar: Professor of History of Consciousness, UC Santa Cruz Blanca Tavera: Domestic violence advocate. Sujata Warrier: Anti-violence advocate Traci West: Christian ethicist at Drew University. Author of forthcoming book on Black women, religion, and violence. Janelle White: San Francisco Women Against Rape Sherry Wilson (Ho Chunk Nation): Women of All Red Nations Pat Zavella: Professor of Community Studies, UC Santa Cruz CONFERENCE THEMES Women of color live in the dangerous intersections of gender and race. Within the mainstream anti-violence movement, women of color who survive sexual or domestic abuse are often told that they must pit themselves against their (violent) communities to begin the healing process. Communities of color, meanwhile, often advocate that women keep silent about the sexual and domestic violence in order to maintain a united front against racism. Clearly, women of color must find a way to transform these practices within both anti-racist and feminist movements around issues of violence. The Color of Violence will provide an opportunity to develop analyses and strategies toward both goals: first, challenging violence within communities of color, and second, shifting the focus of the dominant anti-violence against women movement away from a purely gender-based politic. This work is timely and important because, increasingly, mainstream anti-violence advocates are demanding longer prison sentences for batterers and sex offenders as a front line approach to stopping violence against women. However, the criminal justice system has always been brutally oppressive toward communities of color. The Color of Violence will explore alternatives to relying solely on the criminal justice system for addressing sexual and domestic violence in order to minimize harm to communities of color. Furthermore, since most women in prison are women of color, the conference will also examine the relationship between the sexual exploitation of women in prison and sexual violence against women outside of prison. The relationship between the criminal justice system and the media has proven particularly deleterious to communities of color. Take, for example, the narrow but pervasive media messages surrounding the O.J. Simpson and Mike Tyson cases, both of which portrayed men of color as categorical perpetrators of sexual and domestic violence. Simpson in particular became the archetypal black male predator of white women. In each of these national discussions about sexual and domestic violence, the criminal justice system was depicted as society's protector from the violent proclivities of black men; from each of these national discussions, the perspectives of women of color were noticeably absent. The Color of Violence will explore the ways in which the media perpetuate the victimization of women of color both by portraying them as silent and powerless and by shutting them out of the national discussions that affect them. This conference will also examine attempts by several artists to intervene in mainstream media practices by developing counter-representations of women of color and violence. The Color of Violence, however, will not only highlight the contemporary experiences of women of color and their relationships to gender violence, but also explore topics that histories of US colonialism have typically neglected: the ways in which gender violence shapes the very processes of racism and colonialism and assists in oppressing communities of color. We wish to analyze the relationship between personal and institutional violence in the lives and histories of women of color. Religion is a particularly important topic because religious oppression has always involved a high degree of gender violence, especially in the Americas. On the other hand, religion and spirituality can also serve as the foundation for resistance to colonization. Related topics include the ways in which sexual and domestic violence operate in attacks on immigrants' rights and Indian treaty rights, the proliferation of prisons, militarism, economic neo-colonialism, and institutional racism. We will also seek to broaden understandings of gender violence to include analyses of the ways in which the very bodies women of color have been and continue to be colonized, especially through the attacks on the reproductive rights of women of color, medical experimentation on communities of color, and biocolonial attacks on indigenous communities through such projects as the Human Genome Diversity Project. TENTATIVE PROGRAM Friday Keynote Speaker: Angela Davis Respondents: to be determined Saturday Plenary Session: 9:00 - 10:45 Workshops: 11:00 - 12:45 US Colonialism and Violence Against Women of Color Law Enforcement & Violence Against Women of Color Challenging the Depoliticization of the Anti-Violence Movement Media/Cultural Representations of Violence Against Women of Color Racism and Heterosexism Lunch: 12:45 - 1:45 Plenary Session: 1:45 - 3:30 Workshops: 3:45 - 5:30 Breaking the Silence on Violence in Communities of Color Religion, Spirituality, and Violence Against Women Violence Against Women of Color and the Global Economy Colonized Bodies of Women of Color Militarism and Violence Dinner Break: 5:30 - 7:30 Cultural Performances and Literary Readings: 7:30 -10:00 Closing Keynote: Haunani Kay Trask To receive registration materials, contact Andrea Smith, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or write or call at the following address: Andrea Smith 123 Felix Street, #4 Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831-460-1856 831-459-3733 (fax) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- André Cramblit, Operations Director The Northern California Indian Development Council ( http://www.ncidc.org ) NCIDC is a non-profit organization that helps meet the social, educational, and economic development needs of American Indian communities. NCIDC operates a fine art gallery and gift boutique featuring the best of American Indian Artist's and their work, with emphasis placed on the work of the Tribes of N.W. California. (http://www.ncidc.org/gift/gifthome.htm#anchorgift)
