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CREATING CONNECTIONS This page collects resources from our 2005 Creating Connections event. Below you'll find our schedule for the day, a list of speakers and their bios, and resources from the day itself. Where resources are available, they are linked to in the day's schedule. SCHEDULE / AGENDA | SPEAKER BIOS | Program (.pdf) NOMAS-Boston is working to bring local communities, organizations, and college students together to break down barriers about issues surrounding sexism, racism, and homophobia and show that living without being confined to one's gender roles will enhance our lives. Over recent months members of NOMAS-Boston have brainstormed ways in which connecting the dots between forms of oppression can occur in one’s activism. Our hope for the Networking Day is to bring together several of our Boston allies whose work we admire in order to assist all of us in “Connecting the Dots” between various types of anti-oppression work. In other words, our goal is to foster understanding as to how addressing and working on issues of sexism, racism, homo/transphobia, and violence can improve our lives. Sunday, July 24th 2005 Register by July 15: Only $10 / $5 for NOMAS-Boston Members Conference Program (.pdf) A Day for Networking The Boston chapter of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS-Boston) invites you to join us for our first-ever Networking Day, in which local community organizers and members, social change agents, and activists create connections between the various anti-oppression and social justice work we do. In recent years, forces within the U.S. have resurged and united to pit community organizers and social justice agents against one another for resources, airtime, and legitimacy. For example, as activism around LGBT rights has grown, conservative think tanks have rallied communities of color in opposition and in the process have silenced LGBT People of Color and White anti-racist LGBT, forcing many to choose sides. Instead, NOMAS-Boston seeks to unite people around all issues of justice and equality. We believe most people carry with them inner attitudes and values based on our socialization, values which uphold patriarchy, violence, heteronormativity, and unacknowledged White racial/cultural supremacy. They are so ingrained and so "normal" in our culture, it can be hard for people to acknowledge they all exist. And while many of us are doing admirable work towards one social justice cause, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the other areas where we need to learn openness and new perspectives. The Networking Day is designed to challenge many different 'status quo' cultural values by drawing connections between four areas of inequality and its surrounding activism. These areas include (a) pro-feminism, (b) anti-violence work, (c) anti-racist activism, and (d) LGBT affirming work. We expect much learning and sharing to occur as we work to link our efforts for justice and equality. Local activists and community groups will facilitate a series of interactive workshops centered on the four areas above. A focus of every workshop will be the challenges and successes (both personally and organizationally) of recognizing many forms of oppression, as well as ways in which connections and support can be fostered between our communities We hope you will join us for this exciting and challenging day of learning, socializing, and unity in our collective strength.
Steven D. Botkin Steven Botkin founded the Men’s Resource Center of Western Massachusetts in 1982 and received his doctoral degree in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts several years later. Steven guided the MRC from a grass-roots group of volunteers into a successful non-profit community-based organization whose programs include Men Overcoming Violence (batterer intervention), youth groups, public education campaigns, men’s support groups and Voice Male magazine. The Men’s Resource Center model has inspired men’s organizing in communities around the world. Last year Steven left his position as director of the MRC of Western Massachusetts to found Men’s Resources International, whose mission is to promote positive masculinity and end men’s violence by supporting the development of men’s programs in diverse communities and building a global network working in alliance with women. In 2003 Steven was invited to Japan for a speaking tour, and in 2005 he hosted a U.S. study tour for the founder of the newly forming Zambia Men’s Network. He recently presented at a training institute for delegates to the United Nations’ 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (“Beijing+10”). Bill Gardiner Bill Gardiner is an Anti-racism Consultant working for the Unitarian Universalist Association headquartered in Boston. In this capacity he supports the development of anti-racism teams in Unitarian Universalist congregations and related organizations. Bill worked on the staff of the Unitarian Universalist Association from 1990 until 2004. There he was one of the staff people that facilitated the Journey toward Wholeness anti-racism initiative for the Unitarian Universalist Association. Bill is one of the founding members of the Unitarian Universalist Men’s Network a continental membership organization for UU men. The purpose of UU Men is to build a mature, liberal religious masculinity: male positive, profeminist/womanist, gay affirming, culturally and racially inclusive and diverse. Bill was also an active leader in Unitarian Universalists Acting to Stop Violence against Women. Bill served as Associate Minister at All Souls Church in Washington, DC. from 1967-1972. He was the minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, Tennessee from 1972- 1980. From 1980 till 1990 he served as co-minister at the Unitarian Society of Germantown. Marian (Meck) Groot Marian (Meck) Groothas has worked at the Women's Theological Center since 1990 where she develops and supports the spiritual leadership needed to break through systemic barriers such as racism and sexism which stand in the way of creating and maintaining Beloved Community. Dr. Jack Kahn Jack Kahn is currently the co-chair of NOMAS-Boston and has been active with NOMAS for two years. He has a PhD in counseling psychology and teaches at a local liberal arts college in the Northeast. He is an active member of the Institutional Committee on Diversity and Women’s studies committee on campus. He focuses his academic work on areas of gender and currently is preparing a book chapter on the training of undergraduates in feminist theory and social justice. Christopher McMullen, MBA Christopher McMullen is an organizational development consultant whose work is built around workforce dynamics. His anti-bias/anti-oppression work has involved issues involving race, religion, sectarianism, gender, ability, and international conflict. He has helped non-profits, NGO’s, government and health care agencies work to build better environments for their constituents. Previously he has worked as a case manager helping to resettle refugees into New England; recruited and advised students of color and women at a community college; worked as a management consultant and then an internal consultant on issues involving civil rights, diversity, and conflict resolution. He is presently an adjunct professor teaching a management course that blends online learning with periodic classroom instruction. He has also founded The Deep Democracy Project, a vehicle that explores various empowerment methodologies as a means to build radically inclusive social environments. The Rev. Irene Monroe is a religion columnist (The Queer Take), public theologian, and motivational speaker. As an African American feminist theologian, she has spoken for a sector of society that is frequently invisible. Monroe has been a sought-after speaker, preacher and writer about women's and gender issues. She has conducted workshops on women's healing, bodies and spirituality. Her workshop "Sacred Sexualities" has been conducted across the country at places like The Institute for Body, Mind and Spirituality in Cambridge, and at the premier spirituality and holistic retreat center, Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. Read more about Rev. Monroe. Craig Norberg-Bohm Joining the movement in 1977, Craig co-founded RAVEN, a center in St. Louis MO, for ending men's violence (EMV). Since that time he has relocated to Boston, MA and joined Emerge, a center founded in 1976 operating interventions with offenders of domestic abuse. Emerge is a forerunner in culturally diverse and competent programming. Craig chairs the Emerge board of directors and is developing the Men's Imitative for Jane Doe Inc.. The purpose of the MIJD is to bring the EMV movement out of the social service closet and engage the public in wonderful ways. In addition, Craig has a long history with NOMAS, having attended 15 conferences, starting with number 3 in 1976, coordinating the EMV Net in its early days. Phoebe Sinclair Phoebe Sinclair relocated to Boston in 1996 to attend Emerson College, where she graduated with a BFA in Creative Writing. She describes herself as a "children's writer with administrative tendencies" and resides in Allston with 1 foster cat and an extensive book, comics, and zine collection. Phoebe has been a member of NOW's Feminist Culture Club ( a Boston-area social group that meets once a month to celebrate and discuss issues surrounding feminism) since it's third meeting and is currently Co-coordinator. She also volunteers her time with the Boston Science Museum, Community Servings, and is on the Board of Directors for Boston Knitout and Crochet 2005. Tamara Sobel Tamara Sobel has been participating in feminist activism since she was a teenager. She is the founder of the Girls, Women + Media Project, a national consumer initiative and network working to promote media literacy, consumer activism, and fairer, healthier, more positive images of girls and women in the media. Her commentary on how women are portrayed in popular culture has appeared in national and local print and TV media, such as The Nation, Oxygen TV Network, The Chicago Tribune, WBZ TV (Boston), The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and other outlets. She is a lawyer by training, and now works as a Development professional in the non-profit sector. Rivka Solomon Rivka Solomon is a Boston-based writer, playwright and organizer. She is the editor of the book and co-playwright of the play THAT TAKES OVARIES: BOLD FEMALES AND THEIR BRAZEN ACTS, and Executive Director of the nonprofit organization of the same name ThatTakesOvaries. Her estrogen-powered book has sparked a global grassroots open mike movement for women's empowerment. |
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