Monday, October 16, 2017: The Space Between Women and Mental Health/Mental Illness

Jovelyn Richards hosts her live call-in show, The Space Between Us. Today the theme is the space between us, mental health and mental illness. Jovelyn's guests are Diane Jeanette who created Women and Spirituality and Sylvia Toy St Louis, artist and co-founder of Jump! Theatre. They talk about they personal experience with mental illness.

In the second half of today's show Tracy Camp, mathematics professor at Laney College and Kathleen Tarr, lecturer of Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University join the Space Between Us to talk about the play, Thomas and Sally currently showing at Marin Theatre Company. Guests and callers explore the extreme controversy surrounding the exploitation and rape of children and women that the play romanticizes. Today's show is also joined by an Anonymous guest who auditioned for the role of Sally. Kathleen Tarr with five others comment on the play in the HuffPost article Reflections on the Rape Of a Slave Girl.

Click here to listen to the entire show. 59:50 min

Monday, May 8, 2017: Author Ellen Meeropol

Joining us here is Ellen Meeropol, author of House Arrest and On Hurricane Island, whose newest book, Kinship of Clover weaves mental illness and climate activism.

Kate Raphael talks with Ellen about writing and fighting for social change.

"Activism and resistance can be a way for people to connect with each other in a more human way as well as a more earth friendly manner."

Click here to listen to entire show. 59:50


Also on today's show:
Activist and former political prisoner Bo Brown
Author Susan Griffin

July 21, 2014: The Life of Valerie Solanas

California Coalition of Women Prisoners is sponsoring a caravan and rally on July 31st to protest the re-opening of McFarland prison, to be run by the GEO Group, a private company with an abysmal reputation. Low level women offenders qualified for release are being transferred to McFarland for a brutal program falsely entitled Enhanced Rehabilitation and Recidivism Reduction Campaign. The caravan will meet at MacArthur BART at 11 AM and link up with Trail for Humanity. A rally at 5 PM will be held at McFarland Park. For more information contact CCWP at 415-255-7036 ext 4 or email notomcfarlandgeo@gmail.com. To find out more about Trail for Humanity you can find them on Facebook.

Life and Work of Valerie Solanas

To buy: http://www.feministpress.org/books/breanne-fahs/valerie-solanas

Breanne Fahs, professor of women's and gender studies at Arizona State University, discusses the controversial but important life and work of Valerie Solanas. Fahs is author of the new book, Valerie Solanas: The Defiant Life of the Woman who Wrote SCUM (and Shot Andy Warhol).

Listen now or Get MP3 24:01 min.

Breanne Fahs

Breanne Fahs is an associate professor of women and gender studies at Arizona State University, where she specializes in studying women's sexuality, critical embodiment studies, radical feminism, and political activism.  She has a B.A. in women's studies/gender studies and psychology from Occidental College and a Ph.D. in women's studies and clinical psychology from the University of Michigan.  She has published widely in feminist, social science, and humanities journals and has authored three books: Performing Sex (SUNY Press, 2011), an analysis of the paradoxes of women's "sexual liberation," The Moral Panics of Sexuality (Palgrave, 2013), an edited collection that examines cultural anxieties of "scary sex," and Valerie Solanas (Feminist Press, 2014), a biography about the controversial and politically significant life of author/would-be assassin Valerie Solanas. She is the director of the Feminist Research on Gender and Sexuality Group at Arizona State University, and she also works as a private practice clinical psychologist specializing in sexuality, couples work, and trauma recovery.

To read S.C.U.M. Manifesto go to: http://www.womynkind.org/scum.htm

To hear the entire program of Women's Magazine click here. 59:50 min.

Also on today's show:

Palestinian Women Take Aim with Cameras

April 14, 2014: The German Doctor: An Interview with Lucia Puenzo

THE GERMAN DOCTOR:  Kate Raphael talks with filmmaker and novelist Lucia Puenzo, whose film THE GERMAN DOCTOR (WAKOLDA), adapted from her novel, opens next week.

An article in the New York Times over the weekend talked about something called "slow cognitive tempo," a new form of Attention Deficit Disorder which scientists are studying and doctors are busy diagnosing and medicating in kids.This is really nothing new but the stage is different, jobs are much fewer and it is harder and harder to make one's way in the world.And of course drug companies are always manufacturing new products and finding new uses for old ones to treat these supposed diseases and paying doctors to prescribe them and give out samples, and parents are not encouraged or educated to challenge the wisdom of doctors, and so on and so on.

This overdrugging of kids in order to make them fit into an ever narrowing box of acceptable behavior and capabilities is a form of social engineering that makes it possible for us to do less of the more overt types, but is no less harmful and it raises some tough questions of who is culpable and for what.  It's easy to say that the people who design experiments on developmentally disabled people are evil.  But I think most parents who give their kids Ritalin so they can do better in school and stop getting in trouble are really trying to do right by their kids.  And most of the doctors who prescribe these drugs, and the scientists who research these supposed disorders, are also trying to help.

These are some of the questions at the heart of the new film by Argentine director Lucia Puenzo.  The film is called in English THE GERMAN DOCTOR, and it opens on April 25 at the Embarcadero and the Albany Twin.  It deals with the time that Josef Mengele spent in Argentina after the war.  Lucia Puenzo is the author of five novels and the director of two previous films,  Her debutfilm, XXY, won numerous awards including the Critics' Week grand prize at the 2007 Cannes film festival.  The German Doctor is based on her novel, WAKOLDA, which is also the name of the film in Spanish.

Listen now:





or Get MP3 13:20 min.

Click to hear entire show. 59:50 min.

Also on today's show:

Tara Dorabji talks with Shailja Patel, whose one-woman show Migritude, is now a book published by Kaya Press, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this week with a reading at City Lights.

Filmmaker and activist Tracey Quezada talks about what's wrong with the criminal justice approach to child sexual assault and what we can do to address this public health problem as a community.

December 24th: Feminist Responses to Violence; What to Do on New Year's

Male Violence, Militarism and Mass Killings 

What role does gender play and why is it so ignored by the media? How is empathy bred out of men, and how can we restore it? How can we make people feel the deaths of thousands of children in Afghanistan and Palestine, or in our own inner cities, as acutely as those in Newtown, Connecticut? Is this a "tipping point" moment for action on gun control? These and other questions are explored in this engaging half hour discussion.

A discussion with authors and activists Elana Dykewomon, Kathleen Barry and Judith Mirkinson about unexplored dimensions of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Audio: 31:26

 

  Get MP3

Interview with Meditation & Spirituality Teacher Spring Washam

Spring Washam is hosting two Great Turning events New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. She writes:

"The great turning is happening NOW as we turn towards a life sustaining model of community, generosity and interconnectedness. We have enormous power and our hearts songs are weaving a new tapestry in the collective consciousness of our human family. Gaia is our home. It’s time we reclaim the earth as our sacred altar."

In this interview with Syra Smith, she talks about her philosophy, her work in mediatation and spirituality, the purpose of the events and how they came together. The Great Turning is a benefit for The Sujata Project, which will provide accessible retreats for low-income Bay Area women.

Spring Washam, cofounder of East Bay Meditation Center and teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, talks about her work making mediatation accessible to women of color, LBT and low-income women. Audio: 15:29



Get MP3

Phenomenon 2013

Phenomenon 2013 is the second New Year's extravaganza organized by Roke Noir and Siren Theatre. The first, Blue Moon Phenomenon 2010, was named "coolest spiritual New Year's Eve for women" by the San Francisco Examiner. Food, dancing, drumming, fire play, comedy -- Phenomenon 2013 has it all. Find out more.

Roke Noir of Siren Theater explains Phenomenon 2013, a spiritual New Year's feast, ritual and celebration for women. Audio: 7:06



Get MP3

Click here to listen to entire show as it aired on KPFA, Monday, December 24th, 2012.

July 9th: Nora Ephron remembered; Playing with Fear

The Feminism of Nora Ephron

esq-nora-ephron-062612-lg...

Looking back at the life, work and contribution to feminism of writer, director and humorist Nora Ephron. Audio 26:51

Listen now:


Get MP3

Her movies were called fluff and schmaltz, scorned by feminists and promoters of "serious art." But is that really just a reflection of society's disdain for middle-class, middle-aged women? So says Sady Doyl, publisher of tigerbeatdown.com.

Nora Ephron was an unapologetic feminist. She made fun of the women's movement, not to denigrate it but because it was part of her. Hear her talk about climate change, small breasts, Newsweek, and lots more.

The Siren Project's Playing with Fear

Roke Noir, Founding Artistic Director of The Siren Theatre Project, speaks with Kate Raphael about her upcoming multimedia theatre work "Playing with Fear" on July 29th, which weaves together the personal stories of a group of Bay Area women artists. Audio 25:42

Listen now:


Get MP3

playing_with_fear.gif

"Playing with Fear," is a multimedia theater project directed by Roke Noir, produced by Siren Theatre Project and presented by an all-women cast and crew.

Share in the real stories from a diverse group of Bay Area women who collaborated for over three months facing, understanding, and playing with their fears. This unique hybrid, an experimental ensemble performance, exposes their explorations through word, image and movement. Join us in this life-changing journey to see magic unfold as these raw personal stories tug at your heart's core and leave you transformed forever.

Click here to listen to the entire show as it aired on KPFA at 1 PM on July 9th.