“Tilt!,” an essay I posted here some months ago, has been recently republished online as a part of an online exhibit at the International Museum of Women’s Imagining Ourselves Project. The International Museum of Women (IMOW) is a “museum without walls” which sponsors events and exhibits online. (Here’s a March, 2006 piece on the IMOW in the San Francisco Chronicle.) The Imagining Ourselves Project provides a venue in which women from around the world share stories, images, and responses to them, all online. Here’s some more about it, from their website:
The goals of Imagining Ourselves are to increase young women in leadership positions, to connect our esteemed partners (such as the Global Fund for Women and the World YWCA) to a broad audience, and to increase international community among this first global generation of women. The magic happens when young women are able to form connections across international boundaries—and use those connections to improve each other’s lives.
The project has received rave reviews and endorsements. A mini-exhibit previewed to international delegates at the United Nations Beijing +10 conference in 2005, and has since toured the world. Over 60 distinguished leaders of from around the globe have signed on to be ambassadors for the project, as have major international organizations such as Amnesty International and the World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides.
The Parenting subtheme (part of a larger theme on Motherhood) includes pieces (text or image) by women from the US, Iran, South Korea, Nepal, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey, Guatemala, and Mexico. Mine is one of two by lesbian parents, though my piece is a tale of woe about an exasperated parent and a more exasperated child (and the existential angst at the core of that exasperation). All of which mostly says, about lesbian parenthood, that in many ways it’s as exotic as a diaper or a sippy cup. A message I’m glad to continue to promote.
I encourage you to mosey over there, and if you have the time, log in and converse and exchange insights with women from around the world.
The IMOW is also running a Mother’s Day Photo Contest at Flickr. Here’s how they describe it:
We are looking for original and striking images depicting motherhood and what Mother’s Day means to you. We encourage entries from all corners of the world, in both rural and urban settings. We expect to receive images that represent motherhood, maternity, pregnancy, mother relationships and everything in between.
I heartily encourage us lesbomums et al. to represent.