Dispatch from the GEMPIRE: Dunbar Village, Kentucky Women Writers Conference

I don't know why I am still surprised by my blog audience after almost three years, but when I put up the chip-in widget to fund our first effort at original reporting of stories about Black women and girls that are relatively ignored by MSM, in the back of my mind I wondered if anybody would contribute. But as usual y'all came through.

If we keep contributions coming in at about the same rate, we're on target. If the trial goes on for longer than a week, I'll put up a new widget.

In the next few days we should be getting some interviews with those directly related to the case, family members, community leaders we haven't heard from before.  I talked about a number of possibilities with CB Hanif, but I'm not micromanaging his reporting because I want to be surprised just like you with the outcome of any of his inquiries.

RADIO INTERVIEW

Today at 2:45 MAYBE, CB and Wayne from Electronic Village will be on the Michael Dyson Show to talk about the role of the blogosphere in keeping the Dunbar Village story alive on a national level. I say maybe because its radio, things constantly change, but we did hear from a producer about the case.

Building Infrastructure to Fight the War on Black Women

I've been working on a HUGE grant application to bring the training we offer at Blogging While Brown to local communities for the past month, but that's over now. YAY! So Now I can focus on building the infrastructure online to give Black women like me  news, political power, and content creation and distribution online. That's a lot, but I think those are the three biggest threads that have arisen over the past 2 and half years here at WAOD.

I met a guy this summer at Blogging While Brown and he, Marty from Marty Blogs,  said he is an "Actionist" not an activist. He believes in "action" so we'll be taking LOTS more action in 2010.  When I started this blog, I was firmly against "committees" and "organizations" because I was so irritated with the CRIC, but we don't have a choice, no one else is going to do it for us, and none of us can do some of these major things alone.

Sonia Sanchez Series at the Kentucky Women Writers Conference

I have one more BIG project, I have to put together some booklets because I am speaking at the Kentucky Women Writers Conference September 10-12th.  I'll be speaking as part of the Sonia Sanchez Series.

The Sonia Series, initiated to honor Miss Sanchez's indelible spirit, brings a major thinker in multicultural and human rights issues to Lexington, to travel our city's neighborhoods performing a series of intimate lectures, and small group sessions. The distinguished guest's visit culminates in a keynote address, free and open to all.

This year's Sonia Sanchez series will feature Gina McCauley. It will be on Friday, September 11, 2009, location TBA.

I'd love to see some of my readers in the southeast. I'll also be teaching the Beginner Bloggers Boot Camp earlier in the day. Here is a list of some of the other speakers at the conference:

Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright and Yale professor who recently made history as the fourth poet to compose and deliver a poem at a presidential inauguration.

Jenny Bent has made a practice of fashioning best sellers–either by spotting new talent or by developing mid-career authors. Her list is varied and includes commercial fiction and nonfiction, literary fiction, and memoir.

Sallie Bingham published her first novel with Houghton Mifflin in 1961 and is the author of over ten books, most recently the short story collection Red Car (Sarabande, 2008). A noted feminist, she founded the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Archive for Women’s History at Duke University. Her Passion and Prejudice: A Family Memoir was published by Knopf in 1989, and she is currently at work on a second memoir.

Nikky Finney is the author of Heartwood, a collection of stories, and three books of poems, On Wings Made of Gauze, Rice (winner of a PEN America Open Book Award), and The World Is Round (winner of the 2004 Benjamin Franklin Award for Poetry).

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is the author of three books of poetry, The Gospel of Barbecue (Kent State University Press, 2000), chosen by Lucille Clifton as the winner of the Stan and Tom Wick Prize for poetry; Outlandish Blues (Wesleyan University Press, 2003); and Red Clay Suite (Southern Illinois University Press, 2007), chosen by Dorianne Laux as second prize for the Crab Orchard Open Competition Series.

Holly Goddard Jones's first book of short stories, Girl Trouble, is forthcoming from Harper Perennial in September.

Rachel McKibbens is known for her astonishingly visceral stage presence and devotion to slam poetry. She is one of the most respected poets in the spoken word community.



Christine Schutt's first novel, Florida, was a finalist for the 2004 National Book Award. Her second novel, All Souls (Harcourt, 2008), set in an exclusive all-girl Manhattan prep school where a beloved student battles a rare cancer, was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize

Susan Vreeland is recognized internationally for historical fiction on art themes. Her newest novel, Luncheon of the Boating Party (New York Times Bestseller, 2007), reveals Renoir's masterpiece, the personalities involved in its making, and the vibrancy of late nineteenth-century Paris.

Since at least three people have donated $100 or more to fund our coverage of the Dunbar Village trial, I DEFINITELY have to finish my book now. I don't have a choice because y'all know I don't believe in debt( Owe no man..or woman :))

Reminder:
The Dunbar Village reporter campaign  is an experiment and a case study for future similar efforts with cases that have a much lower profile.  Any excess balance will be reserved for future coverage. If we break even, we'll do this again. If we have any excess balance, we'll immediately begin to plan for other coverage.

Those donating $100 or more will receive an autographed preview copy of my first full length book, tentatively titled "For Cybercrusaders Who've Considered Organizing When the Blog is not Enough."

The first person donating $1,000 or more will receive the original storyboard, pencil etchings, dialog, coffee stains and all of my first original animated short. You can sell it on EBAY when I win an OSCAR. Just to show you that I'm serious, here are some stills.



I saw a little girl at a public library yesterday playing on the computer in the middle of the day and she was having the time of her life playing a video game ( computer learning) with a little brown character. I was like "I'm gonna do that one day!" Make animations with little brown girls so she can watch more images that look like her that are positive, adventurous, and fun.

Have a great weekend. Keep hitting up the chip-in widget in the sidebar. Ever little bit helps.

Comments

[Villager]

Gina - I hope that I do this cause justice on the Dyson radio show today...

peace, Villager

[Villager]

Gina -- would you consider placing some type of 'tag' or 'category' on your DV-related blog posts so that there is a single URL that we can use when driving folks here to see the trial coverage? Also, please consider creating a (#)hashtag on Twitter for DV-related tweets as well.

Just a thought...

peace, Villager

[Fed up observer.]

Good luck with your animations Gina. It is something our girls sorely need.