



Buttons!!! O_O
So after our pretty successful Meet’n Greet, that was held at Avant Garde Bar a couple weeks back we had our first activity/social function open to new interested parties. It was BUTTON MAKING!
If I sound a little bit too excited about it, IT'S because I am. I first volunteered to make RebELLEs Buttons for us to sell to fund raise for our little adventure to Winnipeg for the pan-Canadian conference. The first time around I made the buttons all wrong and It was kinda a sucky experince.I wasn’t a happy ReBELLE. After that I Encouraged our whole group (read: whined too much) to get involved and I can’t remember having a better Saturday afternoon. I was doing the button making all wrong. Crafting is about creating something new, wild and amazing.
Crafting has long been recognized (or so I’ve been told as I am not really the crafty type but more like the bull-in-the-china-shop type who isn’t really “allowed” around crafting) as a wonderful social activity. And it was, we sat around, creating beautiful deep/silly/sexual/political/thoughtful/radical/heart-felt/random buttons all the while (as we would say in Alberta) shooting the shyt feminist style (okay they don’t really say Feminist style all that often). You know..talking about life, the things that really matter to us and our world and what WE'RE gonna do to learn more, act out more and in general kick ass(es) as our manifesto lays out. (If you haven’t read IT you should check it!)**http://www.rebelles.org/en/manifesto
Which is exactly why I GOT so darn excited HAVING button making as an event for people interested in getting more involved in the rebELLEs.
Activism, feminism and politics are complicated to say the least but whatI like about all of them are the ideas, the beautiful people, the criticalreflection, a space to challenge yourself (on ideas, your own privilege)and arena to work together. Does button making do that? Well IT DOES when you have a room full of beautiful FEMINISTS, creative children,thought provoking magazines to tear down and build back up into buttons.
Lots of activist-y things and groups are about meeting and organizing(which is pretty important) but sometimes people just need to come together to make buttons and to shoot the shyt feminist style.
I had a really great time at this event getting to know people, felt some new crafty-satisfaction in creating counter-cultural radical art in the form of buttons. I hope others did too and will stick around to help the young feminist movement/ideas grow!
And last but not least the Ottawa rebELLES also want to thank the
University of Ottawa OPIRG for letting us use their space and buttonmaking machiney thingy.
-The Trish-Monster


1d-Volunteer at the event! contact milena.jlf.gioia@*When: *February 15th, any time between 10am -4pm
*Where: *151 Slater Street, Suite 704 [offices of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action]
*What: *We are making a short film about feminism, that will be shown at
the March 8th, 2011, “I might be a feminist, but...” event in Ottawa.
This year we’ll be filming your feet – so wear your best shoes—we’re going
to ask them how they feel about the recent debate on second wave vs. third
wave feminism.
IMPLIQUEZ-VOUS
3a- Pour collecter des fonds pour le rassemblement, on va se réunir le mercredi 9 février à 18h au Earl of Sussex (St.Patrick) pour discuter à propos du design des tshirts et boutons qu'on va vendre aux évènements JIF.
Pour des idées de tshirt visitez ce site.
3b- On planifie aussi un souper-causerie féministe inter-générationnel en avril. Aidez-nous!
May 20-23, 2011, Winnipeg Manitoba
We invite you to be part of the
RebELLEs feminist movement!
This is an invitation to all young women, between 14 and 35 years of age with diverse political views and identities, from all regions, cultures and languages, with an interest in feminist issues and struggles.
You are invited to participate in the
2nd Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering
The 1st gathering, “Toujours RebELLEs, Waves of Resistance” hosted over 500 young feminists in Montréal in October of 2008. For three days, young feminists gathered to share experiences, stories and analysis. We engaged in creative resistance actions in the streets, learned from and with one another, shared our feminist talents, and danced up a storm. We returned to our regions with a strong foundation for a young feminist movement in place, one that RebELLEs all across the country have been building upon for the past two years.
This is a call to all young women, activists, students, workers, un(der)employed women, artists, researchers, mothers, feminists of all tendencies and of all types, and of course emerging feminists, to get involved!
For more information:
2011 Organization Committee based in Winnipeg:
Pan-Canadian Secretariat based in Montreal:
In May of 2011, head to Winnipeg to:
* Learn about feminism and what it means to other young women
* Share your reflections and analysis of different issues that affect us as young women from diverse backgrounds
* Learn about and discuss our priorities for action as young feminists
* Share our struggles and discuss strategies to resist and combat patriarchy and other forms of oppression
* Create solidarity and reinforce the RebELLEs young feminist movement in Canada
*Celebrate our struggles and solidarity… Who said feminists don’t know how to party!?