Why Womanhouse? Why now?

I used to follow Salon's Broadsheet and I didn't realize how behind I was until I checked in recently to find it dismantled. For several months, as it turned out. I used to work in a cubicle and would sometimes spend my entire shift composing a remark for the always-lively comment section. I would publish it and then wait to see if it got any responses, but more importantly if it got an "editor's choice" star. That, I felt, meant I was a real contributor.

The virtual world of politics and news and infuriating comment sections can be exhilarating that way-- every voice counts. It can also be overwhelming and, judging from the numerous facebook fights I witness, less than productive. The idea behind Womanhouse V4.0* is to gather locally to put our intelligence and abilities together in order to positively influence our own community. And I don't just mean "others" in the community, I mean ourselves as well. I can barely listen to the news currently without shaking in anger and frustration and, personally, I need to go somewhere with these emotions or else I just stew (I'm sure I'm mixing metaphors here, a forte of mine, but I do sometimes feel like a stew... endlessly cooking, sputtering at all the wrong times.) Whether our outlet is discussion, laughter, performance, making, listening, food, protesting, reading, running, doesn't matter-- what matters is we're here, we're engaged, we're ready to begin.

I've invited several authors to initiate discussion any way they see fit. If you would like to be an author, too, please email me. We will also use this blog to list events so consider subscribing to not miss a post.

-Victoria

* I consider this a working title. It can change.