I Miss Hell Week at Bryn Mawr

I miss Bryn Mawr. I miss Traditions – Athena, I miss Traditions, especially now that it’s Hell Week. I really, really miss Hell Week, in a way that only another Mawrtyr would understand. I miss being proud of my frosh, and bedtime stories (thank you for the dream, Jane), and ridiculous partying. I miss all of the costumes and the drama of the week. I miss that huge sense of community and unity that sweeps over the campus. I miss being part of something greater. I miss being part of a community and living in a community. I even miss Plenary and complaining about not reaching quorum (and you know it’s bad when you’re missing not having quorum at Plenary).

Dance Parties and Queer Peer Pressure

I have a confession to make: I don’t dance. I don’t know how — that whole “just move your body, feel the music” thing always infuriated me because I just don’t get it — and I don’t like it. I feel so self-conscious. Dance parties literally terrify me. The worst part is that the dance parties are often such a central part of the queer party scene — in a more organized sense (Chicago has Chances Dances weekly, Queerer Park and FKA monthly, and Berlin all the time, just to name a few) and in the “and then it devolves into a dance party” sense. And that’s not who I am.

Yay for Glitterbombing Dan Savage?

Dan Savage got glitterbombed for being transphobic: it’s all over (my) Facebook. For the most part, I think that’s great. He’s said a lot of transphobic things, and to my knowledge, he’s never truly apologized or shown that he realizes why they was problematic and hurtful. I know: I called him on it when he spoke at Bryn Mawr my senior year, and he basically side-stepped the question.

Happy Lantern Night, Bryn Mawr

My lantern, from Lantern Night 2006

Bryn Mawr College has four major Traditions: Parade Night, Lantern Night, Hell Week, and May Day. Tonight is Lantern Night 2011, and that means that the class of 2015 is receiving their lanterns, complete with green glass panes. 

Katie Burgess: My New Hero for “Calling Out a Corporate Sponsor at a Pro-LGBT Event”

Katie Burgess, if you didn’t know, is the Executive Director of TYSN (the Trans Youth Support Network*). She also wrote a really fierce post today for The Bilerico Project titled “Solidarity: Calling Out a Corporate Sponsor at a Pro-LGBT Event,” which included her speech at the 18th Annual National Coming Out Day Luncheon last week. I am so incredibly impressed with her, her words, and her speech.

Better Dead Than Co-Ed?

Mawrtyrs have rallied on Facebook today in response to something posted online by a person who transferred away from Bryn Mawr, a post that denigrated virtually everything about Bryn Mawr (and women’s colleges in general), other than the academics. I am not linking to that post because I do not wish to bring more attention to her words; however, I would like to share a few thoughts about the Mawr.

We have a little saying at Bryn Mawr: “better dead than co-ed.”

CeCe is out of Jail!

Good news: CeCe McDonald has finally been released on bail! After four months of CeCe being unjustly incarcerated, the community has managed to raise enough money to meet bail (after her bail was lowered from $150,000 to $75,000 on the 22nd of September), and she is out! 

How I Was Introduced To Prison Abolition

The first time I can remember the concept of prison abolition appearing on my radar was my junior year of college — a friend was involved with an organization, Justice Now, that works with women prisoners and toward a world without prisons. Their website, although it never technically mentions the term “abolition,” was the first real exposure I had to the idea of prison abolition — the idea of getting rid of prisons in favor of  a “world without prisons.”

Feeling Better About Minnesota

Despite my apprehension about my new job, I have begun to feel progressively better about being in Minnesota. Or rather, as I began and ended this week (Monday and now today), I was — and currently am — feeling positive.

Monday:

For all that visiting Chicago has made me desperately miss it and wish I were still/already living there, my brief time back has also, perhaps counterintuitively, made me feel better about spending the next year in Minnesota. Let me be clear: I miss Chicago; I miss my friends; I wish more than I can articulate that I were living there now. And yet, the fear that I’m going to be forgotten if I stay away is slowly ebbing. That fear was really fueling the need to get back now — the feeling that not only do I not want to wait, I can’t wait, or else I’ll lose everything and everyone I miss so much. It’s a stupid, irrational fear, but it was strong.

Back In Chicago! (But Only Visiting)

I have spent the past four days in Chicago. After four months and sixteen days away, it was fabulous beyond words to be back. It felt so right. As I started recognizing buildings and street names, it felt a little like coming home. I’m not sure I’d realized how much I miss the city of Chicago, not just the people I love within it.

I lived in Chicago for about nine months — not really all that long a time — and yet it has made such an impact on my life. When people ask me where I’m from, I’ll generally tell them that I’m currently living in the eastern suburbs (of the Twin Cities) but that I spent most of the past year in Chicago (if it seems relevant, I’ll add that I’m originally from the Twin Cities, but I went out east to college near Philly). For whatever reason, Chicago has really captured my heart in a way I never expected.