Support good art--shop Woman Made.

Many's been the time in my working life (including my years as a live nude girl, not to mention the ones spent slaving in the white collar sweatshop known as adjunct teaching) that I've ardently wished to be part of a union--all that working together for the common benefit/sticking it to the proverbial Man. Unfortch, that dream has never been realized, although reading today at Woman Made was almost as good because they are a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization whose goal "is to support women in the arts by providing opportunities, awareness, and advocacy," and which "specifically accomplishes this through monthly thematic exhibitions which raise public awareness and recognition of women's cultural contributions." Thanks to Woman Made and Nina Corwin, I got to read this afternoon... ...in their space at 685 N. Milwaukee in Chicago, for a lovely audience... ....while being recorded by Kurt Heintz (to whom the arm pictured on the left belongs), along with Alice George... ...Kristy Odelius... ...Elise Paschen...
...Parneshia Jones... ... and Jesse Lee Kercheval. Thanks to everyone for coming, to Janet McKenzie (the artist responsible for the beautiful piece hanging behind everyone in these pictures), and to my fellow readers for fitting so much pure, unadulterated woman-made awesome into one modestly-sized art space. Thanks also to Caitlin Rogers for coming to the reading and announcing the call for submissions by Wisecrack: Feminism & Comedy, because who (besides Christopher Hitchens (that jerk)) says women can't be funny?

Afterwards, Martin and I went home and I baked a bunch of butterscotch chocolate chip cookies, mostly because I miss cooking when I'm on the road, but also because it seemed like a nice third-wave feminist kind of post-WomanMade reading thing to do. Hear me roar. Also? Come see me read with Elisa in the Community and World Literary Series at Cal State San Marcos later this week, on Thursday.