A Day at the Southern Girls Convention : Houston Indymedia

“They’ve got their shit together,” Alexis told me as we chatted about how the convention was going. I was talking to her and her friend Avril right before dinner in the World Affairs Lounge at the University of Houston while some of the workshops were still going on.

Alexis and Avril had both traveled from Tallahasee, Florida with a group of nine other convention participants. The trip to Texas took about sixteen hours.

“I just wanted to meet up with other radical ladies,” said Alexis. Like many others at the conference, Alexis and Avril are active back in their home towns. They’re part of a collective that runs ladies bike rides, a community garden, and a radical library.

“I’ve been really impressed so far. The organization is really tight,” said Avril. “Everyone has been really nice.”

The Convention began its first day of workshops Saturday, June 24 with breakfast at 8:30. Workshops began at 9:45 a.m. I decided to check out The Legacy of Slavery: Executions, which was led by local activists Gloria Rubac and Njeri Shakur.

The turnout for the workshop reflected the diversity among participants – there were women representing Denton, Florida, Vermont, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Houston.

Rubac and Shakur started the workshop by passing out a death penalty exam and sharing some death penalty facts. Later they delved into a serious discussion connecting the roots of executions to slavery. Rubac cited studies that found a correlation between the presence of slavery and modern use of the death penalty.

Some of the other morning workshops included a presentation by Renee Feltz from KPFT who spoke about media justice in Radical Women in the Media. Carla Oster led a DIY session on how to create Bias-Ribbon flowers.

After picking up some food at lunch (free servings of rice and beans, green beans, cucumber salad, bread, and fruits all handed out by SGC volunteers), I sat down and chatted with three of the girls from Denton. Aleda, Rachel, and Janice are all part of the Women’s Studies department at Texas Women’s University in Denton. This was the first Southern Girls Convention for Aleda and Janice.

“We thought it would be a great arena for activists and wanted to be in solidarity with other women from the South,” said Aleda. “We also felt positive that Texas was sponsoring something.”

Rachel and Aleda are both active members of Vox, or Voices for Planned Parenthood and Janice works with Bridges, an organization helping underrepresented students gain access to research in the biomedical field.

They said they were happy with the way things were going and enjoyed the workshop with Rubac and Njeri.

Janice explained she’d been interested in the workshop because she was studying issues of disability and whiteness and also feels strongly against the death penalty.

“The material presented by the organizers was very good, and they actually had some personal investments in it,” she said.

Allison, an activist from New Orleans, sat with us at lunch. She heard about the convention through the NOLA Feminists listserv and is currently involved in setting up health care services for women without health insurance in New Orleans. She came to visit the workshops and speak to other women activists.

“People in general think that people from the South are just being submissive; it’s good to know that people are progressive and likeminded,” she said.

During lunch there was a craft fair with women (and men) from everywhere selling jewelry, cookies, magnets, and providing some pretty unique services. One of the most popular tables was the one offering punk rock hair cuts. Participants could sit down and rest for a bit while punk rock haired girls took out scissors and started cutting. Happy customers walked away with spikey asymmetrical hairstyles.

Another table was manned by the group from Florida. They were selling magnets, patches and jewelry to pay for the ride back home. Tables were also set up for people selling/distributing books and zines. Ipas, an organization promoting women’s reproductive rights ,also set up to pass out literature about abortion and the status of abortion laws around the world.

After lunch, workshops ran from 1:15 to 8pm with sessions like Move Yo Spirit, a workshop that allowed participants a chance to dance, do animal interpresations and move about.

I checked out the Miseducation of Carceral Christianity, a workshop led by Robin Mitchell Stroud. After comparing Michel Foucault’s concepts of state prisoners with the imprisonment of women in evangelical Christianity, she opened up the space for discussion. Many women shared personal stories of growing up in fundamentalist religious households and how difficult it is to be a Christian and live by feminist ideals.

All the workshops I went to were well attended, with about 25-35 participants in each. Most of the participants I saw were young women, but there were older southern girls and some men in attendance.

Before heading out, I got to speak briefly with Jessica, one of the SGC organizers. She was just getting ready to prepare for dinner but took a few minutes to share her thoughts on how the conference was going.

“I think it’s pretty awesome. People are enjoying the workshops and meeting new people,” she said.

Jessica and I continued chatting for a few seconds before duty called. We promised to talk later and Jessica hurried away to keep the party moving.