women and men in a "rape culture" event in november

here's an event announcement i ran across at work and thought i'd share here in case anyone in columbia is interested in attending.

WOMEN AND MEN IN A “RAPE CULTURE”

A Presentation by: Matt Ezzell

NOVEMBER 15, 6:30 PM

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP,

2701 HEYWARD STREETS (corner of Woodrow St)

Matt Ezzell has spoken internationally on issues related to men’s violence against women. As a graduate student in sociology and PHD candidate at UNC-Chapel Hill, his scholarship and teaching focus on race/class/gender inequality. He has over 10 years of experience in anti-rape and anti-violence advocacy.

Using frank and honest discussion, he will present a program addressing what it means to live in a “rape culture” and how media representations of men and women are involved. From mainstream ads to mainstream pornography, what messages about sex, sexuality and violence are being constructed, marketed, and sold to the public? And, what we can do about it?

The program is an effort to analyze these images and promote media literacy. It contains examples of media ranging from magazine ads to explicit pornography. Many people may find some images disturbing; therefore, due to explicit content, attendance is restricted to persons 18 and above.

The Greater Columbia Chapter of NOW, The South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (SCCADVASA) and The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship are proud to sponsor this important discussion.

For further information contact the UU Fellowship office at 779-0845, email uufc@bigfoot.com, or call NOW at 782-7623.

not that kind of power company

last night i pulled myself from my homebody-ness and joined a friend for a taste of columbia's art scene. my friend is a member of columbia's new audience road show. for lack of better words, the CNARS is a "gimmick" to get people involved in the local art scene and it has an added bonus of increasing attendance at various art shows and exhibits.

for the past three weeks, my friend and her fellow "roadies" have been going backstage with the power company, a modern dance ensemble based out of columbia college. said friend invited me to join her last night for the one-night performance where the roadies would have a small part and share in the action onstage. i fell in love with CC a few weeks ago at a girl's empowerment conference which i attended for work so i don't know why i wasn't more sure that i would be just as equally impressed by the PC. the performance entitled "blaze! a shakti rodeo" was narrated by the ensembles director, martha brim, and a good number of the pieces were set to patsy cline, which was fun. the dance numbers were unique in my opinion and all the ladies were total powerhouses! all-in-all the show was totally awesome and it was fun to have someone i know play an active roll. plus, we got free appetizers and drinks with our admission. bonus!

i am ashamed to say that i had no idea that columbia had a modern dance company. and, honestly, if i knew we had, i probably wouldn't have had high hopes that their performances could have been that good. so thanks to my roady friend foo dragging me out. and if you're around for their next show, check out the power company. it's well worth it!

soon, friends

i'll soon post pictures of this past weekend's adventures. i've been so busy since i got back sunday night. i've been in trainings for work every night this week and will be there over the weekend too. they're interesting trainings so i don't mind, but i sure am tired and behind on all my personal business. until then...

home-ish for the weekend

i leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow to go sort of home. i'll be outside philly for my niece's confirmation. i've been honored to be her sponsor.



i can't believe she's in the 6th grade already and going through this sacrament. before we know it she'll be driving and leaving for college!

fall fun

now that we live only blocks from the state fairgrounds, we took the opportunity last weekend to partake in the festivities.



we invited some friends with their 2 adorable children to join us and we had a great time looking at the farm animals, watching pig racing contests, and being awed by the spectacles.



chris and i couldn't let the day go by without partaking in some juuuuunk food.

there aren't enough hours in the day

that seems to be my mantra these days. i have so many things i want to/intend to do in the house and it feels like i never get everything done. but the house is slowly coming along. we now have about 6 pictures on the walls. we've unloaded most of the boxes. we finally relocated the fridge to a spot i've been wanting it. we've purchased all our curtains, though have not put them up yet. so we're chipping away at it.

work has been great too. last week i had 3 presentations. one was at a college in newberry (about a 45 minutes drive from columbia). one was at a battered woman's shelter. one was in a prison. this week i have all-day presentations for 3 days of the week. monday and tuesday i'll be at the local catholic high school. i love the diversity of people to whom i'm speaking. it's just so fun and every audience makes it so lively. everyone always has good things to add and i feel like i learn so much. it's just been great!

befores and afters

i've finally unpacked enough to locate the camera and the adapters so i thought i'd post these pictures of the new place. as you can see, we've still got a long way to go. no pictures hung yet or curtains. heck, most of our furniture is still not in place. but it'll give you an idea...

kitchen:

before


after


so far we've built a half wall to help close up the kitchen and add more wall space. we still need to repaint, add an island or more cabinets along the wall, get a new stove....

living room:

before


after


we painted in here and love the color (despite some early apprehension). we're still working on the furniture. right now we don't have room for all the chairs in other rooms so they're hanging out in here until we can make space. we also need to hang curtains and blinds.

dining room:

before


after


we painted this room a green color similar to the color of the wallpaper on this blog. the color doesn't really show in this picture. we plan to paint the kitchen this color as well.

front bedroom:

before


after


the room's a little messy and the pictures are taken from opposite angles. but you get the idea.

we're in and still alive

the husband and i have been absent from the blogosphere because we've been packing boxes, painting rooms, moving stuff, and all sorts of other things. but as of yesterday, we're officially living in only one house and all of our stuff is inside it. now all we have to do is unpack and put things away. but at least we can do that on our own pace. so things will, hopefully, slow down now.

thanks to a great group of friends who spent a good portion of their sunday to help us transport and move all our junk. michele even took some pictures, which she's posted here. we'll post more pictures of our place once we take some. oh, and after we find the cords and adapters to download the pictures to a computer. that may take some time...