I'm writing from a hotel room in Mankato, MN. I'm here for the
Feminisms and Rhetorics conference, where I was invited to give last night's keynote address (which I ended up calling "Feminism and Zines: An Origin Story (and why these stories matter)"). It was great fun, with a lot of interesting conversation with the participants both during my talk and in the Q&A after.
Special shout-outs to:
- Amy Mecklenburg-Faenger for being an outstanding scholar who helped me accidentally discover some of the historical feminist predecessors to zines.
- Heather Trahan for having a great post-lecture conversation with me in line at the noodle shop, and in our walk back to the hotel.
- Nina Krasnoff and Cate McCann for letting me show off their fabulous informal publications to a crowd of very receptive scholars.
- Cate Bush for taking a totally last-minute picture of the publication she and I produced as girls, The North Dixien, so that I could include it in my powerpoint (damn, were we adorable).
- Kirsti Cole for putting on a great conference, inviting me to speak, and then having some of the exact same questions/frustrations with social change that I'm having right now. So we're going to keep talking.
And here's one final thought I want to share (Biffle, don't read this): travel is incredibly luxurious. It takes a long time to get from Charleston to Minnesota--I was in travel mode yesterday from 6 am until 2 pm. What that meant is that I was sitting in airports and on airplanes for hours and hours. And here's what I discovered: nobody was calling me. I wasn't checking emails. No one was asking questions--I had no scheduled appointments to keep track of, no rescheduling to do because of unexpected emergencies or the needs of important people. There were screaming children near me, but I didn't have one bit of responsibility for them--they could scream, shriek, run around, whatever. Not my job. All I had to do was what I was told: line up for zone 3, go from gate B8 to gate B13. Just being in travel mode felt like--feels like--an amazing vacation.
10 comments:
zone 3, huh. Did you give all the Zone 1 people the stink eye as the hurried on the plane?... I wish I would get zone 1 sometime...:(
Yes. You know you truly need vacation when the actual travel part is luxurious.
Wow, you're at a conference with loads of my people, Heather Trahan among them! Small world...
Please tell me there are LHotP shout-outs in Mankato! There have to be, right?
I was actually zone 5 at one point! Really low on the totem pole.
I'm amazed that I met one of your real-life friends in real-life, allisondcarr, considering that you and I have never met in real life. Interesting.
LHoTP=Little House on the Prairie? I could definitely see the prairie!
Finally, yes, Elizabeth, your point really resonates with me. That's giving me something to think about.
Thanks for the shout-out, Alison! :) :) Talking to you was one of the highlights of this conference:)
I have this running fantasy about being a SAHM... but then I get to work where I talk in complete sentences, wear clean clothes, and can sit undisturbed in front of a computer (usually working... occasionally blog hoping). I totally get it.
I like to think of those moments not as luxury so much but as zen moments, when I can be outside of my usual routine, completely unreachable and aware of being completely alone, completely independent, and just being.
I love traveling to conferences, too, for that reason.
-Deandra
We are zone 1 -- all you have to do is miss your flight by 10 minutes and then sit around the airport for 6 hours. Then on your next flight they will give you zone 1. It had better be worth it.
an update -- everyone is zone 1 in washington when you have to take a bus to the plane -- my moment of lording it over everyone else totally stomped. But we did get the first row.
Post a Comment