Grassroots media in Europe

Ladyfests, DIY, Craft Activism

issue #1:
sort of a feminist travel zine mixed with drawings, reports documenting “the scene” and craft enthusiasm. it includes texts on DIY feminism activism and my views on Ladyfest Amsterdam, Ladyfest Brussels, Ladies’ Room, Freak Out Fest, Up The Grrrls and more.

issue #2:
articles about autonomous media and craft activism. travel reports about the mini-Ladyfests in Brussels, Ladyfest Berlin 2007, Ladyfest Amsterdam 2008, queer fests and more. DIY how-tos about Audacity, cloth pads and recycling an old pairs of trousers to an apron/toolbelt.

Info:
Not Lady-Like is a travel zine by Nina Nijsten about her experiences at Ladyfest Berlin 2005. It's a combination of a travel journal, a long festival review, rants about the word lady, gender and "the Hooker incident", info about Berlin, with little portraits of some of the people she met, photos, recipes, drawings, tabs, DIY ideas, a few self-defense tips, a quiz, collages, etc. Nina has founded ECHO a "low-budget DIY feminist media, music and art production" label where she is publishing her various zines, tapes, etc. Not Lady-Like can get downloaded from this website; other zines: punk feminist, flapper gathering, Radix, (Different Wolrds) Same Heartbeats, Coma to Action

Radical Counter-Culture Art and Comix

Statement

Radix #1:
my first comic zine with drawings, cartoons, short and longer comics. stories about a storm, a queer squat punk fairy tale, being on tour, menstruation, music, feminists, and more. I admit I’m quite proud of it.

Radix#2:
second issue contains comics, drawings and collages about cats, squat evictions, harassment, gender, street-art, feminist herstory and more.

WomensViewsOnNews.org is an idea for a completely new online news and current affairs service aimed at women, operating on a 'not for profit' basis.

The site will provide up to date news on all the major national and international stories of the day, in much the same way as any newspaper or online news service, but from the perspective of women. It will also include feature articles and opinion pieces, but the focus will be on news.

Info:
Belgian zine produced by Nina Nijsten; 6 issues have been published so far; emphasis on riot grrrl movement, anarchofeminism, DIY, zine culture, book and zine reviews, etc. Nina has founded the ECHO a "low-budget DIY feminist media, music and art production" label where she is publishing her various zines, tapes, etc. the first five issues can be downloaded frome this website; other zines: punk feminist, Not-Lady Like, Radix, (Different Wolrds) Same Heartbeats, Coma to Action,...

Exploring the connections between feminism and transgender

I've decided to start the Bent Pentacle as an outlet for people to share information, experience and stories of queer paganism with others. I hope it will allow those who identify with queer to see how paganism and spirituality can be relevant to their views on gender and sex, and that it will be of interest to pagans who want more information about what queer could have to do with their path, as well as anyone else with an interest in the queer experience, or pagan spirituality, or both. It is completley DIY, which means noone will be making any money from it at any point and the content will be defined by what people want to contribute to it. This allows it to be a space for anyone who has something to say to contribute, including pieces that wouldn't be published in more mainstream publications.

What is queer paganism? A ridiculously brief introduction
This is a very big question and one that will hopefully be explored in the Bent Pentacle. The terms "Queer" and "pagan" have similarities, in that both of them cover a large range of people, identities and activities, and both of them have often failed concrete definitions. Queer can be used as a synonym for Gay, but there has been a growing global movement that has taken on the word as a kind of "non-identity" that centres around the deconstruction and critique of rigidly defined roles of gender and sexuality and the idea that there are many more than two genders and two (or three) sexualities. There is alot of inspiration from the work of writers such as Michael Foucault and Judith Butler.

The Black Women in Europe Blog is a place to celebrate women of the African Diaspora living in Europe.

Statement:
the F.I.A. (fete/femei/feminism in actiune/activism - women/girls/feminism in action/activism) group, formed in 2008 from the former ladyfest-ro collective, focuses on various anti-sexist initiatives in Romania. an important part of the group’s mission is collaborating and working together with other groups and people, as well as supporting other initiatives, that deal with social justice, including gender justice. our main projects are a “travelling” library of zines, books and other feminist/feminist-friendly materials, the f.i.a. site and blog, and the “gender network” list.

The ladyfest-ro collective has so far also organised two ladyfests in Bucharest (2007) and in Timisoara (2005) and published two zines (Zina lf_ro #1 & #2) to accompany the festivals which can get read on this blog

The Carnival of Feminists is held on two Wednesdays of each month. Hosted by a different blogger for each edition, it aims to showcase the finest feminist posts from around the blogsphere.

The Carnival aims to build the profile of feminist blogging, to direct extra traffic to all participating bloggers, but particularly newer bloggers, and to build networks among feminist bloggers around the world.