Don't Leave Your Friends Behind

call for submissions: Don't Leave Your Friends Behind--the book!!

2011-01-20T13:12:00.000-08:00

*FINAL* CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
Don't Leave Your Friends Behind - a Handbook for Radical Parenting Allies

Deadline: March 15, 2011

Don't Leave Your Friends Behind is a book geared towards the non-parent radical community on ways to be an ally to the parent(s) in their midst.

Over the past five years, we have been collecting stories, how-to lists and words of advice on how to support caretakers and children in the radical and activist community for the zine series Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind. Now we are taking those experiences--plus more-- and turning them into a book!

Let's make a better world WITHOUT leaving out the mamas, papas, partners, child-care providers & children!

We're looking for tips, suggestions, and essays from activists, organizers, allies and radical parents. We want to know how you support children and their caretakers in your collectives, organizations or communities. Send us your stories, fliers, photos and experiences. Tell us what works, what doesn’t and your reflections on how to make it better for next time.

Parents and Youth: What can those around you do to support you and your family? Send us your list of suggestions!

Family, Friends, and Allies: What are your experiences and concrete tips for supporting parents and children?

We are especially interested in submissions that also consider intersections such as race, class, gender, single parenthood, immigration, disability, and/or mental health issues.

Word limit is from one sentence suggestions to 5.000 word essays.

Contact us with questions and submissions!

China Martens
PO Box 4803 Baltimore, MD 21211
china410@hotmail.com

Vikki Law
PO Box 20388 New York, NY 10009
vikkimL@yahoo.com

For more information about Don't Leave Your Friends Behind, including links to download past issues, go to http://dontleaveyourfriendsbehind.blogspot.com

Deadline: March 15, 2011

About the Editors:

Vikki Law is a writer, photographer, prison abolitionist and mother of color. She is also the editor of the zine Tenacious: Art & Writings by Women in Prison and the author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women (PM Press 2009).

China Martens raised her daughter as a single mother on welfare and working poor while continuing to put out The Future Generation, the longest-running parenting zine in the history of the Western world. Her daughter is now grown and her zine has been anthologized into the book The Future Generation: The Zine-book for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends and Others (Atomic Book Company 2007).

Don't Leave Your Friends Behind #4 is here!

2011-01-20T06:28:00.001-08:00

Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind #4

The latest issue of Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind is ready for your wintertime reading! Featuring over 70 pages of stories, experiences and tips on how to support families in your movement or community, including:

* Experiencing Critical Resistance 10 through the Children’s Program
* Organizing from within an Anarcha-Feminist Childrearing Collective
* Mothers Among Us: The Prison Birth Project
* A Mother’s Day of action with Young Women United and Mamas of Color Rising
* On Fear & Commitments: A father’s reflects on his own childhood in England, Baghdad and the U.S. and the challenges of raising a biracial child in the anti-Muslim and xenophobic climate of the United States today.
* Call to Destiny: how even an early morning wake-up call can support students with special needs
* Radical childrearing with a queer and sex-positive angle
* Tips on supporting pregnant friends
* Tips on supporting parents who have lost a newborn infant
* Radical Childcare Weather Report: a centerfold from the “Building an Intergenerational Movement for Collective Liberation” workshop at the 2010 US Social Forum

and much, much more

A pdf of these exciting 70+ pages is available here:
http://issuu.com/chinabodina/docs/zine_4_with_cover
Please note that the centerfold is a separate file: http://issuu.com/chinabodina/docs/centerfold.zine4

If you prefer a paper copy, please send $3 (or $5 for two and give the second to an ally in your life!) to:

V. Law
PO Box 20388
Tompkins Square Station
New York, NY 10009

Sad to have missed the chance to contribute your experiences and words of wisdom? Fear not! We are turning this exciting zine series into a book!

Final Call for submissions: March 15, 2011.

See our blogspot for more details: dontleaveyourfriendsbehind.blogspot.com

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: deadline Sept 15 2010

2010-05-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

Don't Leave Your Friends Behind a Handbook for Radical Parenting Allies

Deadline: September 15, 2010!

Don't Leave Your Friends Behind is a book geared toward the non-parent radical community about how to be an ally to the parent(s) in their midst.

This book is going to be a collection of some of the best minds out there. We're looking for activists, allies, and radical parents to submit the most kicking stuff to make this the best book ever for getting down to business: let's make a better world WITHOUT leaving out the mamas (and papas, partners, child-care providers) and children this time!

We want to know how you do support children and their caretakers in your collectives, organizations or communities.

Parents: What concrete things can those around you do to support you and your family? Send us your list of suggestions!

Radical Childcare Collectives: What are your concrete tips on how you organize with your collective? How do you organize childcare?

We are especially interested in experiences that also take into account factors such as race, class, gender, single parenthood, immigration, disability, and/or mental health issues.

Word limit is from one sentence suggestions to 5.000 word essays.

Deadline for Zine #4: Sept. 15, 2010

Issue #3 of Don't Leave Your Friends Behind!

2010-04-29T06:47:00.000-07:00

Issue #3 of Don't Leave Your Friends Behind is finished!!

41 pages of ways to support families in radical and social justice movements, including:

organizing the Kids' Track at the Allied Media Conference
ways to support single mothers of color
an interview with Diana Block on raising children while underground
what other organizers can learn from La Leche League
Kidz' City!
holistic first aid for all ages
babyproofing for punks
and much much more!

We made a PDF to better share it, so you can print, and distribute as you like: ithttp://issuu.com/strongwindsahead/docs/don_tleaveyourfriendsbehindzine3.bw.final

If you want a paper copy sent to you, please send $3 (or $5 for two and give the second to an ally in your life!) to:

V. Law
PO Box 20388
Tompkins Square Station
New York, NY 10009

Concrete Things You Can Do to Support Parents and Children in your Scene

2009-02-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

1- Give Children Attention. Say something to them: just be your true self, whatever you are thinking, they are open to that. Children act better when they get attention. In the beginning of a meeting if a group gives the children some attention, they are often happier and better behaved for the rest of the meeting.

2- Develop childcare as an ongoing relationship with a child – it takes some time to get to know a child before they are comfortable with doing stuff with you away from their parents.

3- Offer a slot of time, to spend time with a child on a weekly basis

4- Integrate children and adults: it’s more pleasant to watch children with other adults to talk to; it’s more pleasant for the children to see adults enjoying each other and not feel a burden to them.

5- Include children in the planning of any activity, like a sewing workshop for instance.

6- Doing something child-friendly? Ask a kid if they want to come along. (Lizxnn has been taking Siu Loong for critical mass rides for three years and she loves it.) Children can benefit from activities their parents don’t do and parents can benefit from the time to themselves.

7- If a baby is crying because it needs to be held and the parent has their hands busy and can not hold it; offer to hold the baby.

8- If a child is making a disturbance in an area, offer to go outside with the kid so the parent doesn’t have to leave the event.

9- Meet parents at their level: come visit them at home or where ever their spaces are. Let parents talk about being parents: realize having a child is like having the most intense love affair you have ever known (says one parent. Another says – not.)

10- Acknowledge children: don’t treat them like they are invisible

11- To announce that we are OK with children making noise (at meetings we wish to make parent-w/small children-friendly), we can talk over them, and value mothers and children sticking around. The announcement can help put mothers at ease.

12- Give us a smile!

ALSO - When providing child care at political events (and every event should have child care!)

13- Visit the children and childcare providers in daycare – and say “Hi!” Childcare providers can feel isolated from others at the event. Have a cup of tea with them! (suggested by Siu Loong, age 5)

14- Parents with different aged children have different needs. Parents with younger children or children who aren’t comfortable leaving their side yet would benefit from childcare that was off to a side of the same room or more central to the main events. Parents with older and more independent children benefit from having them in a different room or floor. Either way, childcare must be assessable.

15- Parents need to give more input to the day-care providers, about their and their children’s needs during the planning of the event, in order for the childcare provider to better assist them. At least tell them you are coming and the age of your child/ren.

16- It’s comforting for parents to know childcare is available, even if they don’t use it

AND - Contemplate

17- How much work/consuming being a parent is: 24/7; in the beginning years it’s hard to even think straight: one is still adjusting to being a parent and young children’s needs are very intensive

18- That radical parents don’t fit in at mainstream places, like their children’s schools - so when they go to an anarchist gathering and don’t feel supported by their own culture – how bad that feels.

- - -
These suggestions are from the “Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind: Anarcha-feminism & Supporting Mothers and Children” workshop at La Revolta! To get a copy of the 22 page workshop handout: you can download it from: http://bengal.missouri.edu/~maxwellr/DontLeaveYourFriendsBehind.pdf or send a dollar to Vikki Law P.O. Box 20388 NY NY 10009 or China Martens P.O. Box 4803 Baltimore MD 21211 USA

we are always looking for more suggestions to add to the list or whole new lists! get in touch! <3

Don't Leave Your Friends Behind--a call for submissions

2009-01-28T11:59:00.000-08:00

Extended Call for Submissions:

Don't Leave Your Friends Behind: a Handbook for Radical Parenting Allies

New deadline: August 31, 2009!

Don't Leave Your Friends Behind is a book geared toward the non-parent radical community about how to be an ally to the parent(s) in their midst.

This book is going to be a collection of some of the best minds out there. We're looking for activists, allies, and radical parents to submit the most kicking stuff to make this the best book ever for getting down to business: let's make a better world WITHOUT leaving out the mamas (and papas, partners, child-care providers) and children this time!

We are extending the deadline!! We realize that each place we go, we meet more people, hear their experiences, and are referred to even more people whose actions, thoughts and stories we should include. We realize that it is better to take the time for the project to evolve and grow before putting together a book.

Thus, we are restructuring our goals and deadlines while we keep learning, teaching and networking with this exciting work. We do not have a final deadline for the book, but will continue compiling our submissions into a half-yearly zine series.

That said—we have a new and exciting zine available for three dollars (see the post below for more details). We plan to do another “work in progress” zine—to share more of our submissions as the project evolves-- this summer. The deadline for submissions is July 1st, 2009.

We want to know how you do support children and their caretakers in your collectives, organizations or communities. We are especially interested in experiences that also take into account factors such as race, class, gender, single parenthood, and/or mental health issues.

Word limit is from one sentence suggestions to 5.000 word essays.

Deadline for Zine #3: July. 1, 2009

Don't Leave Your Friends Behind--zine #2 now available!!

2009-01-28T11:53:00.001-08:00

Don't Leave Your Friends Behind--work-in-progress zine #2

While amassing submissions for the handbook Don't Leave Your Friends Behind, co-editor China and I have made a work-in-progress zine of several contributions.

Zine #2 is 31 full-sized pages of stories, experiences and suggestions by both radical parents and their allies on building family-friendly movements, including:

*how theories on early childhood development support our arguments for anti-authoritarian parenting!

*organizing childcare at LadyFest Baltimore!

*providing childcare for children with special needs

*2 stories of parenting in collective households

*a children's crusade in Cambridge

*lessons learned from the mothers & children of the zapatista communities

Send $3 ($5 for two copies--you can give one to the ally in your life!) to:

V. Law
PO Box 20388
Tompkins Square Station
NY, NY 10009

(or e-mail us to get a pdf of the zine for mass-distribution in your community)

Let's keep spreading childcare goodness to the masses!!