At the time, I was thinking about organizing something we’d call FemCamp–an “unconference” similar to PodCamp (or DemoCamp or Green Business Camp). This was until I heard that the RebELLES are planning on organizing a conference in Winnipeg.

But what Krista suggested was quite intriguing: she suggested holding a gathering (this could be done as a conference, or unconference, or webinar, or teleconference) where womanism or feminism were not the main topics. Rather, women from all different backgrounds (occupations, ethnicities, classes, languages, etc.) could gather together to teach each other stuff, and the feminism would happen in the spaces in between. After all, everyone is good at something, and a lot of people like to learn new things.

I began to envision a crazy clashing of people who would never ordinarily get a chance to cross paths: the Aboriginal elder from the west coast teaching the Asian mom from Edmonton how to make a jingle dress; the new Canadian from Toronto’s inner city teaching the white lesbian from Lake Winnipeg about her local community garden; the black union organizer from Nova Scotia teaching the Latina high school student from Montreal how to write a press release.

During the conversation that I had with Krista, she talked about the need scholars and feminists have to create, and not just critique. Women’s and gender studies has been enormously valuable in disseminating knowledge about women’s history to successive generations of young women. It’s also been really successful at spreading feminist principles, raising women’s ability to critique the media, and so forth.

But women’ studies has not been as successful at creating new forms of feminist culture. And people can only live on critique for so long. Creativity, on the other hand, is its own engine. People can create and create and create endlessly, Krista pointed out, because creation feeds itself. I find this really appealing, and I wonder if a principle of womanist/feminist organizing can come out of it.

Related posts:

1. The possibilities of women’s political organizing, part one
2. Six reasons why this is an ideal moment for political change
3. The possibilities of women’s political organizing, part two