I also what to echo Madama’s call for womanist and feminist leaders here in Canada, and I, too, believe I have the resources to facilitate the kind of meeting of diverse minds that Madama is talking about. Who do you know who can help us out? Can you?

Here is the open letter posted today at Fem 2.0:

Dear Leader:  If you’re receiving this email you are either an acknowledged leader in women’s movement or a woman in whom I see emerging leadership.

I am increasingly impressed and depressed at the same time:  impressed with the work happening everywhere, with the talent abounding wherever I look, and yet depressed by no sense of movement that reflects real pushback.  I know–because I’ve made it my business to know–how vast women’s movement is, and yet we are not unified enough that we can leverage our collective power visibly, audibly, and in a magnificent display of pushback.  Yes, so much work is happening on the ground, and as First Lady Michelle Obama often said about President Obama’s work before he came into the limelight, we are doing our work “in the shadows.”  I am not content for our work to continue in the shadows.  So, I’m writing to ask who, in your opinion, has the moral authority, the connections and the moxie to call a meeting of womanist and feminist leaders?

I’m talking about a kitchen table meeting among activist womanist leaders/thinkers/spielers and activist feminist leaders/thinkers/spielers to talk frankly to one another about a collective vision.  Perhaps it’s because I have a background in psychotherapy, perhaps it’s because I survived a crazy childhood, or maybe I was just born this way, but I know how to drill down with empathy, synthesizing, reframing, inclusion and thinking out loud so that the elephant in the room becomes breaking a silence that needs to be broken.  I’m hearing a gigantic, deafening silence right now in women’s movement.  I’d like women leaders to come together to discuss where we’ve been, where we are, where we’re going.  What I’m not calling for is a single purpose led by a single woman.  I am calling for making common cause visible, audible and undeniable: a magnificent display of pushback.

Who will call this meeting?  I don’t have the connections to call such a meeting, but I can facilitate the discussion once we get in the same room, or on the same conference call, or other way that supports in-depth discussion and confronting ourselves.  I will post this to Fem2pt0’s blog and it’s wiki, as well as to my own blogs, and then I will Tweet and Facebook this letter so that anyone who wants to give input can have access to this conversation.  I suggest that comments be posted to Fem2pt0’s blog and/or wiki.  Please feel free to cross-post this to your own blogs and direct comments to Fem2pt0.

This post can also be found at http://feministadvisoryboard.blogspot.com, FAB/OFA and FAB/Facebook.

Related posts:

1. Starting the discussion: Are we historically poised for a resurgence of women’s movements?
2. The possibilities of women’s political organizing, part one
3. We want to know…