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COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

FURIE Literary Salons

May 09, 2020

COVID-19 UPDATE:  FURIE is moving online as we quarantine ourselves physically, and we want to connect virtually with you, radical feminists and womanists!

We have held in-person Literary Salons for a few years in Chicago, USA where our founding members currently reside and where our on-the-ground community aid programs began. However, as we expand internationally to build a People’s Movement, as well as adapt to COVID-19 measures, we are bringing our book club online. This is why the date/time may be strange for some, because we are trying best to accommodate our international participants and partners.

Join FURIE and our partner page on Facebook, Proletarian Witches Cauldron, together for our online book club where we are discussing “Corregidora” by Gayl Jones! Lets beat quarantine together through our virtual community.

LINK TO FREE FULL PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XkWfSA7_KmWm8bPoJh7bCHf8dc-asSth/view?usp=sharing

Part 1: April 25 8pm CST
Part 2: May 9 8pm CST

Part 1: We will be discussing the first half through page 97 (right before the italics begin).
Part 2: Starting at the italicized section on page 97 through the end

Sessions will be recorded and made available for those who can’t attend live.

LOGISTICS:
We will be using Cisco Webex for our group video call! Just go to the site on desktop or download the free app on your phone/tablet. No account is required, but you are welcome to make one.

Desktop meeting link: https://meetingsamer5.webex.com/meetingsamer5/j.php?MTID=mb6304ecb0abe9c5309209992f1490071

Call Access Info:

Meeting # 294 273 046
Password: international20
(all lower case)


FURIE is moving online as we quarantine ourselves physically, and we want to connect virtually with you, radical feminists and womanists!

We have held in-person Literary Salons for a few years in Chicago, USA where our founding members currently reside and where our on-the-ground community aid programs began. However, as we expand internationally to build a People’s Movement, as well as adapt to COVID-19 measures, we are bringing our book club online. This is why the date/time may be strange for some, because we are trying best to accommodate our international participants and partners.

For more on FURIE as an organization, please see our main Facebook page and/or panwomanist.org

We will be discussing the first 1/2 of Corregidora, by Gayl Jones for Part 1 on April 25. Since the book doesn't quite divide neatly in half, we will be specifically discussing up through page 97, right before the italicized section begins.

NOTE: All People, All Genders are welcome at this event. However, we ask that you read the book and have comments in mind for discussion. Trolls and anyone making offensive remarks will be removed from the call without hesitation. We look forward to meeting you future comrades virtually. :)

Book Description:
Corregidora, by Gayl Jones, brings us the graphic and gruesome reality of intergenerational trauma rooted in slavery. Jones herself has a haunted past, currently living away from the public eye after her husband, on the run from the law, killed himself in 1998.

The novel was praised by James Baldwin and Toni Morrison, who made sure it was published and said that “no novel about any black woman could ever be the same after this.”

The narrative follows multiple eras of history but is centered on the story of blues singer Ursa Corregidora, whose grandmother was a slave. After suffering violent abuse from her husband and its lasting physical and psychological damage, Ursa goes down a path of bad relationships and pain, eventually going to her mother to delve into her own history. Here she finds the origin of her family anguish in the evil of her grandmother’s slave master, along with the resulting memories and wounds passed on, wreaking havoc throughout the years.

Jones, whose mother was also a writer and shared her own family stories with her, dedicated the novel to her parents, signifying the incredible importance of Black women sharing their history and confronting the effects it has today.

Join us as we discuss this difficult but powerful read.

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FURIE Readers Literary Salon is fighting against the increasing anti-intellectualism in our society and creating radical community through our monthly book clubs, featuring authors who write unapologetically about the political landscape of our world, whether it be through the historical and psychological writing of Frantz Fanon that analyzes global oppression, or works of fiction that delve into and expose the racism and sexism entrenched in our culture, such as Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.

 

Join us for radical discussion as we broaden our understanding of the world around us and draw parallels to organizations and educational structures today. We started on the ground and are expanding online as we grow together as a community.

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Furious Writers! Writing Workshops

COVID-19 UPDATE:  While we will not be holding in-person workshops, we encourage you to send any writing or submissions for The PanWomanist journal to our email at furie.chicago@gmail.com.  You can also message us on Facebook.

Radical Novelists, Radical Playwrights, Radical Cartoonists, any and all Radicals who have something to say!

This year, finally sit down to pen that article you’ve been bleeding to write, or to develop your play about the fucked up Amazon factory you slave at 13 hours a day, or to outpour your oppression through visual art. Or even finesse your résumés and cover letters to get out of that factory or service industry job, because it's hard to rebel on a modern day plantation. FURIE’s Writing Workshops are here to create that space for solidarity, encouragement, and motivation needed to get it done.


Writing, like any true act of resistance and rebellion, can be almost impossible in America. We have been constantly and intentionally distracted in efforts to dumb us down (efforts that have been successful in far too many cases). The American Empire is crumbling, leaving us at one of the highest points of anti-intellectualism in our history. The power elite are thrilled to have the masses mindlessly accepting their self-indulgent narrative. This is apparent everywhere from fluff entertainment news and magazines, to the mainstream media, to the “hallowed halls” of academia, where students are taught how to better fit into our crooked system, rather than how to fight and destroy the system itself.

To add insidious insult to agonizing injury, as women, we have been told--both directly and implicitly in the responses and admonishments when we do speak up--that our voices don’t matter.

But in fact, this withering environment is where our voices and our art are most needed. We reject the ruthless commodification of our time, instead utilizing it for individual and communal benefit, improving skills that are becoming increasingly undervalued in our culture.

The first edition of The PanWomanist (FURIE’s Literary Journal) was the culmination of our earlier, more informal writing workshops. If The PanWomanist or the FURIE page has inspired you, this is an ideal opportunity to get involved. Come with ideas or articles that need development, and we will all work together.


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As a community-focused organization, FURIE was excited to provide firstly, a creative and welcoming space where you can work in peace. If you have been wanting to write something or had an idea but just haven’t been able to carve out the time, this is your opportunity. Secondly, it is a space to have your work heard, to perhaps practice for performance or see how it sounds out loud, and to receive feedback in a constructive environment.

Join us every Friday at 7pm at FURIE House (send us a FB message or email us at furie.chicago@gmail.com for address, accessible by Kimball and Armitage buses). If you want someone to meet you at a bus stop nearby, please reach out and we can arrange that as well. Bring your computer, notebook, or whatever artistic tools you need. It is a comfortable environment, open to all levels of experience and genres of writing and artistic mediums, but we are serious about developing our work and only ask that you are too.


"No black woman writer in this culture can write ‘too much.’ Indeed, no woman writer can write ‘too much’ ...No woman has ever written enough."
-bell hooks

Women's Self Defense Training

COVID-19 UPDATE:  Unfortunately, due to the stay at home/no gathering order, we are not able to continue hosting classes at this time. 

At home advice:

~Keep practicing those basic stances, kicks, punches, and blocks at home!  Some simple moves don't require too much space. 

~Stretch, stretch, stretch!  Keeping limber will help in karate and physical fitness in general.

~And don't forget to practice your ki-hap (yell), especially if you see someone trying to get within 6 feet of you!

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OLD DESCRIPTION: WINTER 2019 through early March 2020

FURIE Women’s Self Defense Training: Karate and Taekwondo

Sundays: 1-3pm
Tuesdays: 7-8pm
Thursdays: 7-8pm
@ LUCHA’s Community Basement Room
1625 N Drake Ave
Chicago, IL

Cost: $5 Requested Donation (Whatever You Can Pay, But No Sister Will Be Turned Away)

It's 2020 and we're still at it! Come build your confidence and fighting spirit with FURIE — inside and out!

This event is for all self-identified women and gender-queer people. (No cis-gender men attendees allowed!)
Approximately Age 13+ and Mother/Daughters encouraged

We have moved indoors to continue our training throughout the cold season. We are excited to partner with LUCHA (Latin United Community Housing Association, also Spanish for “struggle”), providing our community classes in their space conveniently for their residents along with our local participants. As from the start, we are still committed to providing low-to-no cost classes for women of all ages and backgrounds. However, for those of you who can afford it, we are always accepting donations to help compensate our instructor and provide better equipment to work with to keep this vital program running!

Classes are taught by a Black Belt, 1st Degree Instructor on Sundays (instructor speaks Spanish).

Classes are assistant-taught on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

All levels of experience and ability are welcome! Jump in at any time - you don't need to have gone to a previous class to join. You will build on your fighting skills with trainees of all levels, together in Sisterhood every week. It’s also great exercise for fitness!

Wear comfortable clothes for movement. Please bring water.

We began in the summer of 2017 in Humboldt Park as a way to be out and visible as women to the larger community and take advantage of a public park at a time of increasing privatization of public assets. Our objective is to create an organization of women, banded together in learning to physically and vocally resist violence or the threat of violence while implementing strategies to protect one another.

This effort is modeled after similar efforts by the Black Panthers, who implemented comprehensive self-empowerment programs to reclaim marginalized communities.

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