Launch of the online community platform and living history archive: www.grassrootsfeminism.net
Website launch to coincide with International Women’s Day, March 8, 2009.
The interactive network portal www.grassrootsfeminism.net is a new and unique feminist meeting point. This website aims to establish transnational feminist networks and to archive cultural and political activities of the grassroots feminist movement worldwide.
Grassroots Feminism: Transnational archives, resources and communities is a user-generated Web 2.0 tool, encouraging anyone with an interest in feminist culture, activism or politics to participate – by uploading their projects, viewing or adding to the digital archives, sharing interviews with feminist activists and media makers, and creating their own profiles.
By providing an interactive network and research platform, this website aims to make the work and activism of transnational feminists more accessible, as well as to establish a “living history” archive. The website provides a democratic tool for providing and sharing information and resources on feminist practice and theory, to used by feminist activists, supporters and scholars alike.
The website is founded and maintained by Elke Zobl, the creator behind the popular Grrrl Zine Network web portal. She says: “Young women, queer and trasgender folks in many countries today are engaged in an exciting variety of activist, cultural and political practices which need to be documented before they are lost to history. The aim of Grassroots Feminism is to counter some of the stereotypes about the post-feminist or third-wave feminist generation being preoccupied with pleasure and personal lives. But this site is not just for young women and their allies: we hope it will also become a tool for people of all ages and backgrounds to link up their struggles and create more cultural, social, political, environmental, and economic coalitions.“
Website adminstrator Red Chidgey, a self-confessed DIY feminist and grassroots media historian, states: „For any feminist activist or researcher interested in mapping women’s movements worldwide there is always the problem of access and fragmentation. Grassroots Feminism aims to bring together the benefits of the internet and broadcast a lively, constantly updated, feminist museum into your living room. By reclaming cyberspace for a united feminist archive and platform, we believe this site will provoke and sustain conversations and actions across countries and cultures. And because tool-kits for social change are crucially important too, there are also facilities for uploading how-to guides and teaching materials. The ethos of the site is mutual aid, empowerment, shared information, and connections.“
A 10 minute Grassroots Feminist Media Survey is also featured online. With feminist media being so diverse and ephermeral it is important to collect our histories and trace connections between countries and generations. There are also opportunities for grassroots media producers and consumers to participate in longer interviews, with material going towards a proposed book that the website team are working on from the material on the site.
Other preview highlights include graphics from a second wave poster-making collective, Ladyfest digital archives, a guide to anti-racist audits of activist spaces, and fully searchable project listings. Contributors and projects span Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, New Zealand, and North America – all are invited to access and contribute to this growing archive to represent a truly global picture of feminism today.
About:
- Grassroots Feminism: Transnational archives, resources and communities is a feminist interactive network site and “living history” archive.
- The site is organized and maintained by Elke Zobl from Salzburg, Austria (www.grrrlzines.net), with Red Chidgey, UK (www.redchidgey.net), and Jenny Gunnarsson Payne, Sweden.
- Work on this the website forms part of Elke Zobl’s research project „Young women as producers of new cultural spaces“. The “Grassroots Media in Europe Archive” has been established by the web site team within the research project „Feminist Media Production in Europe“. Both research projects are funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and are based at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria.
- Website graphics are provided by intricate paper-cut artist Nikki McClure, www.nikkimcclure.com
Contact/Interview Requests:
Elke Zobl,
elke#grassrootsfeminism.net
Roemerweg 22, 5061 Elsbethen, Austria
www.grrrlzines.net
www.grassrootsfeminism.net
tel +43 664 84 82 371
Source: femail@liab.at