The Sistah Vegan Project Presents Our 2nd Bi-Annual Conference:
“The Vegan Praxis of ‘Black Lives Matter’ : Challenging Neoliberal Whiteness While Building Anti-Racist Solidarity Amongst Vegans of Color and Allies (Before, After, and Beyond Ferguson )”
Conference Date: April 24-25, 2015
Location: Online Web Conference
Please go here to official website for schedule, registration, and more: URL: http://www.sistahveganconference.com
Sistah Vegan would like to offer a wonderful gift idea for the holiday season: Please consider giving the gift of a healthier and more holistic pregnancy and postpartum period through the Sistah Vegan Pregnancy Nutritional Method.
If you are like most folk who have listened to mainstream media in the USA, you have heard of the sensationalized stories once or twice a year, of a mother who ‘killed’ her child ‘because’ she was vegan. If you have had interest in getting pregnant and/or having a vegan pregnancy, you may have been ‘attacked’ by supposedly loving family members and ‘concerned’ midwives or practitioners that such a diet is ‘dangerous’ and ‘irresponsible.’
These are all lies, as myself and a plethora of women and their children are living proof that a properly planned vegan pregnancy and lactation period will help you and your baby thrive. Don’t listen to the hype. Below are photos of my 2.5 year old daughter, Eva Luna. She was ‘built’ by a whole foods vegan diet. In addition, you are looking at a glowing and healthy baby in which over 85% of her ‘food’ source came from my vegan-produced breast milk, the first 13 months of her life. She was 9.5lb at birth and full term. 6 hour labor.
You may be scared. You may be confused. Or maybe you do have the confidence to practice a vegan pregnancy, but do not know where to begin. The Sistah Vegan project is offering an on demand pre-recored webinar with powerpoint slides with the following:
* Guaranteed plant based remedy/prevention for prenatal anemia
* Learn this simple herbal remedy to prevent hemorrhoids
* Learn what simple seed can increase hydration, energy, and calcium
* Learn the top four plant based proteins essential for pregnancy
* Constipation is NOT ‘normal’, despite the myth. Learn how to poop 2-3x a day while pregnant.
You will be able to play the recordings and download notes and slides whenever you want to. In this webinar you will learn what you need to get started on your path to an amazing and fulfilling plant-based dietary pregnancy and post-partum lactation period. If you are at the end of your pregnancy but want to learn how a whole foods plant-based Sistah Vegan diet can help you produce optimal milk supply for an infant, then this webinar is also for you. In addition, post-partum hair loss is significant amongst women; many tell me that years after giving birth, they struggle with hair loss and thinning. I will teach you how a few herbs and foods can regrow and strengthen your hair.
Date: You can Download it anytime.
Cost: $25.99
How to pay and download: Click REGISTER to register, pay, and download.
Duration: 2 hours.
Technology requirements: a computer with a fast internet connection and a free Anymeeting.com (my webinars are hosted through Any meeting.com)
About the Instructor: Dr. A. Breeze Harper is a research fellow in the Dept of Human Ecology at UC Davis. She is also the director and founder of the Sistah Vegan Project, a organization dedicated to critical race feminist perspectives on veganism, as seen through the collective experiences of Black North American females. Dr. Harper started the project in 2005. She holds degrees from Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and University of California-Davis. Her innovative ability to integrate the use of educational technologies to analyze Black female vegans food and health philosophies earned her the Dean’s Award from Harvard University in 2007 for her Master Thesis work: this is an honor only bestowed upon one candidate per program.
Dr. Harper’s knowledge about diversity within the field of food and wellness has marked her as a highly sought after paid consultant and speaker for many American universities. She has given many keynote addresses including at Boston University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Oregon, and Southwestern University. She teaches students, faculty, and staff how and why people have unique relationships to food and wellness and how these relationships are impacted by race, socio-economic class, gender, sexuality, and ability. She has published extensively, including Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health and Society (Lantern Books 2010). She graduated summa cum-laude from University of California-Davis with a PhD in critical geographies of race and food.
Disclaimer: I am not a certified practitioner or medical doctor. Please consult with your practitioner before trying any of the foods or herbs that I recommend
Intersectional Critical Food, Health, and Race Studies Web Conference: “Embodied and Critical Perspectives on Veganism by Black Women and Allies”
Date: September 14, 2013
Wow, registration for the Sistah Vegan Web Conference has TAKEN OFF in the last three days. It looks like it is filling up faster than I predicted; I guess most people wait about a week before registering for these events, which answers my question from the other week about why registration seemed rather low. Make sure you register soon, as spaces are limited! I wanted share a couple of emails with you that some registrants sent me:
Dr. Harper, thank you for creating a critical space to talk about topics that I usually can’t bring up in mostly white vegan spaces without sounding like I’m playing some race card. Also, as someone who finds afrocentric health books helpful for understanding how to treat my diabetes, and as a Black lesbian in her mid 50s, I also find their ‘well, aren’t all true Black people straight?’ assumptions a huge turn-off… I’m glad the Sistah Vegan conference will let me feel safe in both hearing about, and discussing issues of race and homophobia across vegan communities in the USA. -Tina
I just registered for your conference. Thank you so much . I’ve never been interested in this stuff that much. But you know what? I have been following your blog for the past few months and was inspired to learn that there are people out there who know that food and health really are a different thing for us people of color, and that furthermore we need an inviting space to talk about it. – Rita
This conference is the next needed step in addressing intersections of food, health, and animal liberation that always seems to be lacking in the USA mainstream alternative health, veggie, and animal liberation events. It’s about time that we acknowledge that people of color do not need to be ‘reached out’ to by us white vegans… It is us who need to accept that our own views of justice, morality, and health are often very narrow and Eurocentric. I’ve just begun to study critical race studies and I hope this conference will help me see this more clearly and apply it to my undergraduate food justice work. – J.T.
Please help spread the word about this Sistah Vegan Project hosted web conference. And you can click here to get the one page pdf flyer to post it somewhere! Thanks.
Critical Food & Health Studies Web Conference:
“Embodied and Critical Perspectives on Veganism by Black Women and Allies”
Date: September 14, 2013
Time: 10:00am-6:00pm PST (USA)
Location: Online Web Conference Through Anymeeting.com
SPEAKER LINE-UP AND SCHEDULE
10:00 AM: “Introduction: How Veganism is a Critical Entry Point to Discuss Social, Animal, and Environmental Justice Issues for Black Women and Allies.” Dr. A. Breeze Harper, University of California-Davis.
10:15 AM: “How Whiteness and Patriarchy Hurt Animals.” Anastasia Yarbrough, Inner Activism Services.
10:50 AM: “PETA and the Trope of ‘Activism’: Naturalizing Postfeminism and Postrace Attitudes through Sexualized Bodied Protests.” Aphrodite Kocięda, University of South Florida
11:25 AM: “An Embodied Perspective on Redefining Healthy in a Cultural Context and Examining the Role of Sizeism in the Black Vegan Woman Paradigm.” Nicola Norman.
12:25 PM: “Cosmetic Marginalization: Status, Access and Vegan Beauty Lessons from our Foremothers.” Pilar Harris, Pilar in Motion.
1:00 PM: Open Discussion: “‘Why I Relinquished the Gospel Bird and Became a Vegan’: Girls and Women of African Descent Share Their Reasons for Choosing Veganism.”
1:50 PM: “Midwifery, Medicine and Baby Food Politics: Underground Feminisms and Indigenous Plant-based Foodways and Nutrition.” Claudia Serrato, University of Washington.
2:30 PM: “Constructing a Resource Beyond Parenting as a Black Vegan: Discussing Geography and Theology and Their Contradictions Within.” Candace M. Laughinghouse, Regent University.
3:05 PM: Panel Discussion: “Yoga for the Stress Free Soul Sista And Radical Self-Care Teaching: Exploring Privilege in Yoga & Veganism for Girls of Color” w/ Sari Leigh & Kayla Bitten
4:20 PM: Open Discussion: Reflections on the Sistah Vegan Anthology.
5:00 PM: “Is Black Decolonization Possible in a Moral Economy of Neoliberal Whiteness? How USA Black Vegan Liberation Rhetoric Often Perpetuates Tenets of Colonial Whiteness.” Dr. A. Breeze Harper, University of California Davis.
Conference Information, Registration Details, and Complete Speaker Abstracts: http://www.sistahveganconference.com
Contact Organizer Information:
Dr. A. Breeze Harper
510-564-7870
(Updated with times for each presentation)
1st Annual Sistah Vegan Conference
“Embodied and Critical Perspectives on Veganism by Black Women and Allies”
Date: September 14, 2013
Time: 10:00am-6:00pm PST (USA)
Location: Web Conference Using Anymeeting.com. This means the location is on the Internet, accessible by computer or telephone.
Registration $45.00
Conference Recordings: The entire conference will be recorded and downloadable 24-48 hours after the event. Those who have already paid for the LIVE conference viewing will have access to the recordings. However, if you simply want to purchase the recordings, that option is available for $25.99. However, this option will not be available until the recordings have been processed. Hence, you cannot register to download the recordings until 24-48 hours after the event.
Please note that anyone can register as an audience member to learn about the critical and embodied perspectives of women of color vegans. Anyone can register as an audience member . One need not identify as a girl/woman/womyn/trans vegan of color to participate. This is open to all.
_____________
SPEAKER LINE UP AND SCHEDULE
(PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A TENTATIVE SCHEDULE AND THAT IT COULD POTENTIALLY CHANGE)
10:00 AM PST
Introduction: How Veganism is a Critical Entry Point to Discuss Social, Animal, and Environmental Justice Issues for Black Women and Allies.
Speaker: TBD
Length: 10 minutes
In this introduction to kick off the conference, the speaker will introduce how the concept of veganism can shed light on critical issues effecting Black girls and women in the USA. She will explain how veganism, as both method and philosophy, is an often overlooked perspective in a USA society that has normalized the exploitation and abuse of racialized minorities such as Black females, as well as the normalization of violence against the environment and non human animals used for human edification. This talk will be an introductory segue into the scheduled talks and discussions. It should hopefully open up innovative ideas by intersecting veganism, health activism, food politics, animal compassion, and anti racism into the lives of Black women and our allies. In addition, the speaker will introduce what is means to be an “ally” in the context of the Sistah Vegan Project.
——————————————–
10:15 AM PST
Keynote Talk: How Whiteness and Patriarchy Hurt Animals
Anastasia Yarbrough
Inner Activism Services
Length: 30 minutes (20 minute presentation; 10 minute Q&A)
Abstract: In the animal rights movement, racism and sexism are treated primarily as separate forces comparable to but not wholly relevant to animal protection, with the exception of leftist pockets inspired by ecofeminist animal liberation thought, the Animal Liberation Front and other direct action groups, and the emerging Critical Animal Studies. As recent as the 2013 Animal Rights Conference, the “mainstream” animal rights movement tends to treat anti-racist, anti-sexist movements as struggles of the past that inform the new frontier social justice movement that is animal rights. However, the goal of this talk is not to argue how and why this tokenizing is a problem. Instead, my focus is to spark a dialogue on how white supremacy and patriarchy directly impact the animals we’re striving to help and protect, thus giving further relevance in the animal rights movement to become more conscious of how racism and sexism operate in society. As a black woman who is also a long-time activist for animal liberation and justice, I have the unique position to see these intersections and notice that human violence towards animals is rarely ever lacking color or gender, nor is it always simple to tease apart from systemic issues like racism and sexism. Therefore, I hope that this talk can serve as a useful and engaging spark that is relevant not just to animal rights activists but also to social justice activists who are just beginning to consider animals.
____________________________________________
10:50 AM PST
Presentation Title: PETA and the Trope of “Activism”: Naturalizing Postfeminism and Postrace Attitudes through Sexualized Bodied Protests
Aphrodite Kocięda
University of South Florida
Length: 30 minutes (20 minute presentation; 10 minute Q&A)
Abstract: For this presentation, I will explore PETA’s marketing campaigns that use the trope of “activism”, couched in vegan and anti-animal cruelty rhetoric, to naturalize postfeminist ideas and postrace attitudes about women’s bodies. In this postfeminist space, attaining a white sexy body becomes activist work. For PETA, the ethical aims of the vegan diet (is purported to) coincide with attaining a particular type of femininity that excludes women of color. Women of color are only strategically used in their campaigns as authentic signifiers of “diversity” where the white framework remains undisturbed. PETA uses “activist” rhetoric in their ads to bolster and naturalize the postfeminist and postrace ideas inherent in their logic.
_________________________
11:25 AM PST
Presentation Title: An Embodied Perspective on Redefining Healthy in a Cultural Context and Examining the Role of Sizeism in the Black Vegan Woman Paradigm
Nicola Norman, B.S. Nutritional Science
Baltimore, MD
Length: 30 minutes
This presentation takes a look at sizeism and how it affects attitudes in the Black community and the mainstream towards Black Vegan Women. Body Mass Indexes calibrated to white norms contribute to producing stigmas and increasing challenges to women whose bodies seem to exist at the intersection of social and cultural pressures/expectations. How big our hips, buttocks, and thighs are, are constantly being put under a microscope by family, friends, community, and the bigger society that we live in. This may be affecting Black women on the fence about trying veganism for its health benefits or deter them already due to these pressurized standards. Black vegan women of all sizes are often chastised for not meeting those standards. Black female bodies are very commonly exoticized in society. I will give examples of this and look at how sizeism is many times at the crux of this. Lastly, I will offer suggestions on how to combat the challenges of sizeism within mainstream vegan rhetoric in the USA.
_________________________
Break 12:00 PM PST
____________________________________________
12:25 PM PST
Presentation Title: Cosmetic Marginalization: Status, Access and Vegan Beauty Lessons from our Foremothers
Pilar Harris
Pilar in Motion (pilarinmotion.com)
Length: 30 minutes (20 minute presentation; 10 minute Q&A)
Abstract: The terms ‘Vegan’ and ‘Cruelty Free’ are labels that help lend integrity to commercially produced cosmetics. Yet these labels may also be used for marketing purposes, particularly in campaigns not created with black identified women as the intended target consumer. Although the internet has largely transformed access to cosmetic products labeled ‘Vegan’, there exists a degree of status and exclusivity in terms of the price point and distribution of these products, so that many black identified women remain marginalized. These products include body care, makeup and feminine hygiene items, the things we use daily and that are closer to our bodies than the clothing we wear. One option in taking a stance against cosmetic marginalization is to extract from our histories (personal, cultural and otherwise) the beauty lessons that were intended to nourish, protect and cleanse our bodies long before they could be known as ‘Vegan’.
____________________________________________
1:00 PM PST
Open Discussion: “Why I Relinquished the Gospel Bird and Became a Vegan”: Girls and Women of African Descent Share Their Reasons for Choosing Veganism
Length: 45 minutes
During this hour long moderated and open discussion, Black girls and women will share their reasons for choosing veganism. If you would like to participate, email sistahvegan (at) gmail (dot) com to secure your space to speak. Space is limited to about 8 storytellers. You will have about 5-7 minutes to share your journey.
____________________________________________
1:50 PM PST
Keynote Talk : “Midwifery, Medicine and Baby Food Politics: Underground Feminisms and Indigenous Plant-based Foodways and Nutrition”
Length: 35 minutes (25 minute talk, 15 minute Q and A)
Claudia Serrato
University of Washington
Doctoral Student of Sociocultural Anthropology
During this decolonial era, Indigenous midwifery in East Los Angeles despite the several attempts to dismantle this ancestral practice along with their Indigenous plant based nutritional advice thrives as the alterNative to biomedicine. The Indigenous foodways and nutritional ways of knowing guided by these midwives is critical in restoring or decolonizing pregnancy, birthing, feeding experiences and most importantly health. In placing the decolonial present into perspective, a herstoricalfeminist narrative of early Los Angeles, midwifery, medicine, law, and the baby food industry discloses a critical dimension of the colonial matrix of power, which has neglectedly been overlooked in determining changes in diet, health, and birthing. In recovering Indigenous foodways and nutrition, underground feminist practices in the urban ethnoscape of Los Angeles restores womb and taste healing memories.
____________________________________________
2:30 PM PST
Presentation Title: Constructing a Resource Beyond Parenting as a Black Vegan: Discussing Geography and Theology and Their Contradictions Within
Candace M. Laughinghouse
Regent University, PhD Candidate (Theology of Animals)
Length: 30 minutes (20 minute presentation; 10 minute Q&A)
Abstract: Surprisingly, I receive more support from non-blacks when it comes to parenting as a black vegan. Within the black community, I am guaranteed heavy doses of skepticism and defensive responses if I choose to reveal that my children have never ingested a hot dog, hamburger, bacon, and chicken! But beyond parenting as a black vegan are the challenges that relate to geography, theology, and even my own appearance. The Sistah vegan movement (as I like to call it) is inspiring as I pursue a doctoral degree in theology of animals and the effects on black theology. As a parent, my job is to protect my children and teach them the road to fulfillment in life involves education, using their talents, and compassion for all sentient beings. I want to present the above topics as many black parents have a theological foundation that can be seen as contradictory to being vegan.
____________________________________________
3:05 PM PST
Panel Discussion: Yoga for the Stress Free Soul Sista
And Radical Self-Care Teaching: Exploring Privilege in Yoga & Veganism for Girls of Color
with Sari Leigh
Anacostia Yogi www.anacostiayogi.com
and
Kayla Bitten
Length: 50 minutes (40 minute discussion; 10 minutes Q&A)
Abstract: Sari Leigh will give black women, practical yoga tools to help resolve stressful home situations, past racial traumas, heartbreaks and reconnecting to spirit. Participants will learn the 15 second Mind Cleanse, A Soulful Flow yoga sequence and the revolutionary power of Mantra. Kayla Bitten will address how, on a daily basis, we people of color continue to reap the oppressive consequences of a society who refuses to see us as part of the movement to a society of innovative development and solidarity. Working with young girls and women, Kayla has witnessed first hand the effects of a society whose racist and misogynistic views has stifled them; stifled them in a way that has them questioning their worth, pushing them to participate in harmful ways of nourishment both physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and their all around position as a young girls of color living in America. Advocating ways to engage in radical self love and care is an important practice that Kayla teaches these promising young girls. She achieves this through eating habits and yoga, but she also continues to realize the lack of representation in an area where engaging in such self care is considered ‘for white people only’ (or westernized to an unnoticeable position), blatantly financially unattainable, not having the access, or being taught by those who do not have an ‘all inclusive’ work ethic. Kayla will discuss how we can began to help young girls learn and unlearn ways to decolonize and resist through acts of self care such as accessibility to spaces where we can learn about vegan/vegetarianism/ healthy eating (and ultimately how to create our own spaces where these resources can be attainable) and yoga.
_________________________________
Break 4:00 pm PST
_________________________________
4:20 PM PST
Open Discussion: Reflections on the Sistah Vegan Anthology
Moderator: Dr. A. Breeze Harper (tenative)
Length: 35 minutes
In 2010, Lantern Books published Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health and Society. It was the first book of its kind to centralize the Black female vegan experience in the USA. Regardless of racial or ethnic identity, all are invited to openly dialogue about how Sistah Vegan anthology, as well as the Sistah Vegan Blog, affected their lives. How did you end up with the book? What chapters stood out for you? Did you give the book to a friend or family? Do you teach with the book? What would you like to see in the second volume? Email sistahvegan (at) gmail (dot) com if you would like to participate. Space is limited, so please reserve your spot.
___________________
5:00 PM PST
End of Conference Keynote Address:
Is Black Decolonization Possible in a Moral Economy of Neoliberal Whiteness? How USA Black Vegan Liberation Rhetoric Often Perpetuates Tenets of Colonial Whiteness
Dr. A. Breeze Harper
Research Fellow
Department of Human Ecology, Community and Regional Development
University of California Davis
Length: 60 minutes (45 minute presentation; 15 minute Q&A)
Abstract: For this concluding keynote, I analyze the food that a popular Black vegan guru promotes in order to ‘purify’, ‘decolonize,’ and ‘liberate’ Black Americans from legacies of colonialism and racism. First, through an Afrocentric framework, I show how this Afrocentric philosopher resists anti-black conceptualizations of Black women as “unfeminine” and “breeders.” Such a stance is empowering and a declaration of anti-racism against the mainstream USA narrative that Black women and girls are disposable and worthless. After this analysis, I use Black feminist theorizing to explore how the meanings this famous health activist places on particular vegan commodities, unconsciously reproduces heterosexist, ableist, and black middle-class ‘reformist’ conceptualizations of a ‘healthy’ Black nation. Lastly, I explore how USA Black vegan consumer activism may often be at the expense of oppressing other vulnerable communities (i.e. how certain Black liberation empowering super-foods come to us because of economic policies embedded in neoliberal whiteness). If we engage in vegan consumerism without regard for how our vegan commodities get to us (i.e. sweatshops, child slavery, displacement of indigenous communities) what does this truly mean in terms of liberation, as well at the limits of decolonization within a USA capitalist moral economy?
Registration Fee: $45.00
I ask for a registration fee to pay speakers, pay for webinar service, and also to fund the Sistah Vegan project to become a non-profit organization. Go here to learn more about that.
We are having our first annual Sistah Vegan Conference this fall, on September 14, 2013. Registration is available now. Anyone can register as an audience member . One need not identify as a girl/woman/womyn/trans vegan of color to participate. This is open to all. It will be an online interactive conference (view tentative speaker line-up here), through the service of Anymeeting.com. This means presenters can use webcams, audio, and PowerPoint which will be fully experienced by the audience. At the end of each talk, audience members will be able to engage in Q&A with the presenter. The entire conference talks will be video recorded and accessible after the event, to ensure that this valuable information will not be lost; it also ensures that those with internet access who could not attend will be able to access this information.
Right now we are still specifically looking for critical perspectives on veganism, animal compassion work, and self-care from the epistemological standpoint/embodied experiences of women/womyn, trans, and/or girls of African descent. Thus far, we REALLY need a critical queer theory perspective and/or lgbtq experience and challenges in heteronormative spaces. Thus far, I cannot find anyone to present on this topic. 8 weeks after posting the call for presenters, no one has submitted anything about LGBTQ experiences/analysis within veganism and animal compassion. This call for presenters is open to all transfolk, women/womyn, and girls of African descent or allies, regardless of ‘formal’ education background or writing/artistic style. We encourage academic and non academic presentations. Deadline for this specific proposal topic on queer analysis/theory is August 20.
Please send proposals with your name, institutional affiliation (if you have none, that is fine too), presentation title and a 200 word abstract. Presentations should be about 20 minutes long, with 15 minutes for Q and A. Email to breezeharper at gmail dot com.
As part of the Go fund me campaign to raise money for the Sistah Vegan Project , I ask that those who can help us, donate to see this conference happen. All are welcomed to register and attend as audience members. Click here to register. You can click here to view the tentative speaker line-up. I ask for paid registration in order to pay keynote speakers an honorarium, pay for webinar technologies, as well as other costs to make this event possible.
Also, let me know if you would like to transcribe the live talks for hearing impaired people. I am try to locate closed caption options for Anymeeting.com. If you are familiar with such a service, please post this info.
Please contribute what you can by clicking on the GOFUNDME Link below. If you do not want to use this method, but prefer paypal, click on the link on the right upper corner of this blog page to donate via PAYPAL.
My Best
Amie Breeze Harper, PhD
Director and Founder
The Sistah Vegan Project
Www.sistahveganproject.com
(Tentative Presentation and Discussion Line-Up)
Please note that anyone can register as an audience member to learn about the critical and embodied perspectives of women of color vegans. One need not identify as a woman of color
1st Annual Sistah Vegan Conference
“Embodied and Critical Perspectives on Veganism by Black Women and Allies”
September 14, 2013
Location: Web Conference Using Anymeeting.com. This means the location is on the Internet, accessible by computer or telephone.
Time: 10:00am-6:00pm PST (USA)
Early Bird Registration Fee: $35.00 until August 15, 2013. After August 15, it will be $45.00
———————
Introduction: How Veganism is a Critical Entry Point to Discuss Social, Animal, and Environmental Justice Issues for Black Women and Allies.
Speaker: TBD
Length: 10 minutes
In this introduction to kick off the conference, the speaker will introduce how the concept of veganism can shed light on critical issues effecting Black girls and women in the USA. She will explain how veganism, as both method and philosophy, is an often overlooked perspective in a USA society that has normalized the exploitation and abuse of racialized minorities such as Black females, as well as the normalization of violence against the environment and non human animals used for human edification. This talk will be an introductory segue into the scheduled talks and discussions. It should hopefully open up innovative ideas by intersecting veganism, health activism, food politics, animal compassion, and anti racism into the lives of Black women and our allies. In addition, the speaker will introduce what is means to be an “ally” in the context of the Sistah Vegan Project.
——————————————–
Keynote Talk: How Whiteness and Patriarchy Hurt Animals
Anastasia Yarbrough
Inner Activism Services
Length: 30 minutes (20 minute presentation; 10 minute Q&A)
Abstract: In the animal rights movement, racism and sexism are treated primarily as separate forces comparable to but not wholly relevant to animal protection, with the exception of leftist pockets inspired by ecofeminist animal liberation thought, the Animal Liberation Front and other direct action groups, and the emerging Critical Animal Studies. As recent as the 2013 Animal Rights Conference, the “mainstream” animal rights movement tends to treat anti-racist, anti-sexist movements as struggles of the past that inform the new frontier social justice movement that is animal rights. However, the goal of this talk is not to argue how and why this tokenizing is a problem. Instead, my focus is to spark a dialogue on how white supremacy and patriarchy directly impact the animals we’re striving to help and protect, thus giving further relevance in the animal rights movement to become more conscious of how racism and sexism operate in society. As a black woman who is also a long-time activist for animal liberation and justice, I have the unique position to see these intersections and notice that human violence towards animals is rarely ever lacking color or gender, nor is it always simple to tease apart from systemic issues like racism and sexism. Therefore, I hope that this talk can serve as a useful and engaging spark that is relevant not just to animal rights activists but also to social justice activists who are just beginning to consider animals.
____________________________________________
Presentation Title: PETA and the Trope of “Activism”: Naturalizing Postfeminism and Postrace Attitudes through Sexualized Bodied Protests
Aphrodite Kocięda
University of South Florida
Length: 30 minutes (20 minute presentation; 10 minute Q&A)
Abstract: For this presentation, I will explore PETA’s marketing campaigns that use the trope of “activism”, couched in vegan and anti-animal cruelty rhetoric, to naturalize postfeminist ideas and postrace attitudes about women’s bodies. In this postfeminist space, attaining a white sexy body becomes activist work. For PETA, the ethical aims of the vegan diet (is purported to) coincide with attaining a particular type of femininity that excludes women of color. Women of color are only strategically used in their campaigns as authentic signifiers of “diversity” where the white framework remains undisturbed. PETA uses “activist” rhetoric in their ads to bolster and naturalize the postfeminist and postrace ideas inherent in their logic.
_________________________
Presentation Title: An Embodied Perspective on Redefining Healthy in a Cultural Context and Examining the Role of Sizeism in the Black Vegan Woman Paradigm
Nicola Norman, B.S. Nutritional Science
Baltimore, MD
Length: 20 minutes; 10 minute Q&A
This presentation takes a look at sizeism and how it affects attitudes in the Black community and the mainstream towards Black Vegan Women. Body Mass Indexes calibrated to white norms contribute to producing stigmas and increasing challenges to women whose bodies seem to exist at the intersection of social and cultural pressures/expectations. How big our hips, buttocks, and thighs are, are constantly being put under a microscope by family, friends, community, and the bigger society that we live in. This may be affecting Black women on the fence about trying veganism for its health benefits or deter them already due to these pressurized standards. Black vegan women of all sizes are often chastised for not meeting those standards. Black female bodies are very commonly exoticized in society. I will give examples of this and look at how sizeism is many times at the crux of this. Lastly, I will offer suggestions on how to combat the challenges of sizeism within mainstream vegan rhetoric in the USA.
____________________________________________
Presentation Title: Cosmetic Marginalization: Status, Access and Vegan Beauty Lessons from our Foremothers
Pilar Harris
Pilar in Motion (pilarinmotion.com)
Length: 30 minutes (20 minute presentation; 10 minute Q&A)
Abstract: The terms ‘Vegan’ and ‘Cruelty Free’ are labels that help lend integrity to commercially produced cosmetics. Yet these labels may also be used for marketing purposes, particularly in campaigns not created with black identified women as the intended target consumer. Although the internet has largely transformed access to cosmetic products labeled ‘Vegan’, there exists a degree of status and exclusivity in terms of the price point and distribution of these products, so that many black identified women remain marginalized. These products include body care, makeup and feminine hygiene items, the things we use daily and that are closer to our bodies than the clothing we wear. One option in taking a stance against cosmetic marginalization is to extract from our histories (personal, cultural and otherwise) the beauty lessons that were intended to nourish, protect and cleanse our bodies long before they could be known as ‘Vegan’.
____________________________________________
Open Discussion: “Why I Relinquished the Gospel Bird and Became a Vegan”: Girls and Women of African Descent Share Their Reasons for Choosing Veganism
Length: 45 minutes
During this hour long moderated and open discussion, Black girls and women will share their reasons for choosing veganism. If you would like to participate, email sistahvegan (at) gmail (dot) com to secure your space to speak. Space is limited to about 8 storytellers. You will have about 5-7 minutes to share your journey.
____________________________________________
Keynote Talk : “Midwifery, Medicine and Baby Food Politics: Underground Feminisms and Indigenous Plant-based Foodways and Nutrition”
Length: 35 minutes (25 minute talk, 15 minute Q and A)
Claudia Serrato
University of Washington
Doctoral Student of Sociocultural Anthropology
http://www.claudiaserrato.info
During this decolonial era, Indigenous midwifery in East Los Angeles despite the several attempts to dismantle this ancestral practice along with their Indigenous plant based nutritional advice thrives as the alterNative to biomedicine. The Indigenous foodways and nutritional ways of knowing guided by these midwives is critical in restoring or decolonizing pregnancy, birthing, feeding experiences and most importantly health. In placing the decolonial present into perspective, a herstoricalfeminist narrative of early Los Angeles, midwifery, medicine, law, and the baby food industry discloses a critical dimension of the colonial matrix of power, which has neglectedly been overlooked in determining changes in diet, health, and birthing. In recovering Indigenous foodways and nutrition, underground feminist practices in the urban ethnoscape of Los Angeles restores womb and taste healing memories.
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Presentation Title: Constructing a Resource Beyond Parenting as a Black Vegan: Discussing Geography and Theology and Their Contradictions Within
Candace M. Laughinghouse
Regent University, PhD Candidate (Theology of Animals)
Length: 30 minutes (20 minute presentation; 10 minute Q&A)
Abstract: Surprisingly, I receive more support from non-blacks when it comes to parenting as a black vegan. Within the black community, I am guaranteed heavy doses of skepticism and defensive responses if I choose to reveal that my children have never ingested a hot dog, hamburger, bacon, and chicken! But beyond parenting as a black vegan are the challenges that relate to geography, theology, and even my own appearance. The Sistah vegan movement (as I like to call it) is inspiring as I pursue a doctoral degree in theology of animals and the effects on black theology. As a parent, my job is to protect my children and teach them the road to fulfillment in life involves education, using their talents, and compassion for all sentient beings. I want to present the above topics as many black parents have a theological foundation that can be seen as contradictory to being vegan.
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Panel Discussion: Yoga for the Stress Free Soul Sista
And Radical Self-Care Teaching: Exploring Privilege in Yoga & Veganism for Girls of Color
with Sari Leigh
Anacostia Yogi www.anacostiayogi.com
and
Kayla Bitten
Length: 50 minutes (40 minute discussion; 10 minutes Q&A)
Abstract: Sari Leigh will give black women, practical yoga tools to help resolve stressful home situations, past racial traumas, heartbreaks and reconnecting to spirit. Participants will learn the 15 second Mind Cleanse, A Soulful Flow yoga sequence and the revolutionary power of Mantra. Kayla Bitten will address how, on a daily basis, we people of color continue to reap the oppressive consequences of a society who refuses to see us as part of the movement to a society of innovative development and solidarity. Working with young girls and women, Kayla has witnessed first hand the effects of a society whose racist and misogynistic views has stifled them; stifled them in a way that has them questioning their worth, pushing them to participate in harmful ways of nourishment both physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and their all around position as a young girls of color living in America. Advocating ways to engage in radical self love and care is an important practice that Kayla teaches these promising young girls. She achieves this through eating habits and yoga, but she also continues to realize the lack of representation in an area where engaging in such self care is considered ‘for white people only’ (or westernized to an unnoticeable position), blatantly financially unattainable, not having the access, or being taught by those who do not have an ‘all inclusive’ work ethic. Kayla will discuss how we can began to help young girls learn and unlearn ways to decolonize and resist through acts of self care such as accessibility to spaces where we can learn about vegan/vegetarianism/ healthy eating (and ultimately how to create our own spaces where these resources can be attainable) and yoga.
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Open Discussion: Reflections on the Sistah Vegan Anthology
Moderator: Dr. A. Breeze Harper (tenative)
Length: 45 minutes
In 2010, Lantern Books published Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health and Society. It was the first book of its kind to centralize the Black female vegan experience in the USA. Regardless of racial or ethnic identity, all are invited to openly dialogue about how Sistah Vegan anthology, as well as the Sistah Vegan Blog, affected their lives. How did you end up with the book? What chapters stood out for you? Did you give the book to a friend or family? Do you teach with the book? What would you like to see in the second volume? Email sistahvegan (at) gmail (dot) com if you would like to participate. Space is limited, so please reserve your spot.
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End of Conference Keynote Address:
Is Black Decolonization Possible in a Moral Economy of Neoliberal Whiteness? How USA Black Vegan Liberation Rhetoric Often Perpetuates Tenets of Colonial Whiteness
Dr. A. Breeze Harper
Research Fellow
Department of Human Ecology, Community and Regional Development
University of California Davis
Length: 60 minutes (45 minute presentation; 15 minute Q&A)
Abstract: For this concluding keynote, I analyze the food that a popular Black vegan guru promotes in order to ‘purify’, ‘decolonize,’ and ‘liberate’ Black Americans from legacies of colonialism and racism. First, through an Afrocentric framework, I show how this Afrocentric philosopher resists anti-black conceptualizations of Black women as “unfeminine” and “breeders.” Such a stance is empowering and a declaration of anti-racism against the mainstream USA narrative that Black women and girls are disposable and worthless. After this analysis, I use Black feminist theorizing to explore how the meanings this famous health activist places on particular vegan commodities, unconsciously reproduces heterosexist, ableist, and black middle-class ‘reformist’ conceptualizations of a ‘healthy’ Black nation. Lastly, I explore how USA Black vegan consumer activism may often be at the expense of oppressing other vulnerable communities (i.e. how certain Black liberation empowering super-foods come to us because of economic policies embedded in neoliberal whiteness). If we engage in vegan consumerism without regard for how our vegan commodities get to us (i.e. sweatshops, child slavery, displacement of indigenous communities) what does this truly mean in terms of liberation, as well at the limits of decolonization within a USA capitalist moral economy?
Early Bird Registration Fee: $35.00 until August 15, 2013. After August 15, it will be $45.00
I ask for a registration fee to pay speakers, pay for webinar service, and also to fund the Sistah Vegan project to become a non-profit organization. Go here to learn more about that.
We are having our first annual Sistah Vegan Conference this fall, on September 14, 2013. Registration is available now. It will be an online interactive conference (view tentative speaker line-up here), through the service of Anymeeting.com. This means presenters can use webcams, audio, and PowerPoint which will be fully experienced by the audience. At the end of each talk, audience members will be able to engage in Q&A with the presenter. The entire conference talks will be video recorded and accessible after the event, to ensure that this valuable information will not be lost; it also ensures that those with internet access who could not attend will be able to access this information.
We are still specifically looking for critical perspectives on veganism, animal compassion work, and self-care from the epistemological standpoint/embodied experiences of women/womyn, transfolks, and girls of African descent. Thus far, we REALLY need the three topics below to be covered.
Surprisingly, 6 weeks after posting the call for presenters, no one has submitted anything about sizeism, ableism, and LGBTQ experiences/analysis within veganism and animal compassion. This call for presenters is open to all women and girls of African descent regardless of ‘formal’ education background or writing/artistic style. We encourage academic and non academic presentations.
We already have presenters for the topics below:
Please send proposals about sizeism, ableism, lgbtq, or other innovative topics not listed above by July 30, 2013. Include your name, institutional affiliation (if you have none, that is fine too), presentation title and a 200 word abstract. Presentations should be about 20 minutes long, with 15 minutes for Q and A. Email to breezeharper at gmail dot com.
As part of the Go fund me campaign to raise money for the Sistah Vegan Project , I ask that those who can help us, donate to see this conference happen. All are welcomed to register and attend as audience members. Click here to register. You can click here to view the tentative speaker line-up. I ask for paid registration in order to pay keynote speakers an honorarium, pay for webinar technologies, as well as other costs to make this event possible.
Registration Fee: $35.00 (US Dollar)
I also ask to pay a registration fee to fund the Sistah Vegan project to become a non-profit organization. Go here to learn more about that.
Also, let me know if you would like to transcribe the live talks for hearing impaired people. I am try to locate closed caption options for Anymeeting.com. If you are familiar with such a service, please post this info.
Please contribute what you can by clicking on the GOFUNDME Link below. If you do not want to use this method, but prefer paypal, click on the link on the right upper corner of this blog page to donate via PAYPAL.
My Best
Amie Breeze Harper, PhD
Director and Founder
The Sistah Vegan Project
Www.sistahveganproject.com
In this webinar you will learn what you need to get started on your path to an amazing and fulfilling plant-based dietary pregnancy and post-partum period. If you are at the end of your pregnancy but want to learn how a whole foods plant-based Sistah Vegan diet can help you produce optimal milk supply for an infant, then this course is also for you. In addition, post-partum hair loss is significant amongst women; many tell me that years after giving birth, they struggle with hair loss and thinning. I will teach you how a few herbs and foods can regrow and strengthen your hair.
You may be scared. You may be confused. Or maybe you do have the confidence to practice a vegan pregnancy, but do not know where to begin. The Sistah Vegan project is offering the first introductory and comprehensive seminar (a.k.a. ‘webinar’), complete with audio and powerpoint slides to address the following:
* Guaranteed plant based remedy/prevention for prenatal anemia
* Learn this simple herbal remedy to prevent hemorrhoids
* Learn what simple seed can increase hydration, energy, and calcium
* Learn the top four plant based proteins essential for pregnancy
* Constipation is NOT ‘normal’, despite the myth. Learn how to poop 2-3x a day while pregnant.
* Learn how this raw juice can prevent gestational diabetes and manage blood sugar
Cost: $19.99 (if you cannot afford this, contact me for alternative options)
How to register and pay: Click REGISTER to sign up and access the webinar immediately.
Duration: 90 minutes.
Technology requirements: a computer with a fast internet connection and a free Anymeeting.com (my webinars are hosted through Any meeting.com )
Description:
If you are like most folk who have listened to mainstream media in the USA, you have heard of the sensationalized stories once or twice a year, of a mother who ‘killed’ her child ‘because’ she was vegan. If you have had interest in getting pregnant and/or having a vegan pregnancy, you may have been ‘attacked’ by supposedly loving family members and ‘concerned’ midwives or practitioners that such a diet is ‘dangerous’ and ‘irresponsible.’
These are all lies, as myself and a plethora of women and their children are living proof that a properly planned vegan pregnancy and lactation period will help you and your baby thrive. Don’t listen to the hype. Below is a photo of my baby daughter, Eva Luna. She was ‘built’ by a whole foods vegan diet. In addition, you are looking at a glowing and healthy baby in which over 75% of her ‘food’ sources came from my vegan-produced breast milk, the first 13 months of her life. She was 9.5lb at birth and full term. 6 hour labor.
About the Instructor: Dr. A. Breeze Harper is the director and founder of the Sistah Vegan Project, a organization dedicated to critical race feminist perspectives on veganism, as seen through the collective experiences of Black North American females. Dr. Harper started the project in 2005. She holds degrees from Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and University of California-Davis. Her innovative ability to integrate the use of educational technologies to analyze Black female vegans food and health philosophies earned her the Dean’s Award from Harvard University in 2007 for her Master Thesis work: this is an honor only bestowed upon one candidate per program.
Dr. Harper’s knowledge about diversity within the field of food and wellness has marked her as a highly sought after paid consultant and speaker for many American universities. She has given many keynote addresses including at Boston University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Oregon, and Southwestern University. She teaches students, faculty, and staff how and why people have unique relationships to food and wellness and how these relationships are impacted by race, socio-economic class, gender, sexuality, and ability. She has published extensively, including Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health and Society (Lantern Books 2010). She graduated summa cum-laude from University of California-Davis with a PhD in critical geographies of race and food.
Disclaimer: I am not a certified practitioner or medical doctor. Please consult with your practitioner before trying any of the foods or herbs that I recommend
The Sistah Vegan Project 