[van-announce] SEPT. 10 - Liberating Motherhood, Liberating Community (with mama bios!)

[LEAP Coordinator]

Vancouver Status of Women is honoured to present...
 
Liberating Motherhood, Liberating Community:
A Dialogue and Celebration with the Breakthrough Mamas 
 
Friday, September 10
6:30 - 9:00pm 
Rhizome Cafe 
317 East Broadway
Unceded Coast Salish Territories 
 
INTRODUCING
Nian Abdulrahman
...is a courageous and gentle mama warrior of three who breaks walls.
Her passion is facilitating access to resources for mothers to lead
self-determined lives.
 
Patricia (Hatiya) Aguilar Zeleny
...is a strong, determined and resilient mother of five children. 
She is a poet, a writer, and a fighter.  Her passion is to word towards
women's economic empowerment.
 
Rahat Chaudhry
...came to Canada from Pakistan in 1984. 
She is a mother of five who is passionate about building strong community
and solidarity with other women.
 
Valcina Cox
...is a singer, advocate and mother of three miracle babies. 
She weathers many storms with humour, tenacity and the stubbornness to
thrive.
 
Gabriela Reynoso
...is a theatre artist, facilitator and mother of two with the gift of
clarity and laughter.
She creates opportunities for women to reclaim and develop our creative
powers through story-telling.
 
 
This event is free. MAMAS and KIDS especially welcome!!!
On-site childcare, bus tickets and light refreshments provided.
Queer-positive, trans-inclusive and wheelchair accessible space.
 
We are a group of mothers based out of Vancouver Status of Women who have
been working together this summer to develop our leadership skills. As poor,
racialized mothers, we and our children often find ourselves isolated,
excluded and marginalized in both normative/normalized society and
progressive/transforming spaces. 
 
In spite of the fact that our work is not recognized and is actively
devalued to subsidize a racist, capitalist economy, we are labourers. And in
spite of the fact that our lives are caricatured, our choices penalized or
patronized, and our bodies stigmatized in both popular and progressive
cultures, we are here, planting seeds for a more just, joyful and
sustainable future through our love work. Through the multiple struggles
that we are engaged in daily not only as immigrants and women of colour, but
also as single mothers and mothers fighting for safety and dignity within
often abusive, exploitive and violent patriarchal relationships to family,
partners and the state, we have developed strengths essential for surviving,
leading and sustaining social movements. 
 
We are excited to host this dialogue and invite our community - especially
other mamas and children! - to participate in visioning possible worlds with
room for our passions and creativities to grow, with deep trust,
responsibility and solidarity as foundations. In spite of the walls
surrounding us, we are hopeful and committed to our liberation. We are
breaking through and defining what we want to build on the other side. Join
us! 
 
For more information, contact  <mailto:leapcoordinator at vsw.ca>
leapcoordinator at vsw.ca or 604-710-5480
 
We are not our limits!
 
 
LEAP Coordinator
Vancouver Status of Women
2652 East Hastings St. 
Vancouver - Coast Salish Territory
www.vsw.ca 
Phone: 604-255-6554
Fax: 604-255-7508
E-mail: leapcoordinator at vsw.ca 
 
When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision,
then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.  - Audre Lorde