Kuma2.net Blog

The Q-Me Con (NYC) 2008 Women’s Summit is a weekend-long forum featuring engaging seminars and networking events with the intention to empower queer women seeking to network and educate themselves in how to get their authentic, diverse voices and images OUT into the massive media-sphere.

The Q-Me Con (NYC) 2008 Women’s Summit will feature a wide array of informative seminars, ranging from Q & A panels with queer, female producers, directors, writers, bloggers, actresses, journalists, musicians and film, TV and theatre and entertainment executives to in-depth forums and interactive workshops delving into the “ins & outs” of financing, pitching, marketing and distributing female-centric content.

Who/what: Punkmouse & Warrior Princess present the Q-Me Con (NYC) 2008 Women’s Summit

When: May 9 – 11, 2008

Where: Ripley Grier Studios, 520 8th Ave.
New York, NY 10036

There are lots of good seminars and workshops. You can pay for them individually or get a $40 VIP pass for all of the seminars you can handle. (Workshops not included in the VIP.)

Get all the details at http://qmecon.com/home.php

The Q-Me Con (NYC) 2008 Women’s Summit is a weekend-long forum featuring engaging seminars and networking events with the intention to empower queer women seeking to network and educate themselves in how to get their authentic, diverse voices and images OUT into the massive media-sphere.

The Q-Me Con (NYC) 2008 Women’s Summit will feature a wide array of informative seminars, ranging from Q & A panels with queer, female producers, directors, writers, bloggers, actresses, journalists, musicians and film, TV and theatre and entertainment executives to in-depth forums and interactive workshops delving into the “ins & outs” of financing, pitching, marketing and distributing female-centric content.

Who/what: Punkmouse & Warrior Princess present the Q-Me Con (NYC) 2008 Women’s Summit

When: May 9 – 11, 2008

Where: Ripley Grier Studios, 520 8th Ave.
New York, NY 10036

There are lots of good seminars and workshops. You can pay for them individually or get a $40 VIP pass for all of the seminars you can handle. (Workshops not included in the VIP.)

Get all the details at http://qmecon.com/home.php

Grants awarded to lesbian writers.

CLOSING DATE:
June 29, 2008

AMOUNT:
$1500 to $10,000 (three awards)

ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS:
U.S. lesbian-identified writers of poetry and/or fiction.

AGENCY/DEPARTMENT:
Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice

Attn: Lesbian Writers Fund
116 E. 16th St., 7th Floor
New York, NY 10003, USA
(212) 529-8021
Fax: (212) 982-3321
grants@astraeafoundation.org

SUMMARY:
The fund aims to support the work of emerging lesbian writers, and to acknowledge the contributions of established lesbian writers to the movement and culture.

FOR DETAILED INFORMATION GO TO:
www.astraea.org/PHP/Grants/DeadlinesAllGrants.php4#writers_fund

This announcement might be a week late, but the material went up on time. This time around we have:

• 27 new poems and 3 new stories in the Lit section
• a new story and a new poem in OtherWords
• a new artist in the gallery
• have you visited Skyeview lately? Skye’s just back from China
• last but not least, a few posts have popped up on the SpiritSpace Blog

I’m reposting this Kuma Project with a few changes/updates/clarifications:

1. There is NO deadline. The first essays will appear in the July 15th edition of Kuma, but we will continue collecting and posting stories.
2. About Content – Your first sexual interaction with a woman may have been part of coming our to yourself and you can mention it– but we don’t want a lick-by-lick account of your first time. (Especially, if you were under 18 at the time!!) We aren’t looking for erotica here.

Now, to the original announcement . . .

Tell us your coming out story. Not when you decided to tell someone else–but when you first came out to yourself.

Things to Consider
How did it happen? Was your sexuality a question you were wrestling with for a while? What it “aha!” moment? Maybe it wasn’t something you had to struggle with at all–just something new you discovered about yourself when puberty hit? What was going on in your life at the time? How did you come to the realization that you weren’t the straight?

After you came out to yourself . . .
How did the realization change your view of yourself? What happened to your self image? How did you reconcile this new information with the old assumptions you had of yourself? Were you immediately able to embrace your whole self or did it take some work? Are you still working on self acceptance?

Other things to pounder . . .
Did you have to come out to yourself more than once? Maybe you thought you were a lesbian, but discovered down the line that you were actually bisexual–or transgendered?

Email your story to kumaxtasy2@kuma2.net and put “Coming Out Story” as the subject.

Click image to see full announcement.

Mighty Real: An Anthology of New Black Gay and Lesbian Writing –
Edited by Royce Bryant Smith and Darius Omar Williams

NOTE: THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS JUNE 9, 2008

This is a call for submissions for a book entitled Mighty Real: An
Anthology of New Black Gay and Lesbian Writing with an introduction by
one of the most groundbreaking writers from the same gender loving
community. Due to a previous submission call which resulted in a
limited number of submissions, we’ve decided to broaden our call to
the entire black gay and lesbian community regardless of regional
location. The anthology will offer a collection of poetry, fiction and
essays by black gay and lesbian writers throughout the U.S. and
abroad. Not only will this book reflect contemporary issues of racism,
sexism and homophobia, it will give literary and political voice to
the experiences of brothers and sisters from numerous black SGL
communities. Finally, this book will introduce new black gay and
lesbian writers in addition to introducing new work by more
established writers.

Please submit five poems, three short stories or a critical essay on a
topic of your choice reflective of your individual identity and
aesthetic. Feel free to submit work from all three genres. Documented
articles should follow MLA format. Previously published work WILL NOT
be accepted. Please mail two hard copies of your submission along with
full contact information and a short bio (to be included in anthology)
to:

Darius Omar Williams
c/o Mighty Real
5213 Northtowne Blvd. Apt. A
Columbus, OH 43229
sanghatheatre@yahoo.com or

Royce Bryant Smith
roycbsmith@yahoo.com

This message is from Jolie du Pre, a full-time freelance writer and an author and editor of erotica:

I am seeking essays by BISEXUAL MARRIED WOMEN for inclusion in a  nonfiction anthology proposal.  If you are interested, please send an email  to jolie@joliedupre.com and put BISEXUAL in the subject line.  I will contact you with the details.

http://www.joliedupre.com
http://www.myspace.com/joliedupre

It’s our anniversary–not Kuma’s anniversary. Today, Martina & I have been together for 11 years. On our first date, we went to see:

Time goes by quickly.