Women's empowerment: Food for thought

"For millennia women have dedicated themselves almost exclusively to the task of nurturing, protecting and caring for the young and the old, striving for the conditions of peace that favour life as a whole. To this can be added the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, no war was ever started by women. But it is women and children who have always suffered most in situations of conflict.

Now that we are gaining control of the primary historical role imposed on us of sustaining life in the context of the home and family, it is time to apply in the arena of the world the wisdom and experience thus gained in activities of peace over so many thousands of years. The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all."
—Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (from keynote address to NGO Forum on Women, Beijing, 1995)

Aung San Suu Kyi has been the democratically elected leader of Burma since 1990. After the election, the ruling military regime put Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, where she remained for most of the next 16 years. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. She continues to work for the democratization of her country.

Stop in and maybe buy a nice necklace!

We often get asked these very good questions: Where can I buy A Little Something's jewelry and fiber crafts? Do you have a store?

Well, we don't have a store (yet), but we do have sales. Usually, we attend local events such as craft fairs and festivals. In the near future, you can find us at these events. Stop by and say hello!!

Diversity Day Culture Celebration
Thursday, May 15 9-2
Emily Griffith Opportunity School
1250 Welton St., Denver
MAP

World Market
Sunday, May 18 11-3
Augustana Lutheran Church
5200 E. Alameda Ave., Denver, CO
MAP


City Park Festival of the Arts
Sunday, July 20 12-6
Ferril Lake/City Park
Denver, CO
MAP

The Honor Bestowed Upon Us

(A note to our readers: This post was supposed to run a couple of weeks ago, but our resident blogger was still sick and in too much pain to finish the job--until now.)

This is pretty special, or else I wouldn't be blogging Against Medical Advice (shhh! Don't tell Dr. Brent).

Our friend in jewelry making, Margot Potter, has designated us as a recipient of the Arte y Pico Award. I'm choked up. I have nothing prepared. I don't know what to say. All of us Bead Women here at A Little Something are flattered and delighted by this recognition. Thanks, Margot.

Now, I am going to follow Margot's instructions to the cut-and-paste letter. We will choose our award recipients imminently. Winners, please follow along. Actually, there really are far too many of you out there for us to single out, but we'll do our best.

Here are the rules for the Arte Y Pico Award:

1) Pick 5 blogs who deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material and also contibutions to the blogging community no matter what language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to the blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him award itself.

4) Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico Award blog so everyone will know the origin of this award. It helps a lot if you speak Spanish. (Cut and paste the info into your blog to make things easier).

Capitola Girl A fan and friend whose creative endeavors--stringing beads and stringing thoughts--are definitely noteworthy.
37 Days Patti Digh reminds us to live with intention and to do so as creatively as possible.
creativadoration From a lovely blogger in Montreal, a potpourri of crafts as functional art, plus other things that are difficult to describe.
How I changed the world today This is not technically a blog related to creative pursuits, but Julia will inspire you to touch the world and support the creative endeavors of people around the globe. Fair trade rocks, and if Julia knew us, she'd probably understand exactly what we're trying to do.

OK, we know our list is one blog short, but we woud have rounded it out with Margot's blog had anyone else nominated us. So, feel free to add an extra blog to your list when you create it.

Congratulations on your award, everyone!

Bead Expo, Part II

Can you spot the troublemaker in this picture?

Some call it bribery, but we called it opportunity. The girls in our project were asked if they would babysit on Saturday in exchange for a trip to the bead expo on Sunday. The answer was..."Yeah. OK." Ah, the teen years and their enthusiasm.

Having rested our feet on Saturday night, Susan, Anna, and I were good to go on Sunday morning (well, me, not so much--the shingles episode isn't over, but it can be tolerated pretty well if there are beads involved). Seven young ladies were waiting for their day at the bead show, and as it turned out, it was a good thing our feet were rested because the girls kept us on our toes.

The girls had a set amount of money to spend, but with a very tough string attached: Nothing could be purchased without group consensus. Getting seven teen girls to agree on anything is a monumental challenge under the best of circumstances, but when it's an issue of personal taste, you can be sure there will be spirited discussion with every purchase. There was.

The three of us who were the chaperones today had our own agenda. We want the girls to acquire the social skills they'll need to be successful, respected young women. We want them to learn to work together, to develop skills related to negotiation, discussion, compromise, and fairness. We also want them to understand what is and isn't worth arguing about, and when it is or isn't important to stand one's ground.

We also wanted them to develop an appreciation for the beads they've been using for their creative endeavors. Until today, they had never even considered where their beads come from or what they cost. It's a lesson in value that all kids learn sooner or later, and today these girls learned that you can't buy everything you see and that not everything you like is worth the price. It was a day of awareness, thinking, deliberation and consideration. And beads. Lots of beads.

The girls, like the women on Saturday, were most drawn to anything faceted, sparkly, crystal, shiny, or bright. Anna helped them to see that such strong qualities must be tempered with more basic attributes if the dominant features are to be appreciated and not overwhelming.

The girls could barely contain themselves as they made their way from booth to booth. They wanted to look at everything, touch everything, buy everything, and touch everything yet again. They talked, laughed, compared, and went in seven different directions, only to be corralled and redirected, brought together and asked to focus (ha!).

At the end of the day, seven young ladies spent a day to remember and as they tumbled out the front door to the parking lot, they were already talking about next year's show and what they hoped to buy. They also saw some gorgeous jewelry they'd like to learn how to make, and we hope they feel inspired by the beauty they encountered today.

Technical note

This blog is now set up for RSS feeds. If you need that information, then you know what to do. The widget gadget thingy is at the bottom of the right column on this page. And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Together, we shop for A Little Something

Slide show loading--read our post while you wait for the pictures to come online!

(To see this slide show LARGER and in a new window, just click on the blue link you see in the lower left corner of the slideshow screen, above. Hover your cursor over the bottom of slideshow screen and click the 'plus' symbol to slow down the speed.)

It was a landmark day. Today was our first field trip, and we didn't start with something easy. Four of the women--Khadiga, Fatuma, Madina, and Mama Moumina went to their first Bead Expo. Susan, Anna, Jaime, and Sharon went, too.

You don't normally see brightly dressed African women meandering through the bead show here, so we were pretty easy to spot. From the moment we walked in the door, we received a very warm reception. First and foremost, the staff of the Rocky Mountain Bead Society helped us set up our field trip, and they kindly found ways to make the whole endeavor more feasible. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

Joan Babcock welcomed us into her micro-macrame class and patiently worked with our students throughout the lesson. Although her class was full and it would have been easier for Joan to concentrate on her more experienced students, she made this afternoon a very special experience for our group. You see, the women of A Little Something have never taken a class with Americans before--at least, not side-by-side as peers. This kind of experience is at the heart of our philosophy of empowerment. It is a powerful moment if you are a person who has been marginalized your entire life.

The rest of the day was all about shopping! Beads, beads, beads, everywhere! We had a plan of perusing the entire exhibition hall and then circling back and buying, however, it seemed we could never progress more than a few booths at a time without being sucked into the Bead Expo Vortex that has such astounding gravitational pull that before you know it, you're in a booth with a strand of beads entertaining your hand.

The women had a set amount of cash to spend on beads and supplies for the program. They were supposed to work cooperatively to make their purchasing decisions and budget their money throughout the day. Well, that was the plan, anyway. Anna ended up managing the money because the women were all deeply mesmerized by sparkling Swarovski, Czech fire polish, faceted crystal and quartz, and a bajillion tubes of sparkly, bright seed beads. In other words, their reaction to their first bead show was exactly the same as anyone else's. The word "overwhelming" was uttered more than once.

Many people who encountered us were curious about our ensemble. The women answered those questions that they could, and the rest of us were happy to tell the story of A Little Something. Before we knew it, it was 6:00 and the hall was closing up for the night. We almost had to drag the women away from the sparkly pretties, but once we got outside, everyone realized the same thing: We were ready to sit down an put our feet up!

Today was a wonderful day. As the women climbed into the van and got situated, Mama Moumina told us something in Maay Maay. Then, she pointed to every one of us in turn, gave two thumbs up and said, "All good. Good, good, good!" Fatuma and Khadiga assured us they had fun. We all agreed we were tired, though.

The story doesn't end here. Oh, no. Tomorrow we're going back with the teen girls' group. More fun to come--we'll keep you posted!

A sister project reawakens in the spring

If you haven't had the opportunity to read our earliest posts, then you might not know that our project is the spin-off of two other projects. One of those original projects is the Somali Bantu Farming Council, a partnership between the Bantu Community and Denver Urban Gardens. The project has turned some empty city lots in east Denver into bountiful vegetable gardens. The farmers sell their produce at the farmer's market. The garden also becomes a gathering spot for neighbors throughout the warm months.

Spring is here, and that means it's time for the community to come together to start preparing the gardens for another planting season. The Bead Women saw this gathering as an opportunity to tend to their creative garden, as well, with an impromptu jewelry sale. The day looked like this...

Volunteers assisted with the soil preparation.

Community members' work will yield farmer's market produce in a few months.

While the adults worked the soil, young Somali Bantu artists painted a mural for the garden.

The girls worked hard to tag and price jewelry for the sale. What's that behind the couch??

Why am I here selling jewelry? I'm not a girl!