
The Men’s Story Project
MEN AND BOYS TAKING A STAND FOR HEALTHY MASCULINITIES AND GENDER JUSTICE
The Men’s Story Project is a replicable storytelling and dialogue project that brings critical dialogue on social ideas about masculinity into public forums around the world – via men’s own voices and stories.

THE 1619 PROJECT of the New York Times
The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.

WHAT WOMEN REALLY WANT by Natalie Seber
“What do women want?” is an age old question that continually changes and will continue to change as we find ourselves developing in a society that has held us back for so long. It has always been implied that women’s wants are illogical and completely unpredictable, and therefore, we can’t be trusted to know what’s best for us.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS NEEDS HELP Transcribing Suffragist Documents
from BOOK RIOT
Fast typists, adept transcribers, and fearsome keyboard clackers, lend me your ears! The Library of Congress needs your help. The Smithsonian reported on July 30 that the Library seeks help transcribing more than 16,000 pages of suffragist diaries, letters, speeches, and other documents. All are available on the library’s crowdsourcing program, By the People, and they’re hoping volunteers will help in the effort to bring more suffragist stories to light.

Asheville and Western North Carolina COMMUNITY THEATRE, MUSIC & ART from A – Z

THE FLATIRON WRITERS VERY FIRST ONLINE CLASS! The Writers Kit is Here
Want to be a writer? Don’t waste time.
The Writer’s Welcome Kit aims to save you 100 hours of work and worry as you go from wanting to be a writer to working to be a writer.
It’s the first E-COURSE that combines the information you need with the resources professional writers use to get published. Whether you’re a beginning writer wanting a safe space to start the writing journey, or a seasoned pro trying to re-invigorate and enhance your writing practice, this course will inspire you and give you every tool you need to keep moving forward with your writing every day.

INTRODUCING “THE REPORT”: A Podcast Series from Lawfare
For the past several weeks, a group of us has been working on a project to tell the story of the Mueller Report in an accessible form. The Mueller Report tells a heck of a story, a bunch of incredible stories, actually. But it does so in a form that’s hard for a lot of people to take in. It’s very long. It’s legally dense in spots. It’s marred with redactions. It’s also, shall we say, not optimized for your reading pleasure.

JANUARY 1, 1925: CECILIA PAYNE-GAPOSCHKIN and the Day the Universe Changed
By Richard Williams in APS News
Cecilia Payne made a long and lonely journey from her childhood in England to prominence in a scientific community that begrudged a place to women. She began her scientific career with a scholarship to Cambridge University, where she took the course in physics. After meeting Harlow Shapley from Harvard, she moved to Massachusetts and pursued a doctoral degree in astronomy. Her 1925 thesis, entitled Stellar Atmospheres, was famously described by astronomer Otto Struve as “the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy.” By calculating the abundance of chemical elements from stellar spectra, her work began a revolution in astrophysics.

Defend the Public’s Role in Western NC’s Public Lands – Mountain True – Protecting the Places We Share
The U.S. Forest Service has released an extreme set of proposed changes that would cut the public almost entirely ouf of decisions affecting our public lands. Will you speak out against the Forest Service’s proposal and remind them that public lands belong to all of us?
The proposal would make dramatic changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, also known as NEPA, which allows the public to have a say about the plans for government projects like new roads and timber sales. By requiring public input and a review of the environmental impacts of government projects, NEPA keeps these decisions from being made behind closed doors.

JANE ADDAMS AND LILLIAN WALD: Imagining Social Justice from the Outside
Anyone who has taken a United States history course in high school knows the story of Jane Addams and Chicago’s Hull House, the first Settlement House in America and arguably the genesis of social work in the country. More advanced textbooks may even have discussed Lillian Wald, founder of New York’s Henry Street Settlement House, who was instrumental in introducing the concept of “public health” – and the important epidemiological axiom that physical well being is inseparable from economic and living conditions.
What no one learned in high school, or later, was that Addams and Wald were women who loved other women and that these relationships – as well as the female friendship networks in which they were involved – were profoundly instrumental to their vision of social justice that changed America. CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

CULTURAL COLLISIONS 2019
Patriarchy is at its most potent when oppression doesn’t feel like oppression, or when it is packaged in terms of biology, religion or basic social needs like security, comfort, acceptance and success. Heterosexuality offers women all these things as selling points to their consensual subjection.

ANDERSON ROSENWALD SCHOOLS Added to The National Register of Historic Places
Thanks to the work of pioneering grassroots activists and the National Trust’s Rosenwald Schools Initiative, Rosenwald schools have begun to be identified, preserved and celebrated.

The Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), PROPOSED REVISIONS to NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT (NEPA) REGULATIONS
Sent in from Green Corner, the Montford Community Newsletter – Mitch Russell
I don’t usually advocate and try to remain politically neutral in this column, but to shut out our voices in a process isn’t American. There is a potential change in the US Forest Service National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, that could have catastrophic consequences. The change could include removing public comments and involvement, as well as not utilizing outside scientific analysis. You may comment using any of the methods at the end of this article, but please do so by August 26 @11:59pm
Pisgah National Forest is the closest to Asheville and in its entire range contains roughly 513,000 acres managed by the Forest Service. There is additional acreage managed by other agencies or entities.

Women in Congress get higher scores on environmental issues
By Anika Lanser
A new report from Rachel’s Network, a nonprofit that focuses on women and environmental issues, finds that women legislators are far more likely to vote in favor of legislation that protects or preserves the environment. The research, based on an analysis of the League of Conservation Voters scorecards for members of the U.S. House and Senate from 2006–2018, found that the average LCV score for women senators was 71 compared to 46 for their male counterparts. In the House, women on average scored 70 while men scored 43.

How Do We Know Something Is Racist? Historian Ibram X. Kendi Explains
In History News Network
When President Trump tweeted on Sunday that “‘Progressive’ Democratic Congresswomen” — an apparent reference to Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, who are all women of color — should “go back” to their countries, the backlash was swift. It also sparked another conversation: What makes something racist?
Ibram Kendi, a professor and director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, joined “CBS This Morning” to address that question from a historical perspective and discuss whether racist actions or words make someone a racist. Click to continue

EQUAL MEANS EQUAL launches Woman’s Journal 2.0
On the eve of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in America, EQUAL MEANS EQUAL is launching Woman’s Journal 2.0. The original Woman’s Journal began as a weekly newspaper in 1870, and was instrumental in mobilizing people across the country to support the 19th Amendment. We hope this new iteration will inspire people nationwide to support the Equal Rights Amendment.

Asheville recognized for BLUE HORIZONS PROJECT in national climate awards
Asheville’s Blue Horizons Project earned the City an Honorable Mention in the Mayors Climate Protection Awards announced at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Honolulu today.

What you can do about pollution in the French Broad River
It’s unacceptable that sections of the French Broad River still don’t meet environmental standards over 45 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act. Too often parts of our river aren’t clean enough for my family or yours to swim and fish in. Last year we witnessed the river closed at times because of oil spills and chemical pollution, and, this summer, our water team has seen moderate amounts of rain trigger dramatic spikes in E. coli levels at some of our area’s most popular river recreation sites.

Want to Raise Financially Successful Children? A 30-Year Study Says Teach Them This 1 Thing
A newly published study makes a strong link between a specific behavior set and future income.
We all worry, to some extent, about how financially successful we’ll be. But if you’re a parent, there’s an extension of that concern that gets talked about less often, which is the financial success of your children.

LOSING MY RELIGION FOR EQUALITY
By Jimmy Carter
Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.
I HAVE been a practicing Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention’s leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.