RADICAL FEMINISM BY THE SEA

Solidarity: A Radical Feminist Conference

REHOBOTH BEACH, DELAWARE

APRIL 12-14, 2019

Friday, April 12, 2019

3:30 – 5:30 P.M. REGISTRATION AT THE AVENUE INN*

33 WILMINGTON AVENUE

6:30 – 7:00 P.M. OPENING CEREMONY WITH RUTH BARRETT AND FALCON RIVER ON THE BEACH

Although we have no programming planned this evening, we encourage you to attend the events of Camp Rehoboth’s
WomensFest.

Saturday, April 13, 2019

8:00 – 9:00 A.M. LIGHT BREAKFAST BUFFET & BARTER MARKET

Please enjoy a light breakfast and bring items to trade with other attendees.

9:00 – 9:15 A.M. OPENING CONVENER REMARKS & POEM

9:15 – 10:30 A.M. TALES FROM THE WILD FRONTIER: THE EARLY DAYS OF SECOND WAVE RADICAL FEMINISM IN THE SOUTH

Panelists: Falcon River

Description of Panel: Falcon is an elder radical feminist butch witch crone, hoping to foster radical
feminist intergenerational dialog. Falcon will give an autobiographical presentation of personal
stories that led her from growing up in the hills of West Virginia to becoming a lesbian feminist
activist in the mid-seventies. Falcon was the first, (and maybe only woman) to get into the
apprenticeship program in the carpenters’ union fine millwork division. Stories of survival and
how she succeeded on her own terms. Stories about how women organized and helped create a
movement without the internet or cellphones. There will be time for questions and conversation.

10:30 – 11:30 A.M. HOW TO START A CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING GROUP

Panelists:

Description of Panel: An interactive workshop and group discussion on starting a local, in-person
women’s group, facilitated by a younger lesbian who started a group in the Pacific Northwest.
Topics will include: the benefits of participating in a CR group, potential challenges (time, space,
personal and political conflict, leadership dynamics, external pressures, varying goals of members)
and strategies to work through these challenges. There will be ample time for women to share
about their past experiences with organizing women’s groups.
11:30 am – 12:00 P.M. CREATING SPACE FOR WOMEN & GIRLS THROUGH CREATIVE INCORPORATION

Panelists: Cathy Brennan & Katie Watkins

Description of Panel: Legal strategies can be used to protect women’s space. We will discuss how
to set up a religious corporation in your state and how to incorporate as a 501(c)(3). The purpose
of this is to create a vehicle to have women-only space in the real world and in public spaces
(hotels, schools, colleges).

12:00 – 1:30 P.M. LUNCH (ON YOUR OWN)

1:30 – 2:45 P.M. KEYNOTE ADDRESS: FEMINIST KNOWING & CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING (BY SKYPE)

Panelists: Kathleen Barry

Description of Panel: This consciousness-raising (CR) workshop was developed by Kathleen Barry
with the emergence of new generations of feminists who may not know or have experienced the
vital force of CR that brought so many women to the Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1960s
in mind. CR gives us the most genuine foundation for our activism in dismantling male privilege
and patriarchy as a whole. It turns our minds/hearts and being to look at the issues facing women
through our connections with each other, the similarities of our experiences, of female
domination, and the solidarity from which we work together. Kathleen will present for the first
45 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of active CR group work.

2:45 – 3:00 P.M. BREAK

3:00 – 4:00 P.M. RADICAL FEMINISM ON CAMPUS

Panelists:

Description of Panel: This workshop will consist of a group dialogue surrounding radical feminism
on college/university campuses. Potential discussion topics include: the disappearance of
women’s spaces and organization, the devolution of women’s studies into gender and sexuality
studies, responding to requests for pronouns, finding and connecting with like-minded feminists
on campus, effective and less-than-effective direct actions in response to heteropatriarchy and
white supremacy, and strategies for building solidarity on college campuses. Heavy emphasis on
organizing and existing in your community.

4:00 – 5:00 P.M. GRAB YOUR PRIVILEGE LIKE A BAT & SWING AT RACISM

Panelists: Xan Joi

Description of Panel: This workshop is intended to assist especially white womxxn in fine-tuning
our commitment to confronting and abolishing racism within ourselves and feminism at-large. As
white womyn, we are, want to and should be accountable for the legacy of racism pounded onto
our backs at birth: a legacy we (un)intentionally benefit from and carry with us everywhere. A
huge part of that accountability is recognizing when and how we have created and maintained
spaces that reflect the racial segregation and racism of our larger society. As white womyn, we
are no longer comfortable with that unintended outcome for our lives and are willing to grab our
privilege like a bat and swing it at racism.

Although we have no programming planned this evening, we encourage you to attend the events of Camp Rehoboth’s
WomensFest.
Sunday, April 14, 2019

8:00 – 9:00 A.M. LIGHT BREAKFAST BUFFET & BARTER MARKET

Please enjoy a light breakfast and bring items to trade with other attendees.

9:00 – 10:00 A.M. ORGANIZING SOLIDARITY

Panelists: Peggy Luhrs

Description of Panel: Peggy will discuss organizing women’s liberation from the 1970s to the
1990s, how solidarity leads to great achievements, and why we need an autonomous women’s
movement. Questions to be considered include: Can radical feminist lesbians survive in
bureaucracy? How do we stay true to women and girls in the current transgender backlash?

10:00 – 11:00 A.M. FEMALE-CENTERED RELIGIONS AS FEMINIST ACTIVISM

Panelists: Ruth Barrett

Description of Panel: This workshop is facilitated by Dianic high priestess, Ruth Barrett, sharing
from her 40+ years of teaching about and facilitating female and goddess-centered rituals and
fostering long-lived women’s spiritual communities. Participants will also be introduced to some
energetic practices that tangibly give women a bodily memory of drawing power from the
elemental powers that surround us, for centering, and for becoming more receptive to the multi-
sensory world of Nature.

11:00 – 11:30 A.M. WORKING WITH THE RIGHT-WING

Panelists:

Description of Panel: In this discussion, we will discuss the pros and cons or working with right-
wing organizations and see if we can develop community agreements around whether it is
defensible to work with such organizations.

11:30 A.M. – 12:30 P.M. GENDER IDENTITY & THE LAW

Panelists: Cathy Brennan

Description of Panel: A discussion of the intersection of gender identity and the law and where
volunteer activists with limited bandwidth might put their energies. We will also discuss
messaging around these issues and creating solidarity with various constituencies who might be
sympathetic to a radical feminist perspective.

12:30 – 1:30 P.M. LUNCH (ON YOUR OWN) **

1:30 – 2:45 P.M. HIERARCHY AND THE PATRIARCHY

Panelists: Sally Tatnall

Description of Panel: A presentation to understand what we are up against and how to reframe
our thinking to improve solidarity among women and girls. Sally is a radical feminist and has been
a community and political activist for 45 years. Sally was the executive director of Neighborhood
Family Practice, a nine-doctor community health center on Cleveland’s west side inner city. She
held this position for 18 years until her retirement in 2003. In 2008, Sally realized her retirement
 was a little early and went back to work at an abortion clinic she helped to found in the 1970s.
She just retired for the second time in August 2018.

2:45 – 3:00 P.M. BREAK

3:00 – 4:00 P.M. OPEN MIC

Panelists: Any woman who wants to speak, share a poem, beat box, sing, tell jokes

Description of Panel: This is an open session where women are invited to speak about the topics
discussed at the workshop, however tangentially related. We especially encourage women to
share their concrete organizing ideas for increasing connections amount women in the real world.

Conference Ends at the Conference Site at 4:00 p.m. We adjourn and will proceed outside onto the beach for our
conference closing.

(ROUGHLY)
4:15 – 4:45 P.M. CLOSING WITH RUTH BARRETT AND FALCON RIVER ON THE BEACH

*****

* If you cannot register for the conference onsite, please call 443-582-3631 and we will attempt to accommodate you. If
you do not register on Friday or seek an accommodation, you forfeit your right to attend the conference.

** Rehoboth Beach has a number of amazing restaurants, but we recommend lesbian-owned Lori’s Café
(https://www.lorisoyveycafe.com/) at 39 Baltimore Avenue, 302-226-3066.