Month: March 2013
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Minimum Wage Forum in Boston
Raising the minimum wage isn’t for the purpose of helping workers to afford luxuries, it’s for the necessities, said acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris during a town-hall style discussion with low-wage workers on Feb. 28 at a family service center in Boston. “It’s not go-to-the movies money,” Harris told the two dozen […]
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Super PACs and Female Candidates
The landmark Supreme Court case: Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission established that government cannot restrict independent political expenditures by corporations and unions. While this strongly impacts all candidates for congress, women campaigning for public office have felt the blunt end of the 2010 court decision. Three of the nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices are […]
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Breaking the Silence of Extreme Poverty
The Center for Social Policy at UMass, the International Fourth World Foundation, Project Serve, and UMass Boston’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion cosponsored a conference at UMass on March 12. The conference featured several co-authors of a recently published book, Not Meant to Live Like This: Weathering the Storm of Our Lives in New Orleans. […]
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Brother Blue Honored at Cambridge Public Library
A familiar sight in Cambridge for decades, Brother Blue is gone now but not forgotten. Before his death in 2009, the local storyteller, who was the Official Storyteller of both Cambridge and Boston, could be spotted all around Cambridge in his trademark blue beret and clothing, always adorned with butterfly pins and pendants. On March […]
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RIP Boston Phoenix
When this issue of SCN hits the streets, it will also be the same week for the last issue of the Phoenix. I think I nearly lost my breath when I found out that after 47 years, one of my favorite papers would be closing its doors. I started reading the Phoenix when I first […]
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Spring Funding Appeal
The recent demise of the Boston Phoenix has left many Bostonians wondering what will be the fate of progressive independent journalism in the Greater Boston area. Spare Change News is here to stay. The Homeless Empowerment Project has been publishing Spare Change News, the country’s longest continuously running street paper, for 21 years with the […]
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Playing the Feminist Card
A cat token voted into the game of Monopoly is very cool—but Parker Bros. still got trumped, because the hottest deal in game design now is the newly minted Feminist Playing Cards. These decks are portable, playable art collections, encompassing both illustrative and musical adventures. A discussion of Missy Elliott’s efforts on behalf of strays, […]
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Jose Mateo's "How Do I Love Thee" Reviewed
I went to the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre on a Saturday night, February 23rd, and was really taken back not only by the performance, but also by the complementary atmosphere of the theatre. I personally have never been to a ballet before, aside from some of my sisters’ small recitals I involuntarily attended as a […]
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The Changing Role of Haitian-American Women
Haitian Women, in Haiti, are terribly oppressed, both economically and psychologically. I know this first hand having grown up with five women in Haiti and by often observing their delicate task of navigating in a sea of sharks: the male oppressors who limit them to being subservient and objectified. But, as Bob Dylan sings, “The […]
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Prodding the Bell Jar
“Perhaps someday I’ll crawl back home, beaten, defeated. But not as long as I can make stories out of my heartbreak, beauty out of sorrow.” – Sylvia Plath. Fifty years into the demise of Sylvia Plath, her life and work resonate with themes still largely relevant to the plight of the individual today. With a […]