NWU NEWS

Between The Lines Bulletin
Newsletter of the New York Chapter
National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981)
September-October 2010

Editor: Louis Reyes Rivera
Louisreyesrivera@aol.com
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Table of Contents

1. Last Call: RSVP for NWU Dinner
2. October 2: One Nation March in D.C.
3. NWU NY Forum: Taming New Media
4. Arts Garden's Exhibit Canceled
5. Call for Papers: Anthology-in-progress


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1. Last Call: RSVP for NWU Dinner
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This coming Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010, NWU’s New York Chapter will host a pot-luck dinner for NWU’s National Executive Board (NEB) members meeting in New York. All local chapter members are invited to partake in welcoming the NEB and, if so inclined, to add a home-made dish to the menu. To help finalize the menu-in-progress, at least one of the following RSVPs is in order:
(1) all chapter members planning to attend must notify Chapter Co-Chair Susan E. Davis (sednyc@earthlink.net) immediately (certainly, before Saturday!); and,
(2) to avoid over-duplication with our pot luck menu, those who want to bring a dish must contact Susan E. Davis immediately. Suggested entrées include dinner, salads, desserts, and appetizers.
The dinner/reception takes place from 6 to 9 p.m., at the UAW/NWU Headquarters, 256 West 38 Street, Manhattan (12 fl. Conference Room).
The National Executive Board is second only to the Delegates’ Assembly, the NWU’s governing body. It includes all National Officers, Chapter and Division chairs (i.e., Journalism, Book, Grievance & Contract Advisement), and meets annually.

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2. October 2: One Nation March in D.C.
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The buses are filling fast. A broad coalition of unions and activist organizations are planning to converge in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, October 2, 2010. It's a March for Jobs and Justice.
As part of the NWU’s contribution to this major push, President Larry Goldbetter, in conjunction with the UAW’s Region 9A, has announced that free bus seats, a box lunch, and UAW t-shirts (for visual identification purposes) will be provided to members of both unions and their guests (family, friends, et al). Buses depart on October 2, at 6 a.m., directly from UAW Region Nine and NWU headquarters, located at 256 West 38 Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in Manhattan.
Interested members (family and friends included) should contact Larry Goldbetter a.s.a.p., at 1.212.254.0279 [extension 14] or via email at larryg601@gmail.com a.s.a.p.
“This is an event we should fully support,” says President Goldbetter. “While the thrust of the march is jobs and justice, other issues are being raised among our coalition, such as education and soaring student debts, environmental degradation, the mortgage crisis, the need to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, generally speaking, all of the issues our Congress is not fully addressing – universal health insurance, an honest policy towards immigration and human rights, as well as those federal bail outs of the rich."
With this march, says President George Gresham (1199/SEIU), “we’re going to make history. When we elected President Obama two years ago, it was such an historic victory that perhaps our optimism got the better of us – we underestimated an aggressive right wing and racist media outlets. Now it’s our time to raise our voices and make our power felt.”
Activists from Massachusetts have issued the following statement: “Why join the March(?) – because we voted for jobs; because we voted for stronger labor laws; because we voted for safe work places; because we voted for a stronger union; because we voted for immigration rights; because we voted for LBGT rights; because we voted for better homes; because we voted for people, not corporations; because we want the change we voted for!” For updates, visit naacp.com or 199seiu.org web sites.


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3. NWU NY Forum: Taming New Media
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The NWU’s New York Chapter presents a free seminar – Writers and Social Media: Taming New Media to Support Your Writing Goals. This special forum takes place on Monday, October 4, 2010, from 6 to 9 p.m., Houndstooth Pub (downstairs meeting room), 520 Eighth Ave., at West 37 Street, in Manhattan. Author/consultant Don Lafferty will lead the discussion.
Whether you're a bestseller, an aspiring author, a journalist or blogger, knowing how to make effective, appropriate use of new Social Media can only enhance and advance your writing career. Don will slash through the cacophony of social media choices to show you how to build an efficient, effective online presence, identify proven tactics and practices with specific examples of the ways you can use your online presence to raise your visibility in the right places.
Writer Don Lafferty is both a lecturer and Web 2.0 marketing consultant. In addition to writing marketing and advertising copy, he’s written numerous articles for several national magazines. Through his blog, Don Lafferty's Practical Social Media Strategies and Tactics for Connecting with Your Public, Don is also a regular contributor to the global conversation revolving around online social networks, helping to define effective strategies for authors and publishers to connect with today’s readers. A member of the Philly Liars Club and board member of the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference, he also serves as social media director for the literary magazine, Wild River Review.
For more information, call Tim Sheard at 1.917.428.1352, or email the NWU New York Chapter at info@nwuny.org. Free beverages of choice for the first ten attendees!


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4. Arts Garden's Exhibit Canceled
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Attention All Interested Parties:
The outdoor Garden Exhibition originally scheduled for this coming Saturday, September 25, 2010, at 260 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn, has been canceled as the result of last week's tornado that completely uplifted an old sycamore in the garden's yard. Sponsors of the event, Travelled Rhodes International Sculptor Arts Garden (TRISAG), explained that it would take well over two months to get the yard back in order.
For additional information, call 718.398.4237 or 718.398.1331. TRISAG, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization; contributions are tax deductible.

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5. Call for Papers: Anthology-in-progress
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A group of academic editors is now reviewing abstracts for an anthology of essays tentatively titled, Working the Book: Black Women’s Writing as Spiritual and Ritual Experiment.
Interested writers may submit abstracts for essays that explore and analyze the use and nature of imagery, symbolism, and cognitive and/or cosmic structures derived from African diasporic religions (e.g., Vodoun, Hoodoo, Santeria, Yoruba, and Candomblé) in the literature of black women writers.
The call for abstracts include the following explanations:
“In the imaginative construction of subjectivity for their respective female protagonists (as authentic, self-actualized, and autonomous, in and out of love and/or marriage), broader communities, and fictional and otherwise figurative worlds, black women writers have been challenged with socio-cultural limitations and constraints that can proscribe representation. In search of a ‘usable’ cultural past that will facilitate such representation of the new world black experience, especially the quest for authentic selfhood, many writers have discovered that the symbols, rituals and language associated with African-rooted religions can open up spaces in their respective narratives within which to create more actualized protagonists.
“Employing African diasporic religions as intertext, these writers have at hand a system of beliefs and practices replete with powerful black female deities, leaders and adherents. Indeed, as religions which reflect the experiences and aspirations of their followers, these sacred cosmologies often prove effective vehicles through which black women writers can more appropriately represent their protagonists’ historical and cultural experiences with transgressive narrative strategies.
“Further, such writers may revise representations of whole communities, ritual practices, reader/author rhetorical relations, and more by calling on African-rooted traditions to enrich their literary experiments in English.
“However, along with this rich cultural legacy, black women writers also inherit the stereotypes and biases of a Western culture that labels these religions ‘primitive magic,’ ‘witchcraft,’ and ‘sophisticated con games.’ Consequently, a significant aspect of appropriating these religious elements becomes experimenting with narrative strategies that will allow these elements to be integrated in ways that challenge, subvert, and/or transcend the prevailing stereotypes and that legitimate what the writers believe to be relevant and viable spiritual paths.
“The essays accepted for inclusion in this collection will explore ways in which African American women writers appropriate and employ imagery, symbolism, rituals and language specific to African-rooted religions as a corrective to what the writers perceive as Western spiritual and cultural obsolescence in order to offer alternate and more empowering paths to representation of identity, community, and cosmos.
“The essays will also explore innovative and transgressive narrative strategies used by the writers to integrate these elements without compromising or jeopardizing the legitimacy and credibility of the particular narrative and their respective protagonists.
“Some questions that will be important to the essays in the collection are as follows:
“In what ways do the writers’ literary/spiritual ‘experiments’ inform and influence the construction of subjectivity in the writers’ respective works?
“Are there common imagery, symbolism, rituals and/or language that connect the narratives? What are the appeal and the benefits to the writers of employing these particular elements?
“What strategies are employed by the writers to integrate these cultural and spiritual elements and to legitimate them within the Western literary tradition?”
Abstracts of the essay-in-progress are to be sent to Dr. Brenda R. Smith via email at (bsmith30@kent.edu) on or before November 15, 2010. Along with the abstract, a brief biographical statement and contact information (email address, postal address and phone number).
Completed papers are due no later than January 14, 2011. Each manuscript must be accompanied by a statement that it has not been published elsewhere and that it has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere. All manuscripts must be formatted according to MLA guidelines. Final essays should be between 15-25 pages in length.