Tag Archives: special needs

Can I Sit With You?

Laurie says:

The second collection of ” Can I Sit With You? ” stories is just out.

I went to a reading last year of stories from the first volume, and was impressed by the quality of the work, and the way it expressed the loneliness of childhood, with intensity, compassion, and often with humor. It’s edited by Shannon Des Roches Rosa and Jennifer Byde Myers. I’m going to buy the new one, but obviously haven’t read it yet.

Can I Sit With You Too? is the second collection of stories from the Can I Sit With You? project. The stories tell the authors’ social experiences at school, from the good to the the truly awful. The new tales represent an even  wider range of schoolyard experiences then the first book, including best friend disappointments, new kid fears, harsh discrimination, living with disabilities, and emerging sexuality. By sharing moments from kindergarten through high school, these stories once again remind us that we are not alone: chances are, if it happened to you, it happened to someone else, too. The Can I Sit With You? project has been featured on NPR, and in live shows and readings from Seattle’s Annex Theatre to the San Francisco Bay Area’s Book Passage.

I would have loved this book anytime in my childhood. It would definitely have made me feel less alone.  Anyone who found childhood solace in books would appreciate the stories. You’ll probably want to read it to younger children so you can share it with them (some of the stories are quite intense).

Proceeds from this book benefit SEPTAR,  Special Education PTA that Jennifer and Shannon helped found in 2007.  It provides important help to the local special needs community, and provides support, education, and community to families of special needs children.  It’s in  Shannon’s and her son’s hometown of Redwood City.  SEPTAR is a great example of doing powerful effective local work.

The  Can I Sit With You project always welcomes new stories {ciswysubmissions@gmail.com}, and publishes them weekly online.

The book is available online. It will also be available shortly at Amazon.com, and in-hand at Main Street Coffee Roasting Company  and Canyon Coffee Roastery, both in Redwood City.

Check it out!

BlogHer ’08: Amazing Women Everywhere You Look

<b>Laurie and Debbie say:</b>

This year’s BlogHer conference was in Laurie’s home city, and just across the bay from Debbie’s. Laurie went to the presenters’ party Thursday night. Laurie says: “The party gave me a chance to see folks I met last year in Chicago, have lots of brief intense conversations, and meet face to face and talk with panel members. Then I went to a party on the top floor of the Westin St. Francis and was completely knocked out by a 280 degree view of the city through tall windows. I took a slow tour around. It was amazingly beautiful. The St Francis is an old nouveau style hotel and I loved the decor.”

Friday morning, we both skipped breakfast and the keynote, and showed up in time for the first breakout session. We chose “Is Mommyblogging Still a Radical Act?” (liveblog transcript here) and found our first outstanding panel of the weekend. Lindsay Ferrier was an extraordinary moderator: the BlogHer style is to encourage statements, as well as questions from the audience and to operate with the assumption that everyone has something interesting to say. Lindsay modeled this perfectly, going to the audience even before all the panelists had had a chance to do more than introduce themselves. The result was a high-level, freewheeling discussion which nonetheless managed to stay focused. Laurie was really happy to have Lindsay as an example before she moderated her panel later that afternoon. All three panelists–Polly Pagenhart from Lesbian Dad, Maria from Immoral Matriarch, and Charlene Li, were as good as Lindsay. (The conclusion: a lot of different meanings of “radical” were in the room, and mommyblogging fits many, if not all, of them. Everyone was interested in the relationship among integrity, commoditization, and blogs as moneymakers. The potential impact of a nationwide–and bigger–network of women building community support networks and political power cannot be overestimated.)

After lunch, we went to “Race and Gender: What are the lessons of 2008?” (liveblog transcript here) If you’re a regular reader, you know that we don’t put much energy into electoral politics. But this panel was billed as going beyond that, and it completely lived up to its billing. The panelists were Adele Nieves (moderator), Maria Niles, Jill Miller Zimon, Cynematic, and Caille Millner. The panel covered an interesting range, not only of issues but of levels of experience. Once again, BlogHer’s cultural expectations made it possible to respect people who are new to these issues while clearly hearing the more complex and nuanced (and sometimes angry) positions. Topics ranged from the controversial New Yorker cover through white people working on racism in ourselves and others, to alternate metaphors (such as the Rubik’s cube) for discussing these subjects with less historical loading.

Laurie’s panel immediately followed this one (Debbie’s liveblog transcript with links to all participants here). Laurie says: “I was nervous about the moderation because Blogher’s approach needs a symphony conductor style. It took a lot of concentration, and it all went really well. We talked about body image issues, including size, race, gender, and sexualization of children in lucid and passionate ways. The conversation about early puberty development in both girls and boys and what that means in terms of parents’ and kids’ body image is one I really want to pursue. All three panelists were clear, lucid, intense and sometimes funny. I got my wish for a panel that discussed kids and body image in the broad and complex sense. The audience comments wove together with the panelists for a conversation that was way more than the sum of its parts. I wasn’t sure we’d pull this off and I was thrilled. Over the next day and a half, I really appreciated how many women told me that the panel was important, and good for them. I need to thank Denise Tanton and Jenny Lauck for their help.”

On Saturday, we went to one more fabulous panel (well, Debbie went to half of it): Blogging About Our Kids with Special Needs (liveblog transcript here). Panelists were Susan Etlinger, Shannon Des Roches Rosa, Kristina Chew, Jennifer Graf Groneberg, and Vicki Forman. The panel description says these women “are among those mommybloggers who are blogging their experiences and finding both a community and a cause.” Panelists and audience were sharing both intimate support and information and clearly finding the results helpful and important. The women in the room were a stellar example of mommyblogging as radical: this is a group which is truly pulling together to change laws, school policies, cultural expectations, and social attitudes. The discussion was intelligent, clear, and loving. Laurie says, “If you’re only going to read one transcript, read this one.”

There was lots of good stuff in the rest of the conference: other panels, hallway interactions, keynotes, swap meet, evening events. These were just the highlights for the two of us.

Thanks to Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins, Kristy Sammis, and the host of staff and volunteers. We both know what it takes to make a conference as complicated as this one run smoothly, and they did a great job!