Time Out Chicago; Issue 217 : Apr 23–29, 2009

I wrote a few pieces for Time Out Chicago's recent "DIY issue," including an article about making your own deodorant (so cheap!) and another about teaching myself to sing that actually inspired me to start voice lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music.

Time Out Chicago; Issue 209; Features; Polish-American essay

For Time Out Chicago's "Polish Issue," I wrote articles about growing up Polish-American in Chi-town and old-school versus new-school Polish Chicago.

Obama in Grant Park

I attended the historic Obama rally in Grant Park last week and wrote a TOC blog post about it the next morning. (Mine is the last-and longest-post).

Glossed and Found event

A TOC blog post about a beauty event I attended in the South Loop.

Time Out Chicago; Issue 178; July 24, Street Art

Features article about street artists: "Concrete canvas"
Features article; a street art tour: "Going, going, gone"
Features article; gang signs vs. street art: "Writing on the wall."

Time Out Chicago; Issue 154 : February 7, 2008, Dating

Worst Firsts
An overeager cowboy. A man with a broken penis. A guy who gleefully recounts tales of his cocaine arrests. Readers went on terrible first dates with these freak shows so you don’t have to. Illustration by David Opie

• 

  Lonesome cowboy
  I took a ballroom-dancing class in college (long before the Dancing with the Stars craze). The only cute guy in class was also the best dancer, and since I was the best of the ladies—no great compliment, since most of our classmates couldn’t hold a beat to save their lives—we shot each other relieved looks when we occasionally wound up as partners. We didn’t talk much between rumbas, cha-chas and waltzes, but his tall, broad-shouldered physique wasn’t lost on me, nor his chivalrous demeanor, nor his Wranglers and gray T-shirts that fit oh-so-well. And damn, that guy could move his hips. After a particularly invigorating tango in one of the last classes, Brett asked me to dinner. When he walked up to the house that night, my roommates and I were on our screened-in front porch drinking mint juleps. They spotted him first—and their jaws dropped. We were used to grunge guys, and Brett had forgotten to mention that he was an actual cowboy (grew up in Montana; spent summers on a ranch), so his idea of ‘dressing up’ was a tucked-in checked shirt, huge belt buckle, cowboy boots and tight jeans. In 2008 Chicago, that’d be hot, but in 1997 Indiana, it was super embarrassing to be seen with him. We dined at an Irish pub, where my fears were confirmed: He was extra-Christian (I was going through an atheist phase), familycentric (I hated kids) and very sweet (only a bad-boy cowboy would’ve done the trick for me). I never called him back, not even after he left daisies and a sweet card on my porch. But Brett and I will always have tango.—Gretchen, Logan Square

Time Out Chicago / Issue 149 : Jan 3, 2008, Detox

Detox
The toxic avenger
A stressball attempts to pulverize her poisons with seven days of high-end healing.

By Gretchen Kalwinski

Yeah, yeah—everyone’s busy. But my insane schedule causes me bodily harm. There’s that persistent tension headache and cough. And the fainting episode on the El. And the trouble sleeping. When chest palpitations began, my doc said these symptoms were anxiety related, and suggested slowing down. Great, but who has time? To see if I could get a quick fix, I went hardcore, doing a detox treatment every day of the week. Bonus: These treatments require little effort on my part other than a cobra pose…and an occasional dash to the bathroom.

SUNDAY colon cleanse
After scaring myself silly reading online gut-cleansing forums and viewing photos of toothed intestinal parasites, my adventure begins with Ultimate Cleanse, a series of pills with ingredients such as dandelion that are taken to “release accumulated toxins in the body” and combat “low energy.” User forums say the first day is the most, um, urgent, so I stay home, close to a toilet, and boy am I glad—I visit the loo seven times today. I don’t see any fanged parasites, thank God, and I do feel lighter and more energized by day’s end. Whole Foods (locations citywide, wholefoods.com). $28.95.

MONDAY ear candling
Proponents of this folk-medicine treatment claim it clears gunk from sinuses, so during lunch I visit Elizabeth Adam Salon. While I lie on my side, an aesthetician inserts a conical candle in my ear, lights it and trims the end until the flame is 4 inches from my ear. At the end of the half-hour treatment, she shows me my earwax gob: disgusting. But my congestion doesn’t improve. Next! 845 N Michigan Ave, suite 908E (312-988-9611,elizabethadamsalon.com). $68.

TUESDAY Ionic Foot Bath with Detox Pedicure
At Silken Tent, I put my feet in a tub of water with a noisy black Aquavida “array,” a contraption designed to stimulate glands in the feet, drawing out toxins like aluminum, lead and mercury (which can cause headaches, insomnia and poor mental concentration, respectively). My water turns orange, (other common shades are black and green), but no one in the salon can explain why, and the Aquavida website says the water changes even without your feet due to “chemical interactions.” Hmm, sounds fishy. However, an amazingly detailed pedicure and reflexology treatment follows. I’m so mellow afterward that friends at dinner note my tranquil state. 2300 Chestnut Ave, Glenview (877-774-5536, thesilkentent.com). $105.

WEDNESDAY hot yoga
I’ve done this type of yoga before and know to expect an intense, 105-degree session at Bikram Yoga Chicago. During the sweaty poses, I relish in knowing that hot yoga not only improves strength and flexibility, it also opens pores, energizes the body and releases toxins through sweat. Postworkout, I’m a wet noodle and sleep like a baby. 1344 N Milwaukee Ave, third floor (773-395-9150, bycic.com). $15.

THURSDAY Enercupping therapy with acupuncture
My headache is no longer raging, but I’m still having palpitations. When I say that to my acupuncturist at Ruby Room, she focuses on acupuncture, since she says cupping is more for increasing circulation and “promoting the free flow of qi [vital energy],” while needles “calm the shen [spirit] and unblock stagnation” that causes tension issues like headaches and chest-tightness. She presses warm cups on my back, then painlessly pokes my arms, legs and forehead with needles. Afterward, the palpitations have lessened and the headache is gone. Good thing, since I’ve got a wine party to attend. If only acupuncture could hurl a preemptive strike against my inevitable hangover. 1743–45 W Division St (773-235-2323, rubyroom.com). $150.

FRIDAY ESPA detox body envelopment
Today’s after-work treatment at the luxurious Peninsula Spa is supposed to stimulate the lymphatic system and help purge whatever environmental toxins you carry around (bus exhaust, heavy metals, etc.) First I’m scrubbed with a dry brush, then lathered with a mix of seaweed, clay and ginger. A layer of plastic and hot towels comes next to get me sweating, which helps draw out those toxins. My therapist has magic hands—only problem is the oils she uses to give me an (amazing) scalp massage render my locks greasy, and she says I shouldn’t shampoo till tomorrow to allow the oil to moisturize my scalp. Since I’m now a greaseball, I bail on a gallery opening and opt for bed. I feel so pampered that for once I couldn’t care less about my social obligations—a liberating thought. 108 E Superior St (312-573-6860, chicago.peninsula.com/pch/spa.html). $155.

SATURDAY mind detox
I’m loving my spa lifestyle, but I’m sick of being touched by people I don’t know, and am relieved that today’s treatment involves only me, my apartment and my boyfriend. This detox is a mind-cleanse (prescribed by our Chill Out editor who knows about these things). The idea is: no phones, stereos, TVs or computers, so we proceed with brunch making and newspaper reading, free from white noise. We’re so into kicking it Amish-style that instead of turning lights on at dusk, we light candles, which allows for few activities except taking a walk and smooching by candlelight. We’re so relaxed by bedtime that we vow to repeat this monthly.

POST DETOX, my tension headaches are gone, my chest palpitations have quieted and I’m two pounds lighter. It’s hard to tell which treatment did the most good, but my instincts say the mind detox and acupuncture were the most effective, so I’ll continue with those on occasion. But now I know that my doc was right: Sometimes “balance” can be less about chichi spa treatments and more about simple downtime—and in the end that’s way more satisfying than being manhandled by strangers.

Time Out Chicago; Issue 146 : Dec 13, 2007, New Years

New Year's Eve
Toasts and jams
Whether 2007 brought you stock-market pain or new-baby pleasure, our dinner, party and morning-after options will help you ring in 2008 the right way—even if you’re an NYE hater.


Illustrations by Jude Buffum

Your year
You broke up—now hook up

Your relationship went up in flames just in time for NYE. Think you’re going to miss out on that stroke-of-midnight smooch? We don’t think so. The plan: Zone in on places that are sans snuggly couples and full of your type. Just try to pick one where you-know-who is unlikely to show up: 2008 is about a new batch of cuties, not drama, right?


NICE PIECE OF GLASS The Bottle Bar is a great place to make googly eyes at hotties.
Photo: Jessica Dixon

Your night
Dinner
Get some single friends together and go somewhere with close quarters or a communal environment. The proximity to your fellow diners, coupled with liquor, could get strangers talking, and if you’re lucky, touching. Even though it’s not presenting anything special for New Year’s and not taking reservations, small-plates haven Avec (615 W Randolph St, 312-377-2002) is a good choice: The tables are so close together, you’re practically seated in your neighbor’s lap. Wicker Park tapas joint People (1560 N Milwaukee Ave, 773-227-9339) will host an NYE dinner at $130 per person that includes four courses such as wild mushroom soup, duck breast with serrano ragout and a chocolate parfait. This spot also has a long communal table, great food and a young, friendly crowd—all crucial ingredients for a meal with possibilities, if you catch our drift.

Partytime
For the evening’s main event, you’re looking for booze aplenty and pretty people. And preferably not some cheeseball hotel bash hosted by middle-aged radio jocks that advertises itself as “the party of the year.” Not that we ever succumbed to that in high school or anything. Ahem. Chichi lounge krem (1750 N Clark St, 312-932-1750) hosts festivities for $125 that include high-end cocktails (Belvedere vodka and Veuve Clicquot) and hors d’oeuvres. Also up north, Lakeview’s Bottle Bar (950 W Wolfram St, 773-665-5660), which offers 99 different kinds of bottled brew, is having a “beer lovers” NYE bash and serving “only Gold Medal winners from the World Beer Cup” (everything from Chimay to Olde English). But never fear, beer haters: Bottle also will have an open bar with premium vodkas and rum. Both of these bashes will include all the elements—swank decor, great music, flowing liquor—to get the talky, sexy vibe going.

If these places sound too high-end for your down-homey tastes, and you’re wondering where the regular, jeans-wearing folks go for a drunken and raucous New Year’s bash, one answer (okay, maybe not the right answer) is the fete at Hogs and Honeys (1551 N Sheffield Ave, 312-377-1733). It might not be the classiest party in town, but it’s $50 per person and its motto—“Be yourself so you don’t have to go home by yourself”—seems apropos for your goal to hook up tonight. That ticket includes a buffet, an open bar, a Champagne toast and yes, darlings, bull rides. Hey, we didn’t say getting some one-night-stand action included maintaining your dignity.

Morning after
On the first morning of 2008, you’ll want to get both grub for your belly and candy for your eyes. HotChocolate (1747 N Damen Ave, 773-489-1747) delivers both. With its seasonally inspired fare like a scramble with in-season veggies and cinnamon-sugar eggs, combined with the cute, friendly singles who often sit at the bar, it’s hard to go wrong. Or try Orange (3231 N Clark St, 773-549-4400), which specializes in classic American egg dishes and fresh-squeezed juices. It also specializes in long waits, which can bring up natural topics for flirting (the ridiculous wait, the menu). If you got lucky and found a boy- or girl-toy on NYE, you can always eat in. Plan ahead by hitting Sweet Thang (1921 W North Ave, 773-772-4166) the day before. This bakery has some of the best, flakiest croissants around; we love the chocolate, almond, turkey and Swiss, and spinach varieties.—Gretchen Kalwinski

Hater option
If you’re bored by the party or dinner thing, the hater choices for newly single folks on the Eve basically boil down to one of two paths: (1) The black book: Meet up with an ex-love you had great chemistry with (not the one you just split with, fer crissakes) at your friendly neighborhood dive bar like Logan Square’s Whirlaway (3224 W Fullerton Ave, 773-276-6809), and celebrate with the regulars, complete with noisemakers and cheap Champagne in plastic glasses. Then, bring the ex home, while knowing full well that nothing will come of this except hot, one-night lovin’. (2) Wallowing: Stay at home and steep in melancholy whilst enjoying your vices, whether of the booze, cigarette or cupcake variety. Watch films about romance gone bad (Casablanca, Annie Hall, A Heart in Winter, The Apartment, Vertigo, Match Point) while booing and hissing. Let 11:59 become midnight with no ceremony whatsoever; maybe even go to bed before 12 to give the middle finger to 2007. That’ll teach ’em.—GK

Eco-Maniac, Features article; Time Out Chicago

Time Out Chicago / Issue 129: August 16–22, 2007

Apartments Issue
Eco maniac
Use plants, water filters, organic sheets and other earth-friendly goods to give your entire apartment a green sweep.

By Gretchen Kalwinski

Kitchen
Refined recycling Rubbermaid is fine, but plastic ain’t good for landfills—plus, it’s not all that attractive. For separating paper and (non-funky) plastic recyclables, try Nice Home’s metal bins (pictured, above) in colors like baby blue bright or orange. $19.99–$29.99 at Target (locations throughout the city, target.com).


Bag it Our Old World grandmothers reused plastic baggies. We should, too. After washing, hang ’em on a nifty Countertop Bag Dryer, a multipronged wood contraption shaped like an upside-down cone. $19 at gaiam.com.

Hit the bottle Bottled water wastes plastic and oftentimes is just repackaged tap water anyway (ahem, Aquafina). By installing a filter that attaches to your faucet and toting a reusable bottle, you save plastic and cashola. Brita filters are easy to install; just screw the attachment onto your faucet and change filters when the little warning light flashes. $19.97–$39.97 at Home Depot (locations throughout the city, homedepot.com).

Got any herb? Grow cooking herbs (mint, basil, parsley) in your kitchen window—you won’t waste plastic packaging and won’t have to buy tiny bunches of herbs at jacked-up prices. Gethsemane Gardens has a range of herbs and cute pots to transplant them into once you’re home. $3.99–$8.99 at Gethsemane Gardens (5739 N Clark St, 773-878-5915).

Photo: Sarah McKemie

Bathroom
In hot water Take shorter showers or get a luxury low-flow shower head, which can save about 4,000 gallons of water per year. $59.99–$89.99 at Bed, Bath & Beyond (locations throughout the city, bedbathandbeyond.com).

Shower power Buy a hemp shower curtain. Sure, the light tan color is a little drab and it’s pricier than PVC (vinyl) ones, but you don’t need a liner, hemp is naturally resistant to mildew and bacteria, and the EPA reported in 2002 that PVC shower curtains “can cause elevated indoor-air toxic concentrations.” $99 at Bean Products (1500 S Western Ave, 312-666-3600, beanproducts.com).

Skin deep Since conventional body products often contain cheap, synthetic and potentially toxic ingredients, using organic products is a no-brainer. Treehugger.com recommends making sure that you buy only products that have the USDA Organic seal, which means the product is truly free from synthetics and supports organic farming and agriculture. Dr. Bronner’s and Aubrey Organics never test on animals and led the fight for the USDA seal. We recommend Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castille Peppermint Soap (pictured, right) and Aubrey Organics Camomile Luxurious Volumizing Conditioner. $12.49 and $13.78, respectively, at Whole Foods (locations throughout the city, wholefoods.com).

Bedroom
Sound asleep Drown out serious noise pollution from the El and nightime sirens with the soothing trickle of a waterfall fountain lulling you to sleep. No need to rely on white-noise machines—the Art Institute gift shop has a gorgeous fountain made of slate. $115 at the Art Institute gift shop (111 S Michigan Ave, artinstituteshop.org).

Sheet sandwich Use chemical-free organic cotton sheets to avoid skin irritation and aggravated allergies. The Haven “Hotel Collection” at Macy’s is available in a variety of soothing neutrals and has a 400 thread count. $49.99–$59.99 on sale at Macy’s (two locations in the city, macys.com).

See the light Choose soy candles instead of paraffin ones, which produce carcinogens and soot. Tatine’s soy varieties, like creeping moss and ginger grapefruit, smell fabulous. $15–$24 at tatinecandles.com (online shop opens mid-August).

Photo: Martha Williams

All rooms
Air fresheners Not only do these plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, they also help to clean the not-so-fresh air that drifts into apartments near highways or busy streets. Garden centers and nurseries throughout the city always have a supply of the best air-filtering plants: English ivy, spider plants (pictured, above), peace lilies and rubber plants. $4.99–$32.99 at Grand Street Gardens (2200 W Grand Ave, 312-829-8200, grandstreetgardens.com).



Clear the air If you’re not into houseplants, buy an indoor air purifier instead. Sharper Image has a wide variety of nonhideous ones. $149.95–$499.95 at Sharper Image (835 N Michigan Ave, 312-335-1600).

Pull the plug Your TV and stereo, as well as cell-phone and camera chargers, gobble energy even when not in use. For simplicity’s sake, plug your electronics into a surge protector, and just flip the switch when you head out for the day.
$9.99–$39.99 at Best Buy (locations throughout the city, bestbuy.com).

Slash your paper trail You can get off any company’s catalog mailing list by calling its 800 number. To opt out of prescreened offers for credit or insurance, visit optoutprescreen.com.

Time Out Chicago; Features article; Gambling tips

Time Out Chicago / Issue 128: August 9–15, 2007

The Gambling Issue
Easy money
Don’t go all in without studying these sure-fire hints.
By TOC staff
Despite many of our less-than-stellar efforts in the casinos, we managed to pick up a few tips on the most popular games from some experts, gaming industry workers and a few amateur players who’ve lost a lot of money, but picked up some tricks along the way.

By: Gretchen Kalwinski
Roulette
Keep it simple
A guy who is "a gambling expert, if 'expert' means someone who's lost a shitload of money gambling" reports that, “Roulette has 800 ways to bet, so the best thing you can do is bet on red or black, since you’ll win half the time. But the payout’s lousy.”

Play the odds
An executive at a gambling-machine company says to, “Try to find a single-zero roulette table—called European roulette. The ‘house’ edge or advantage is almost half of a double-zero table.”

Slots
Give yourself some credit
“Don’t leave a machine with credits in it,” says that same executive. “I’ve walked hundreds of casino floors throughout the world and I am constantly amazed at the number of machines I’ve found with credits remaining.”

Butt in
A library worker and blackjack ace lets us in on a slots secret; “My partner’s stepmom, a.k.a. the Lurker, is an astonishingly successful slots player. She says machines with ashtrays full of mashed-up cigarette butts are ready to pay out, since ‘someone was getting really frustrated pouring money into it.’ ”

Tip for a tip-off
“I’ve heard some machines are programmed to win," our former Lake Tahoe casino worker source divulges, "So, tip the person working in slots and ask them to suggest machines. The casinos won’t put those machines in really obvious spots, so avoid the really huge machines.”

Just say no
A law student and semi-professional gambler snarks, “Don’t play slots because people will see you, and you’ll look like an idiot for playing the slots.”

–Gretchen Kalwinski

Venus Zine; Spring 2007, Mother's Day

Yo mama, you rock!

Venus Zine gives a Mother’s Day shout-out

By Venus Zine Staff
Published: May 12th, 2007 | 6:49pm

TO: LINDA KALWINSKI
FROM: GRETCHEN KALWINSKI, VENUS ZINE WRITER
Lately, I've been thinking about how über-DIY my mom is. I have fond memories of my hippie-parents building their own garage and cutting labels off clothing to protest advertising. But my mom's Lately, I've been thinking about how über-DIY my mom is. I have fond memories of my hippie-parents building their own garage and cutting labels off clothing to protest advertising. But my mom's Do-It-Yourself attitude wasn't just ’60s counterculture-nonconformity, it was necessity. She came from scrappy immigrants who re-used every plastic baggie, every piece of aluminum foil. Then her father died when she was 16, and DIY took on a whole new meaning for her family — making their own clothing, canning vegetables and fruit actually helped the 6 of them survive. During my childhood, she managed to work full-time while also making clothing and costumes for us kids, designing her own "Snugli" before they were popular, cooking from scratch, baking elaborate birthday cakes in the shapes of trains and animals, and still attending every game, every dance performance. Even now, when it's no longer financially necessary, she re-uses materials, gardens, and makes clothing herself. I believe that every creative urge, every cooking, yoga, or gardening impulse that my siblings and I have, we owe to the DIY street-cred instilled by my amazing mother when we were kids.

Venus Zine; Vodcast; Renegade Craft Fair

Venus Zine
Video Podcast from Renegade Craft Fair
Evidently, I lisp.

Stop Smiling; Article: Jean Shepherd

Stop Smiling Magazine
Issue #27 / September 2006

In Shep We Trust: Jean Shepherd Remembered
By: Gretchen Kalwinski

“We spend most of our lives trying to outlive our pasts,” Jean Shepherd claimed in a radio broadcast about encountering raw clams, an unheard-of food in the meatloaf-Indiana of his youth. “And we never do quite expunge the past.” Known as “Shep”, Jean Shepherd (1921-1999), was a raconteur, writer, and actor, but his true legacy was his genius for weaving everyday events into goosebump-inducing radio narratives. He created a magnificent intimacy with his listeners in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Radio producer Harry Shearer notes; “He told supercilious East Coasters stories about the Midwest, not the romanticized Midwest of small-town life, but a Midwest that we didn’t know existed—the Midwest of steel mills, of tornados.” Broadcaster Joe Frank, a former insomniac, claims that Shepherd “had such a positive, life-affirming humanity that it gave me a genuine sense of comfort…. that made it possible to fall asleep.”

Shepherd grew up in Hammond, Indiana, a mill town bordering Chicago’s South Side, gaining mainstream fame for the film “A Christmas Story,” based on his short story collection, In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. In 1955, he moved to New York where he began his radio show, but Shepherd’s voice retained his origins, and his crooning; (“After you’re gone, dere ain’t no denyin,’) contained the unmistakably nasal undertones of South Side Chicago and Calumet Region. He read poetry and organized listener pranks, often while kazoo-playing, with show topics ranging from his scorn of advertising, love of pickles, or the White Sox. But his best-known are those about kid-dom in the rustbelt Midwest. One show compares a steel mill to Dante’s sixth circle of hell; “I’m gonna tell you people about how different life is outside of the PJ Clarke and martini-drinker orbit. I worked on the bull gang in a steel mill… in a town that hangs like a rusty barnacle from the South Side of Chicago.” In Excelsior You Fathead!: The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd, Eugene Berman notes that Shepherd "tickled the better parts of your mind" because he knew just when to pick up speed or change course. This skill is the ability to make a dollar out of fifteen cents, and Shepherd had it in spades. His improvisational mastery led to friendships with Jack Kerouac and Charles Mingus; he collaborated with Mingus on his 1957 album, The Clown.

Often blurring fact and fiction, Shepherd often lied about or withheld actual biographical information; repeatedly denying the existence of his two children, who he abandoned along with his first wife. Shepherd gleefully disdained “suits” and enjoyed playing the disenfranchised gadfly. He sometimes lapsed into ranting and buffoonery, calling women chicks and portraying the gender as daffy biddies, and it’s assumed that the warmth in his storytelling probably wasn’t present in his personal life. In Hammond, Shepherd’s name inspires mixed emotions. The town has a community center in his name, and many revere him as “Hammond’s Most Famous Resident.” Others revile him for characterizing them as provincial, working-class stiffs; “If Chicago is the city of broad shoulders, then Northwest Indiana is its broad rear end.” But the region was his bread and butter, and in the rest of the world, he’s only marginally known. In 1999, Shepherd died alone in Florida with his past so emphatically shed that his obituary read: “no survivors.”

If you squint, a nighttime drive through Hammond is a Venice of glistening marshes and rivers. Cheap hotels flash neon, and lumbering freight trains blow whistles, while smokestacks on Lake Michigan pump smoke and blue-orange flames around the neighborhoods. Despite himself, Shepherd couldn’t shake these childhood impressions, and spent his life using his voice to drift into people’s nighttime consciousness. Being immortalized by his similarity to the Calumet Region would be bittersweet to Shepherd, but the words he broadcast through the night air voiced a desolation and ugliness so intense that it became beautiful, and he managed to transcend the smokestacks, hovering in listener’s minds like a pervasive cloud. --GK

Chicago Reader; Cover article; Exotic Feline Rescue Center

Chicago Reader / May 2006 / Road Trips Issue

(Chicago Reader photos can be found at the link below; these were taken by Lara Kalwinski).



His Wild Kingdom
Joe Taft's 200 big cats get to live out their lives in peace. He gets to live a lifelong dream.

By: Gretchen Kalwinski

JOE TAFT WANTS his bedroom back. For four months it’s been inhabited by a baby tiger named Max, while Taft, who’s 60, crashes on the couch. “I can’t get him out of my house until I move these other cats into the new pens being built,” he says. “Then I can finally have a bedroom. The walls are pretty raggedy in there.” He means claw marks, like the ones in his kitchen and living room. Taft walks into the bedroom and pushes open the sliding door to the pen where Max is. The tiger immediately dives for his ankle. “Now don’t bite your dad,” he says. Max then tries to get his paws around Taft’s head.

Taft is director of the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point, Indiana, which provides homes for big cats—lions, tigers, panthers, pumas—that have nowhere else to live out their lives. The cats come from across the country, primarily from government agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Department of Natural Resources, which take the animals from owners who’ve neglected or abused them— sometimes circus people, mostly private individuals. Taft can’t take all the cats he gets calls about. “There are a number that we don’t take that are put to sleep,” he says. “Several cats that we didn’t take remained where they were and got in trouble—bit people or escaped. Some of them were placed in other centers.” Taft usually won’t take a cat he doesn’t have room for, but Max was a special case—the DNR rescued him when he was just seven weeks old.

The EFRC has been operating since 1991, when Taft moved to Center Point with two tigers and a leopard. It’s now home to 200 cats on 110 acres. Taft doesn’t advertise, but word of mouth brings him around 7,000 visitors a year, most of them kids on school trips. There aren’t many other reasons to visit Center Point, a sleepy place 240 miles southeast of Chicago that’s like a ghost town—the main drag has a boarded-up general store and antique shop, a diner with no patrons. But that’s exactly what Taft wanted. When he was scouting properties he told the real estate agent, “I’m looking for a place with no neighbors.” With good reason. Taft put the butchering area right at the entrance to make it easy for farmers to drop off sick or dead livestock, so the first thing a visitor often sees is a blood-spattered employee hacking up a cow with a chain saw. And the area reeks of urine, feces, and rotting meat, though the rest of the center just smells like an ordinary zoo. At one point while Taft’s giving a tour of the center he walks up to a ten-foot pile of mostly eaten carcasses on pallets. “One of the most unending jobs we have around here is waste control,” he says, squirting charcoal lighter fluid on the heap. He lights one match after another and tosses them on the pile, and finally flames shoot up. A barbecue smell fills the air.

The center’s head butcher and assistant director, Suzanne Taylor, takes the admission fee from visitors, then warns people not to get too close to the fences or put their hands through the mesh. “If a cat appears distressed by your presence walk away quickly,” she says. “If it turns its back end toward you it’s going to spray—and that’s when you should run.” But people keep coming because the EFRC provides a more intimate experience than a zoo. Around 130 cats are on display in the main visitors’ area, and 30 more are down the road in overflow pens in the yard behind Taft’s house, which also contains the EFRC’s offices. People who want to watch the cats at night can pay $120 to sleep in his extra bedroom, from which they have a great view of three of the tigers in the lighted backyard. Another 35 cats are in a restricted area an eighth of a mile away because they’re aggressive. “This tiger killed his trainer,” Taft says, as he walks past its pen. “Those two tigers sticking their heads around the bend are extremely aggressive. We don’t let anybody near them.” The chain-link fences separating people from cats are 12 feet high and topped with barbed wire. Visitors walk through the narrow pathways of the main visiting area unsupervised by staff. Near feeding time tigers sometimes stalk them, licking their chops. Taft says that the enclosures are more than sufficient to keep the cats on their side and that because the animals are well fed they’re not dangerous.

Taft’s affinity for big cats goes back to childhood. Raised in Colorado, he loved the Denver Zoo and remembers when it first opened outdoor enclosures for its cats. During his undergraduate studies in philosophy at Indiana State University one of his professors talked about having once kept a lion as a pet, and shortly afterward Taft stopped at a pet store near his apartment. “I asked them about keeping big cats, and they said, ‘Oh, sure, that’s something that people can do.’” He says he started fantasizing about “driving around with a wellbehaved cheetah in a Lotus.” He bought his first cat, an ocelot he named Ozzie, from the pet store. Soon he dropped out of college and moved to Chimayo, New Mexico, where he could let Ozzie run unleashed in the national forest—something he says he’d never do now. “My education began with Ozzie—living with her was a tremendous learning experience,” he says. “I also read a lot of books on animal behavior, on keeping pet ocelots, about people who’d spent time with the circus, and books like the ‘Born Free’ group, which was a series of books and then movies by Joy Adamson, whose husband was a game warden in Africa. They raised three orphan lion cubs who pretty much ran loose. I also went to places where they kept cats and saw how other people did it. I went to zoos—I’ve always been a big zoo fan. I went to Texas, where there are a lot of private owners and facilities, a few of which were nice and many that were horrifying. I’ve also visited facilities in the Las Vegas area, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Indiana.”

After Ozzie died Taft got a leopard, Taaka, from a private owner in California who’d kept her in the parking lot next to her mobile home. Taaka had the “run of the house most of the time” during the two decades she lived with Taft. “I probably spent the first two years thinking that I’d made a terrible mistake and being halfway afraid to be home,” he says. But that changed. “She’d sleep on my bed in the winter.” Taft stayed in Chimayo for 20 years, running a construction company and working as an excavation contractor. But he knew he wanted to open a rescue center. “All I ever wanted to do is share my life with cats,” he says. He wanted a place where he could give the animals a lot of room to move around, and he knew he could do that in Indiana. He also knew he’d have access to plenty of livestock there. Taaka and two tigers in tow, he drove back to the midwest. Today the EFRC has 11 fulltime and 2 part-time staffers and a $375,000 yearly operating budget. Last year visitors’ fees brought in approximately $135,000; additional money came from fund-raisers like the Run Through the Jungle 5K Walk/Run as well as memberships, sponsorships, grants, and the sale of T-shirts, hats, and magnets with cat images on the Web site. Vet care costs $15,000 per year—there’s a clinic in the office basement for the vet, who lives nearby. The center’s cat food may be essentially free, a gift from the local farmers, but Taft says processing it costs approximately $35,000 a year, since one staffer “does nothing but go around and pick up dead livestock.”

The cats go through 3,000 pounds of meat per day. “If we weren’t able to process our own livestock,” he says, “if we had to do some kind of commercial carnivore diet, we wouldn’t be able to do this.” Taft’s construction skills come in handy at the center. “A large part of [keeping cats] is being able to build,” he says. His formal education hasn’t proved particularly useful, but he prefers hiring people with relevant degrees. “If they’ve stuck it out for four years in school, then they’ll probably stick it out for a while on a job,” he says. “The college grads we’ve had are better at record keeping, noticing aberrant behaviors, noting the onset of illness and disease. And they make more astute observations about mating cycles and all the attendant aggression—and certainly make for better tour guides.”

Rebecca Rizzo, a 24-year-old staffer wearing glitter eye shadow and blood-and-feces stained cargo pants, studied zoology. “I always loved animals, wanted to work with big cats,” she says, “so I put two and two together and found this place.” The work is primarily feeding and cleaning. “It’s just loading carts and pens and remembering who eats what, cleaning the cages. Sometimes I butcher up deer and calves.” Nine of the 11 staffers are women. “We’ve had guys interview but the pay is just not there, and to guys that is usually a big issue,” Rizzo says. “Some of them also had trouble working under women. And I think the cats are just used to women.”

Taft and his staff spend as much time as they can educating people about the plight of the cats. He occasionally gives lectures, and Jean Herrberg does presentations at schools. The center also publishes a seasonal “Cat Tales” enewsletter and offers guided field trips, a volunteer program, and credit and noncredit internships. Many of the volunteers and interns are from Indiana University, staff and students who drive the 35 miles from Bloomington to build cages, clean pens, and sometimes prepare meat for the cats. Taft has no interest in having anyone train the cats. “We don’t try to teach our cats to do anything,” he says proudly.

ALL EXOTIC-CAT rescue centers are supposed to be licensed by the USDA. The EFRC is, and the agency periodically inspects it. DNR officials have also checked it out. “The animals all appeared to be well cared for,” says the department’s Linnea Peterchaff, who went to see how Max was doing this past winter. “Their cages provide a lot of space in a natural habitat, with plenty of room for the cats to walk around and jump on platforms. Some even have ponds in which the cats can swim and play. The cages and perimeter fence were all secure.” She calls the staff “very knowledgeable.” In 15 years there’s been only one accident at the center, and Taft says it was because safety procedures weren’t followed. The pens have two sets of paired guillotine-style slide gates that allow workers to open the outer one and set down food, then close the outer one and raise the inner one so the cat can get it. They also use the gates to corral the cats while they clean the pens. “This kid had worked for a while and was cleaning a cage, and instead of paying attention to what he was doing, he got distracted,” Taft says. “He started looking at this beautiful girl who’d walked up—he pulled on the cable to open the slide gate and was standing there looking at her with the door open. The tiger came up to him, grabbed his shoulder, dragged him to the feeding pile, and bit him in the butt.” Taft was nearby, and when he heard the girl scream he ran toward the cage yelling. He says as soon as the tiger heard him it let go of the guy. “I picked up the shovel and a bucket that we used for picking up poop, because having those things in your hand does a lot in terms of managing them and making them move around. Not that I ever hit them with the shovel or anything, but having something in your hand always impresses them. You’ll see that sometimes circus trainers have just a little stick in their hand, and cats respond to it. So I went in, and the tiger backed off from me, and I pulled him out.” After getting cleaned up at the hospital, the guy went back to work. Taft says he’s never been seriously injured in 41 years of dealing with wild cats. “I’ve only gotten cuts and scrapes. Had a good chunk of hand sliced off by a lion’s claw once. It hurt like hell but wasn’t life threatening.”

Just because a rescue center is licensed doesn’t mean it’s well run. Taft has two leopards that came from a man who ran a center near LA. “When state and wildlife officials went to his home—which was not where he was supposed to have cats—they found almost a hundred dead lions and tigers and other cats in really bad shape,” Taft says. “A lot of them were babies. With babies you can make money by letting people take pictures with them or by selling them, but once they’re grown you have to feed and house them, and they become a liability.” According to a New York Times story, the man was sentenced to two years in prison. The guy who owned Max had a USDA license to breed and sell his animals, but after the DNR raided his property last fall they seized most of his 24 tigers and other exotic animals. According to an Associated Press story, the head of the DNR called the conditions there “horrific.”

Taft, who frequently accompanies DNR, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and USDA officials on rescue missions, thinks the main reason cats wind up being mistreated is that people have unrealistic expectations about what owning them entails. “People that get these animals don’t realize how big they are,” he says, “how aggressive they are, and don’t realize the kind of care or food it takes to feed them.” Despite the abuse he’s seen, Taft believes some people can handle them as pets. “I know people who do a really good job with these cats,” he says. “It is very important that people be able to develop relationships with animals, and if people aren’t able to build relationships with animals, then there’s a lot of things about them and about us that we’ll never know.” He goes on, “I think there are direct and strong parallels between the way animals behave and the way people behave—and I’m not trying to be anthropomorphic here. I mean, we all deal with aggression and flight and hunting one way or another— providing our sustenance, dealing with social interaction. And animals do all of this just like we do. So I think a relationship with animals with that in mind opens us up to learning things about ourselves, and that understanding in turn helps us understand animals in a better light.”

TAFT ISN'T MARRIED and has no children. “At least none that are bipeds,” he says. As he’s walking through the pens he sees three male lions scuffling and chastises them: “Now daddy told you to stop that!” One of the lions comes up to the fence and roars in his face. “Tucker, do not growl at me!” Taft says, looking offended. “Do! Not! Growl!” A moment later Tucker begins nuzzling Taft’s leg through the fence, suddenly an amorous house cat. Taft walks past a leopard. “Hi, Kayla,” he murmurs. Kayla hisses, baring teeth. “It’s OK, sweetie,” he says, chuckling. Taft is usually the only staffer who goes into a pen with a cat. “We make sure that there are two people there, and one is outside the cage to call for help or close doors,” he says. “You certainly have to always have that awareness that it is a wild animal, that they do have this potential for aggression, that they are bigger than you are, and that if they’re becoming aggressive you’re not going to hold up to them or be more aggressive than them. Some people will tell me, ‘Yeah, I’ll just go in there and back it down.’ But these are animals that take down multi-thousand-pound prey, like 2,000-pound water buffaloes. They’re certainly not going to back down to a 200-pound man.” The only other precaution Taft takes is to be armed with his bucket and shovel and “my awareness.” Asked what makes him different from exotic-animal lovers like Timothy Treadwell, the subject of the documentary Grizzly Man, he says, “Well, if Max would decide to eat me he could eat me—and I’d make sure that he’d still be locked in the cage. It’s the exposure of other people to risk and the exposure of the animal to an escape potential. To be in the audience where some idiot walks an unleashed tiger through a bunch of people, that’s nuts. I’m not getting on the same side of a fence with a strange tiger, nor would I let anyone get that close to one of my tigers.” Yet he confesses that there are “a handful of cats that I go in the cage with just because we’re friends and I want to spend time with them.” They include Kiki, a spotted leopard. “She was one of the three cats that was with me when I first started this place,” he says. “When I come to her cage she will stand up on her hind legs and hug me. You know, that’s pretty special.”

Chicago Reader; review, Festival of the Lakes

Chicago Reader
May 2006

FESTIVAL OF THE LAKES

In its 1980s heyday northwest Indiana’s AugustFest brought the Guess Who, the Marshall Tucker Band, and Koko Taylor to industrial Hammond, but in later years it started to draw a seedy crowd. By the time the city canned it in 2000, it was known locally as “CritterFest.” Its replacement, the three-year-old, family-friendly Festival of the Lakes, focuses on the area’s water—lakes Michigan, Wolf, and George. And since the city has been working on turning brownfield sites into green space, the festival highlights those improvements with outdoorsy events. Wolf Lake has carnival rides and a pontoon outing alongside its music stage (Cheap Trick, the Temptations), and the Hammond Marina showcases a Lake Michigan bird sanctuary and hosts a floating polka party. George Lake has the most weirdly intriguing attraction: the new $40 million Lost Marsh Golf Course. Formerly a slag heap, Lost Marsh is now full of rolling hills and cleaned-up water hazards, though it’s still flanked by smokestacks and oil tanks. Is there anything more American than standing in a fairway that used to be a toxic hill, hot dog and lemonade in hand, watching geese fly beneath a hovering cloud of pollution? Wed-Sun 7/19-7/23, Hammond, Indiana, 219-853-6378 or thefestivalofthelakes.com. —Gretchen Kalwinski

Northwest Indiana Times; Colds vs. Allergies

Nose plugged up and coughing?
BY GRETCHEN KALWINSKI
Times Correspondent | Monday, March 20, 2006

Ah, spring. With warmer temperatures approaching, most of us are thinking happily of spending more time outdoors amidst the trees and flowers.

For others, however, the season also beckons massive amounts of sniffling, sneezing and general misery in the form of seasonal allergic rhinitis or hay fever that may be mistaken for a cold...[click here for rest of article]...

Venus Zine; DIY article, Guerilla Drive-Ins

Venus Zine
Spring 2006

Guerilla drive-ins These groups are reviving the lost pleasures of the drive-in movie

By: Gretchen Kalwinski

When was the last time you watched a movie with a bunch of strangers under the stars? Drive-in movies have been phasing out since their heyday in the ’60s and ’70s. They were popular because of the inherent romance in watching a film under the stars, snuggled up with siblings, friends, or paramours under blankets. Contemporary technology allows an extremely high-quality home entertainment experience, but it has come at the cost of estrangement from fellow movie-goers. So some radical folks began their own “guerilla” drive-in movie collectives as a DIY way to enjoy the intimacy and communal nature of drive-ins, with the added bonus of being able to show whatever films they damn well pleased, usually free of charge!

One of the most organized groups is the Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In in Santa Cruz, California (guerilladrivein.org). In 2004, they started showing films such as “The Third Man” and “The Gleaners and I” on vacant walls of abandoned buildings for friends and strangers to enjoy. The Santa Cruz drive-in doesn’t actually involve cars, however — movie-watchers bring lawn chairs and blankets to the given location, where they view the film via a projector and high-powered speakers.

The nation-wide MobMov collectives — short for Mobile Movie — (mobmov.org) take the term “drive-in” a bit more literally. They use technology similar to that used in ye olden days, utilizing an FM transmitter to broadcast the movie’s sound into car radios, so that, as organizer Bryan Kennedy notes, “there is no sound pollution at all.” Because of this, says Kennedy, they are rarely bothered by law enforcement. He thinks that the MobMov idea (now active in 12 U.S. cities) has caught on because of “the sense of community you get when you come, the experience of sharing something unique with strangers.”

Most groups have guidelines for if and when they are approached by police or upset neighbors, since, as the Santa Cruz group notes, “good neighborly relations are an important element of DIY culture.” In Kennedy’s experience, a law enforcement confrontation “has never happened--if it did, I would just show them my papers, and if they asked that I stop the movie, I would.” The Santa Cruz group notes that the best defense to hassling from cops is to “know the laws restricting amplified sound and rules restricting access to public space after dark, and have people on hand who have experience with non-violent communication.”

Most collectives agree that the real issue at hand is one of public versus private space. The Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In notes on their website that; “Beyond showing great movies and bringing a broad community together, our mission is helping to reclaim public space and transforming our urban environment into the joyful playground it should be.”

Kennedy from MobMov echoes the sentiment, saying, “A drive-in is much more than just a movie projected on a wall like at your local cineplex. In a cineplex, you have this huge public space, yet interaction is frowned upon, so it is not appreciably different than watching the movie by yourself. In the drive-ins of old, some people would roam around and visit each other, while others would sit in the privacy of their car, unperturbed. With a drive-in, you can select the level of interaction you want. It’s a much more customizable experience.”

Plan Your Own Guerilla Drive-In

Location, location, location. The Santa Cruz group suggests that you scout out a dark location near a smooth, light surface, in areas that are either full of warehouses or under bridges to minimize the chance of interruption.

Zee technicalities.

Determine whether you’ll use speakers or a radio transmitter, and then scrounge for speakers, amplifier, and projectors. Additional technical information about projecting films can be found on the Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In and MobMov websites.

What ya gonna watch?

Make a list of films to choose from. Some groups have subversive or political themes, while others make a specialty of documentary or foreign films.

If you build it, they will come.

Let people know when and where the screening will take place. This can be done via a website, e-mail distribution list, or fliers on local bulletin boards.

Dealing with authorities.

The Santa Cruz group always has a few “cop tamers” on hand to serve as police liaisons. He explains, “A good cop tamer has experience with non-violent communication and a good understanding of applicable laws.”

Venus Zine; Interview: Ladyfest

Published on VenusZine.com, November 2005.


You've come a long way, lady
Ladyfests are gaining steam ‘round the globe

By: Gretchen Kalwinski

The first Ladyfest took place in 2000 in Olympia, Washington. In addition to bands like Sleater-Kinney and Cat Power performing, the weeklong event hosted bands like the Rondelles, Neko Case, and Mary Timony, and a dizzying array of varied spoken-word artists, authors, and visual artists, along with workshops and dance partiesOlympia festival, an astounding 80 Ladyfests around the world have been successfully planned, testifying to the need for this sort of event. Ladyfests should not be mistaken for a franchise, however, and the different Ladyfests are not related to one another, except in spirit. The varied places around the world that have hosted Ladyfests include Bloomington, Indiana; Chicago; San Francisco's Bay Area; Nantes, France; Glasgow, Scotland; Toronto; Los Angeles; Stockholm, Sweden; Melbourne, Australia; Seattle; Berlin; Napoli, Italy; and Vienna, Austria. In 2005, approximately 30 Ladyfests were scheduled to take place worldwide. Venus interviewed organizers and performers from this year’s festivals in Brisbane, Australia; Guelph and Ottawa, Canada; Denver; Lansing, Michigan; and Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Organizers
Ladyfest organizers as a whole are a determined lot with an idealistic focus and an overabundance of energy. They also are uniquely open-minded about their attendees and welcome all genders, unlike the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, for example, which restricts attendees to only biological females. Sarah Brown of Ladyfest Ottawa noted that their demographic was "definitely young women 18 to 30, but we had audience members of all ages and genders." Fellow Ottawa Ladyfest organizer Natasha Beaudin attributed their good turnout to dynamic and feminist-oriented programming, affirming that, “it was definitely a better turnout than one would get [from] a lecture on feminism, for example."

Ladyfest Guelph organizer Ashley Fortier was impressed with the event’s large attendance and the variety of ethnicities that were represented, especially given Guelph’s small population. “It was a very diverse crowd, especially at the hip-hop night," she said. Ladyfest Out West organizer Shannon Perez-Darby commented on the queer focus of their festival’s performances. "Over 75 percent of our performers were queer, lesbian, gay and/or trans identified," she said. The organizers of Ladyfest Guelph went a step further by specifically listing their event as"anti-oppressive, feminist, queer and trans-positive, DIY, and collective."

Local Focus, Broad Appeal
The 2005 Ladyfests had varied concentrations in their different locations. Some had a heavy hip-hop presence, while others were more film-centric or focused on performance art or workshops.At Ladyfest Ottawa, the closing party with the Gossip was the most popular event, and Alix Olsen was a "big hit" in Lansing, Michigan. The best-attended performance at Ladyfest South Africa was a band called Electro Muse, a string quartet that combines drum‘n'bass tracks to trip-hop.

Workshops also drew in enormous crowds. Sarah Brown of Ladyfest Ottawa mused that, "A panel discussion on privilege in activism was one of our best-attended events. Bookbinding also had high numbers." Nearby in Guelph, the workshop on urban gardening was hugely popular. Oftentimes, decisions about performers and events were made broadly and then localized, with organizers focused on bringing in as much local talent as possible. "We included similar broad themes like music, art, politics, film, etc., but then tried to re-appropriate it to the Brisbane context," said Ladyfest Brisbane organizer Nikola Errington.

Similarly, Ladyfest Ottawa included local talent such as Les Alumettes, Sarah Hallman, Daydream Square, and the Hussies. Ladyfest Out West brought in resident spoken-word artists Jeanette Henriquez, Angela Palermo, and Isis, in addition to well-known local activists Ashara Ekundayo and Kelly Shortandqueer MC and the Denver band Supply Boy.

The Talent
When asked about their Ladyfest experience, performers often got gushy. Susie Patten was double booked at Ladyfest Brisbane with her bands I Heart Hiroshima and the Mean Streaks, and she enjoyed playing to the crowd’s enthusiastic response. “My bands played first and second, so we thought that there'd be a pretty quiet vibe around, but everyone was really into [it]. The crowd response was fantastic. Maybe that was just because Kate Bush was played in between sets." Patten attended other Ladyfest events while on location and said that "apart from the rad music, the photography exhibition was probably the highlight — so much awesome talent."

Patten said the only changes she would make for future Ladyfest stints are that she’d like to play last. "And for Cat Power to support us, and maybe even for her to fall in love with me,” she said. “So realistic." Deb Cavallaro of the Golden Circles called the Brisbane Ladyfest an "intimate, beautiful, dynamic, honest, and inspiring gig. As far as sisterhood goes, there was a fair bit of that feeling going around that night and [it was] kinda great … when you look at the stage and see more than one woman out there."

Organizational Challenges
The momentum for these festivals seems to be only increasing as time goes by. In 2002, there were 13 Ladyfests; in 2004, the number had reached 26, and in 2005, close to 30 Ladyfests occurred around the globe. This steady growth is encouraging to those of us who aren't having our needs for this kind of event met in mainstream culture. However, there are definite challenges in planning these festivals. First, there is no one source of income or funding for Ladyfests, and one of the first things that organizers are obliged to figure out is how to raise funds through advertising, fundraising events, or auctions.

Ladyfest Ottawa raised funds via craft sales, bake sales, film nights, rock shows, garage sales, art parties, and bottle drives. Sarah Stollak and Latricia Horstman of Lansing, Michigan’s Ladyfest invested the money from their tax returns to fund their town's festival, in addition to applying for grants and selling ads to local businesses. Ladyfest South Africa secured Jose Cuervo as a sponsor and "used most of the funding to pay the marketing and printing" costs for their festival. There are definite challenges to organizing other than finances. Many organizers struggle with the admittedly valid critique that Ladyfest and events like it can work to marginalize women artists and performers. Being cast as an "alternative" culture can run the risk of alienation, an important point to consider when in the planning process. Others depict the female nonprofit organizing process akin to a series of infighting sessions, characterizing women's managerial styles as too emotional or complicated.

However, the typical response from a Ladyfest organizer is that although the planning completely consumed their life for the better part of a year, the payoff was enormously rewarding. Most organizers said that they'd do it again but would change small parts of the process. For instance, they suggested a different organizational structure, setting earlier application deadlines, and, as Nikola Errington of Ladyfest Brisbane said, "we would try and make EVERYTHING all-ages."

When asked if she'd program another Ladyfest, Sarah Brown said, "Hell yes. Organizing this festival is so rewarding. It deeply affects your life, and as an organizer you have the privilege of watching it affect others." Latricia Horstman muses that she set out on a mission to bring Ladyfest to Michigan in a way that changed her community’s mindset, all the while having fun and providing a fantastic opportunity for folks to get involved and learn. “The ultimate goal for everyone participating or attending: to have fun, learn something, and have some money at the end to give to a charity,” she said. “Every year we've done just that."

Good Deeds, Progressive Values
Ladyfest South announced on its Web site that it is a forum for "radical and progressive women everywhere" and goes above and beyond the call of duty by not only paying their performers, but raising a good deal of cash for local social-service projects that assist women, such as the DeKalb Rape Crisis Center and the Women's Center to End Domestic Violence.

Ladyfest Mexico will be held in Monterrey in February 2006, and the organizers are calling for submissions of women artists, including photographers, writers, actresses, filmmakers, musicians, and fashion designers. The festival will focus on subjects such as the situation of women in politics, society, and the economy, with a critical reflection of the role assigned to women in the work-field and family by societal and moral values.

The possibilities of Ladyfest seem endless. As long as there are women producing good work, there is a seemingly endless array of locations and venues for Ladyfests to showcase them. It is of note, though, that what most of the organizers, participants, and attendees are ultimately working for is a world where the kind of work, art, and music featured in Ladyfests around the world would automatically be showcased and valued by a larger and more diverse demographic of society. We've come a long way, ladies, but there is still a long way to go.

The Future of the Fest
Some upcoming Ladyfests in 2006 are in Atlanta and Monterrey, Mexico. For more information about past and future Ladyfests, visit http://www.ladyfest.org.
All photos courtesy of Nikola Errington of Ladyfest Brisbane 2005.

Top photo: Stitch N' Bitch event
Middle photo: Scout Niblett performing
Bottom photo: Women in Activism workshop