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Highlight and Special Happenings

Doctor of Humanities: 
Arlene Raven

On May 19, 1979 Arlene raven, art-historian and co-founder of the Woman's Building, was bestowed the degree of Doctor of Humanities by Hood COllege in Maryland. Raven was a 1965 graduate of Hood. In conferring the honor the college Board of Trustees announced:
"An art historian and an innovator in feminist education and theory, you have earned distinction in the world of contemporary American art and women's art. Your care and concern have led to the founding of a supportive and creative environment for women in the cultural world. As an author, artist, teacher and lecturer, you have been committed to making the world aware of the artistic nature in all of us."
Giving the Commencement Address, Raven used poetry to impart her message. Below is an excerpt of her Address:

...And to have a vision,/ You first need an eye./ Your resources. Your eyes which enable you to see./ And another I/ Your first person pronoun-/The I of your mind's eye,/ The picture you have of yourself./ And when you see/ with your eyes and your mind's eye/ clearly,/ Your vision can become you sense of sight./ And to have a vision,/ you need a mouth./ To open and speak./ To tell the truth./ To nourish, inspire and satisfy./ And for the sense of taste./ To have a vision,/ we need light./ We may illuminate,/ but everything is invisible in the dark./ And our fires are heat as well as light./ Visions need a place to be,/ a context of light to grow,/ a warm environment which nurtures dreams,/ Because isolation is darkness./ And without the spark of community,/ No individual can ignite/ and shine./ A sense of touching one another./ Our common sense./ Consisting of our own/ sense, sentiments and sense of ourselves/ together./ When you are touched/ by support and caring,/ ethics and commitment,/ your vision can be shared./ A vision in which we see/ eye to eye./ This is con sense us./ A political philosophy and an act of extraordinary faith./ To share a vision/ we need a form and a language./ A vision wants to express herself./ And that is the power of art and naming./ In bringing forth something from nothing,/ Our touch turns to life/ in our own images./ Children of our wombs,/ and art,/ our children of the imagination./ Materializing a vision,/ issuing forth a visible creation,/ does change the world-/ on the level of myth, through metaphor-/ A change in the mythic image of a person or people is a change/ in consciousness/ which can create the conditions/ for economic or political changes consistent with/ new myth./ And it is also a fact/ that the consciousness of everyone can be/ transformed/ by the alternate visions/ of a very small minority...
...I see a vision/ which is visible/ and can happen/ in this world./ A vision of this moment as the future./ Because, with our/ power-transforming powers,/ We can fly. together./ And it can happen/ right now."
(text by Arlene Raven)

[[image]] photo courtesy of Hood College Public Relations Office
Art historian Arlene Raven receiving an honorary degree from Hood College.

Do you have a Second Sex, A Women's Room...?

The library at the Woman's Building Research Center is expanding and needs your help. In order to keep up with the wealth of written work coming out of the woman's movement, donations and gifts of books, periodicals, subscriptions to feminist journals and magazines, gift certificates to local bookstores, cash donations and used books are all crucial.
The focus of the Woman's Building today is our educational programs for which the library is essential. Currently we are working on grants to provide acquisition funding for the Research Center. These grants are dependent on matching funds, either in kind (your donations of books and periodicals) or direct cash donations.
So help us out. Look through your bookshelves and closets. We can use written material int he following areas: feminist political theory, woman's art, biographies, art books, woman's poetry and fiction. Donations will be accepted during regular Woman's Building hours, Mon.-Fri., 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Saturday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Reading is consciousness raising and essential for an active community.
- Jo Goodwin and Adrienne Weiss

Announcements
First Fridays, a monthly drop-in rap group for Jewish feminists, meets at Womonspace the first Friday evening of each moth at 7:30 p.m. All Jewish women are welcome to join us August 3, September 7, October 5, November 2, etc.
The drop-in group offers Jewish women the opportunity to discuss topics of concern: our backgrounds, history, emotions, politics, our relationship to Judaism as feminists, and to feminism as Jews. Sponsored by Jewish Lesbian Feminists. Womonspace is in Santa Monica at 237 Hill Street (phone 399-9813). For further information, leave message for Simone Wallace at 473-9090.

Woman Woman Works is the new project of the Woman's Building, Inc., originated by Arlene Raven. Woman*Woman*Works focuses on woman-identification, women's relationships, and women's community through art, community organizing and the exploration of a woman-identified sensibility. A major exhibition will take place in May at the Woman's Building. For information send inquiries to: P.O. Box 54335, L.A., CA 90054.

The Woman's Building Community Galleries is hosting a curated exhibition about incest which will open October 20, 1979. Artwork, performances, documentation and writing based on women's experience with incest is being solicited. Slides and proposals accompanied with a self-addressed, stamped envelope should be mailed no later than August 15 to Paula Lumbard, c/o Woman's Building, 1727 N. Spring, L.A. CA 90012.

18 August 1979 there will be a Woman's Building membership meeting from 1 to 3 p.m. Featured will be the speaker Dee Moulton, from the women's contingent of the Alliance for Survival. The Alliance is an anti-nuke group based on the West Coast. Also shown will be the Earth Works videotape documenting Helen Caldicott, spokesperson on the nuclear threat. Members - we want you!

The Miracle Women...WOW - Women on Welfare, WERLDF, HEAT, and the Department of Social Services will host an afternoon of poetry and music by women on welfare. Wanda Coleman will be the featured poet. City council representatives will be present to honor community women on welfare who work for welfare advocacy and rights. Childcare will be provided. There will be a donation of $2.00 requested, but no one will be turned away. The donations will go into a fund to sponsor cultural programs for women on welfare at the Woman's Building. For more details about The Miracle Women, call: 221-6161.