WHAT IS SOUTHERN GIRLS CONVENTION?

The Southern Girls Convention is an annual grassroots meeting of social justice activists devoted to empowering women and girls in the South, and discussing Southern culture, views and stereotypes of the South, and the struggle for social justice. Each year's convention is hosted by a different Southern community and facilitated by local organizers. Past conventions were held in Memphis, Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky, and Auburn, Alabama. Last year's convention in Auburn drew over 500 participants from all over the South and beyond.

This year's SGC invites activists from across the country to meet in ATHENS, GEORGIA on the weekend of July 19-21. Hundreds of activists will meet for a weekend of discussion, action, and entertainment devoted to building pro-woman community in the South.

WHAT CAN I DO THERE?

Southern Girls Convention is based around discussions, workshops, and presentations which give participants the opportunity to share skills, share ideas, discuss important issues, organize campaigns, and have fun as a community. All workshops are organized and facilitated by the participants themselves. Other events will include an "un-shop" swap meet, Southern women's art show, nightly music shows, tables for participants and organizations to display information, zines, art, and things they have made. SGC also allows hundreds of activists from across the country to meet, network, strategize, and organize in their efforts on behalf of social justice. Feel free to bring video projects, zines, writing, and anything you are interested in sharing to the convention.

Past workshops have included:

• Group discussions on fatphobia, abortion rights and access, radical parenting, "100 Years of Revolutionary Wimmin," the criminalization of women, "Queer and Trans Youth in the South," gender bias in schools, sexism in the activist community, "Marginalization and Tokenization within the Grrrl Movement," peer education for men and ending violence against women, and "Radical, Southern, and All Fired Up--Where Do We Go From Here?"

• Skill-sharing on radical cheerleading, community access television, gun safety and self-defense, workplace union organizing, screen printing, sexercises, Internet organizing, and starting a consciousness-raising group.

• Organizing meetings for campaigns from Amnesty International, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and Planned Parenthood, and state-by-state caucuses for people to meet fellow organizers in their own area.

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