Stopping All Stations is a new spoken word eventto be held on the third Saturday of each month at the Station Street Cafe, 26 Station St, Nunawading. It will feature an eclectic mix of readers, presenting an edgy slant on the written word.
Jordie Albiston, multi-award winning poet and author of Nervous Arcs, will be the featured performer for the inaugural event on March 20.
Saturday 20 March 2010 2pm-5pm 26 Station Street, Nunawading $5 entry, lucky door prizes.
On Sunday 7 March, Spinifex authors Ariel Salleh and Lizz Murphy will be part of the Belconnen Arts Centre event Women, Words and Water, an all-day literary event features prominent female authors and performers from the ACT and interstate.
Ariel Salleh will begin the day with an opening address titled The Value of Tears. Ariel is the editor of Eco-Sufficiency & Global Justice: Women Writing Political Ecology(Spinifex Press, 2009).
Spinifex author Betty McLellan celebrated the launch of her book Unspeakable with Chantal Oxenham and Coralie McLean of Otherwise Publications at Mary Who bookshop on Townsville on 25 March 2010.
A new UK government report, entitled Sexualisation of Young People: Review has used Getting Real as a source text. The exectuive summary quotes from Betty McLellan's chapter, 'Sexualised and Trivialised': "How have sex, sexiness and sexualisation gained such favour in recent years as to be the measure by which women’s and girls’ worth is judged? While it is not a new phenomenon by any means, there is something different about the way it occurs today and how it impacts on younger and younger girls."
Diane Bell is appearing at Adelaide Writers' Week on Thurs 4 March, speaking on a panel entitled Fire & Water. At: Pioneer Women's Gardens, West Tent, 10.30am, free.
New Zealand's response to the sexualisation of girls
'Stepping up the fight against childhood s*xualisation', an article by Elizabeth Willmott Harrop, is now up on On Line Opinion. It talks about the New Zealand reaction to the increasing sexualisation of our children, and mentions Getting Real author Julie Gale's activism with Kids Free 2 B Kids:
If the Australian experience is anything to go by, what New Zealand needs is an individual to champion the issue. Dr Emma Rush, lead author of Corporate Paedophilia comments “Kids Free 2 B Kids founder Julie Gale is phenomenally effective. More than anything else, this is what the issue needed - a champion. Julie is a fantastic networker and has brought together a great range of people to act on the issue. She is also constantly talking about the issue to schools, at conferences and to the wider media.”
Spinifex got a guernsey for our ebook endeavours on ebook review site, eBookAnoid. The summary notes, 'If you are in any way interested in the work of women writers, or are simply looking for a different source of good books, I can recommend this publisher without reservation as being worth looking at.'
Melinda Tankard Reist was interviewed at Mia Freedman's blog, Mamamia. Melinda talks about her new organisation Collective Shout, designed to be a way in which women can join together to fight sexism in advertising and the media. You can read the full post here.
Melinda Tankard Reist has launched Collective Shout, an organisation to expose corporations and marketers who exploit women and sexualise children to sell their products. Since the launch of Getting Real and her new website, Melinda has been inundated with community support for her advocacy in this area.
Stopping All Stations: Poetry in Nunawading 
