Ladyfest Texas is a community-based arts festival in Austin, Texas. Their mission is to provide a forum in which all members of the community can celebrate, showcase and encourage the artistic, organizational and political talents of women. This participatory festival will feature performances by bands, spoken word artists, authors, visual artists and filmmakers, as well as workshops and panel discussions. While the primary organizers of Ladyfest Texas are women, everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend and volunteer at this community festival.

LadyFest is under the non-profit umbrella of GENaustin and proceeds will benefit GENaustin. Ladyfest Texas will take place May 27 - 30, 2004 at various music venues and art spaces in Austin, TX. The venues will be in the centrally located areas of downtown Austin and the University of Texas. All will be accessible via Capital Metro bus, and they are dedicated to ensuring that all Ladyfest venues and events are all ages.

For more information on LadyFest, including volunteering, performing, participating or sponsoring, please visit www.ladyfesttx.org.

BY RACHEL PROCTOR MAY appeared in Austin Chronicle January 23, 2004

Ah, those idyllic girlhood days. Who doesn't harbor fond memories of slumber parties, soccer matches, and leaving nasty notes in the unpopular girl's locker? Author Rachel Simmons' 2002 bestseller Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls documented the myriad ways the fairer sex behaves dreadfully toward each other. In December, she followed it up with Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls Write About Bullies, Cliques, Popularity, and Jealousy. As the title suggests, the book gave real girls a chance to sound off about their own experiences. As a guest of GENaustin, a nonprofit that focuses on girls' empowerment issues, Simmons will speak tonight, Thursday, about her findings with a panel of highly qualified experts -- local girls -- and discuss how girls and the adults in their lives can address female bullying.

Austin Chronicle: What inspired Odd Girl Speaks Out?

Rachel Simmons: While I wanted Odd Girl Out to be readable, it was marketed to parents and simply wasn't accessible for many girls. So, it was important to me that this book would be something all girls could read. Also, from the letters I received, I realized there was a real longing for advice. Not only did girls say, "Here's this story in my own voice," but also, "Please tell me what can I do about it." It reminded me that there's very little practical information available to girls on how to deal with specific issues. So I've also included original writing of my own that gives girls advice.

AC: What kind of advice?

RS: One of most common kinds of questions involves either outgrowing a friend or having a friend outgrow you. For example, you and I are real tight, but then I start hanging out with this other girl who's maybe a little more popular. Either you feel upset and abandoned, or I feel you're clinging to me. These are situations for which there's no standard rule of how to proceed, which is the case with the lion's share of girls' relational problems. One of the main points in Odd Girl Out is that we fail to validate what goes on when girls have problems, and we don't communicate to them how to manage relational conflicts, so there's a huge blank space for girls on how to proceed.

AC: How did you find girls to contribute to the book?

RS: It wasn't that easy. I did a huge mailing to hundreds of schools, and reached out to educators that I've met along the way. I have a pretty busy speaking schedule, so I also distributed flyers wherever I went.

AC: Was there anything in the responses that surprised you?

RS: I was surprised by the number of girls who described depression. ... I was also surprised how many wrote about being aggressive. At first, most of what came in was about being a victim. But then I started asking for stories about being mean, because I wasn't getting any. And that's a common symptom -- girls are fearful of identifying themselves as aggressive, because, of course, girls are supposed to be nice. Another thing I did was in my speeches, I always talk about my own cruelty. It creates an environment where all bets are off, and it's OK to say, "I was mean." That helps a lot. Especially when adults typically present aggression as something to hide, so the girls don't take responsibility for their behavior and keep hiding it. But once I started asking for it, I was surprised how many wrote to me, saying, "This is what I did," or, "This is why I'm embarrassed."

AC: Why did you decide to include panels of local girls?

RS: It's important for girls to recognize that older girls can be terrific resources for moral support, guidance, and advice. I wanted the event to be as community-based as possible, so it's not like I'm just coming in and then leaving. It begins a dialogue, and lets older girls see how much of a resource they can be to younger girls. There's a tremendous amount of support and fulfillment that can be gained on both sides.

Reprinted from a

On Tuesday, Sept. 30, the State Theater Company will do a benefit performance of Be Aggressive. The benefit show is hosted and sponsored by CheerStation, the 'Official Cheer Sponsor' for the show, and all proceeds go directly to GENaustin.

Be Aggressive is Annie Weisman’s darkly comic journey into the intense world of two 17-year-old California cheerleaders. Inspired by Weisman’s own adolescent years in suburban San Diego, the coming-of-age-drama is directed by State artistic director Scott Kanoff and features local favorites Jenny Larson and Kira Pozehl as Laura and Leslie, two girls about to enter their final year of high school. Anchored by the metaphor of its protagonists’ intense dedication to cheerleading, the play’s themes deal with many teen issues that have recently landed at the forefront of an American female agenda: self-esteem, relational aggression, peer pressure, media influence and teen-parent relationships, to name a few.

For more information on the event and how to get tickets, please visit BE AGGRESSIVE Press Release.

Special Note: Be Aggressive contains mature language and content and is not recommended for children under the age of 16.

Tara is thirteen. She likes to go to the mall. . .and she

 wrestles boys. On her journey to the national championships, she battles critics who believe girls shouldn't wrestle boys; she struggles with her father' s drive for her to succeed; and she fights with her own body to control her weight.

GIRL WRESTLER is an hour-long documentary by Austin director and producer Diane Zander that follows Tara Neal, a Texas teenager who challenges cultural expectations of what sport she, as a girl, should compete in and with whom she should wrestle. It follows a crucial period in Tara's wrestling career - the last year that she is allowed to wrestle boys. When Tara enters high school, her opportunities to compete will virtually disappear under state guidelines because so few girls wrestle.

From allegations of referee bias against girl wrestlers to coaches who proclaim their vehement hatred of Title IX, the federal statute that grants women's athletics proportionality in public schools, GIRL WRESTLER personalizes the clash of gender and sports in American culture and, in particular, the current policy debates over Title IX. Tara navigates the same environment of hostility that produced the recent lawsuit by the National Wrestling Coaches Association against the Department of Education to repeal Title IX.

Over the course of the season, Tara confronts personal struggles that range from her family to controlling her weight. Ultimately, Tara's story highlights the universal nature of such conflicts, as well as illuminating such broader social issues as the social construction of masculinity and femininity, athleticism and eating disorders, gender discrimination in organized athletics, and the meaning and value of sport in American culture.

GIRL WRESTLER will have its world premiere in the upcoming South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, before touring in documentary and video festivals nationwide. The schedule for the documentary at South By Southwest is as follows:

11 a.m. Sunday, March 9 at the Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress Avenue (between 7th and 8th). Screening will be followed by a Q&A; with director-producer Diane Zander. Single tickets available for $6 one hour prior to the screening at the Paramount box office, 713 Congress Avenue, 512-476-6064.

7 p.m. Wednesday, March 12 at the Paramount Theatre (address above) as part of the Texas Documentary Tour, co-sponsored by the Austin Film Society. Screening will be open captioned for deaf and hearing-impaired audiences. To be followed by a Q&A; with Diane Zander. Single tickets will be available for $6 one hour prior to the screening at the Paramount box office, information above.

4 p.m. Saturday, March 15 at the Austin Convention Center, 4th Street at Trinity. Screening will be open captioned for deaf and hearing-impaired audiences. To be followed by a Q&A; with Diane Zander. Single tickets available for $6 one hour prior to screening at the ticket window.

GIRL WRESTLER is the latest project of Diane Zander, a lecturer in media production at the University of Texas at Austin who previously worked on the Emmy award-winning documentary MOVING STORIES. Her film and video work has been shown at festivals across the country and she also has lectured at international conferences on feminist documentary practice.

For more information, please contact Mary Beltrán at (512) 912-9571 or mcbeltran@earthlink.net, or Diane Zander at 512/471-4952 or d-zander@mail.utexas.edu.

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