WAM! - The Day After: The Good.

I live blogged WAM! and now it's time for a wrap-up post.

The Good:
I got to meet some awesome bloggers and writers that I have admired and aspired to be like. Starting at the networking session there was Jen Angel of the dearly departed Clamor, and Miriam of Radical Doula and Feministing. At the Friday night reception I met Allison Stevens of Women's eNews and Echidne of the Snakes. Did I mention EotS likes this blog? haha...sorry, I still can't believe that moment happened.

Seriously the best part was the Radical WOC bloggers session where I got to meet BFP and far too many other wonderful WOC. Again, this was a freaking love fest session. I've been struggling all day on how to explain what I felt during this conference. Since I'm in the "good" part of this post, I'll do the good part first.

As a Latina who has never felt a real strong connection to the Latina community especially since I don't speak Spanish, I have never felt so welcome than on Saturday. Part of it was that I've come a long way in my Latinaness. The other is that I was surrounded by other WOC who have peace with their own position as a WOC. Unfortunately success in many communities of color is still equaled to being white or a sell-out, so I think that most, if not all, of the women in the room have struggled with not being X enough as a WOC. I hope you followed that.

The love continued on to the WOC reception that was held off-site. I meant to stay for just an hour or so and then head on over to the official WAM dance party, but honestly I was so comfortable and loved with my hermanas that I blew off the other party.

I met so many other fabu women during breaks, in the lunch line, and justing sitting around. Apologies for not listing you all here. But if you have a blog, please leave a comment so I can find you!

Of course, the best part was spending time with my dear friend, Jennifer Pozner of Women In Media & News. I've been one of her biggest fans for so long and this weekend she really showed me that she is also one of mine. It's not that I didn't know it, but watching her stumble thru introducing me (seriously, I do a lot of stuff, you try summing that up in 20 seconds) AND then having random strangers come up to me and say "Hey, Jenn keeps raving about you!" It was way more than nice. I'm always in awe of how many people she knows, but as long as she lets me keep following in her wake I'm happy. Not to mention our girl talks.

Jenn & I roomed with Anne Elizabeth Moore, a fellow Chicagoan whom I never get to spend too much time with. So it was wonderful to have some good chats with her about politics and fashion. Of course, now I need to find some time here in Chicago to chat with her over some issues I have with blogging. This is the positive post, so no negative stuff, k?

I met lots of folks who said "Hey, maybe you can blog for us!" or even mentioned writing articles. I'm very flattered. Please don't be shy to contact me about any of it. I can't say that I have a lot of time right now, but let's work on it. Everyone I met have some kick ass projects going or brewing.

One of the epiphanies I had over the weekend was this: I call myself a professional feminist, but I think I'm also a professional cheerleader....maybe a professional feminist cheerleader. I love, love, love getting people together. I think half of the time I was talking with someone, I either said "Oh, you should talk to...." or I was thinking, "Who should I hook them up with?" And for that, I thank all the wonderful women of WAM.

Technorati tags: WAM!, WAM! 2008