LIX - Newsletter

Special Interest Groups & Activities

Hey LIX Chicks,

Leaping lesbian hip hop artists! Were we treated to something special at the March 30th LIX dinner/speaker meeting or what! Our guest speaker, Kathryn Trevenen, gave a truly fascinating and passionate presentation about lesbians who are creating their own political and sexy homo hop music. And she brought her IPod and speakers so that we could listen to examples of this exciting new music.

Now I must admit that when Kathryn agreed to come and speak at this year’s dinner, I was fairly skeptical that any hip hop music would appeal to me in the slightest. I associated hip hop with homophobic, racist, sexist, insipid boys with egos the size of Manitoba. But during her presentation, Kathryn introduced us to the politics and music of some very courageous, ‘in-your-face’, feminist young dykes. These women are out and proud and tellin’ it like it is! Within minutes of the presentation, I was boppin’ away in my chair.

Here are the names and web sites of some of the lesbian hip hop artists you might want to check out: Goddes and She http://www.god-des.com/; JenRo http://www.jenro.net/; Alixa and Naima http://www.climbingpoetree.com. And Kathryn also played an amazing song by Queen Pen and Me'Shell Ndegeocello called "Girlfriend". A huge thank you to Kathryn Trevenen for a brilliant presentation. And many thanks, as always, to Carolyn, owner of the Pantry, for welcoming us with her warm heart and delicious food.

On behalf of the LIX Steering Committee, I have an important announcement to make. After much discussion, we have decided to move the monthly networking meeting to a new venue. May 7th will be the last time that LIX meets at Swizzles. We are going to take the summer to look for a new space and we’re considering changing the format from a coffee meeting to a dinner meeting.

Why, you may ask? Excellent question. There are a number of reasons:

1. Our membership continues to climb (there are over 370 LIX Chicks on the membership list) but the attendance at the monthly networking meetings has been declining over the last six months.
2. Women have told us that they would prefer not to meet in a bar.
3. The number of coffee places that are available for meetings is almost non-existent...the reason why we moved from a coffee place to Swizzles in the first place was that, despite weeks of focused searching, we could not find a coffee place large enough to fit up to 50 women. We simply need to be open to moving to a restaurant and changing from a coffee meeting to a dinner meeting if we want to continue getting together. Broadening our search to include restaurants will open up a huge number of venues to us.

So there you have it. Our plan is to take our time and find a centrally-located restaurant that’s reasonably priced and has a wide variety of entrées on the menu. We would prefer an LGBT-owned establishment with a private room for our meeting and we will be looking in the area bounded by Woodroffe Avenue, the Rideau River, Riverside Drive, and the Ottawa River. A safe neighbourhood is essential; access to public transit and wheelchair accessibility are very important. We have every faith that we will find a fantastic home for the new incarnation of the LIX monthly networking meetings. If any of you know of a place that ‘fits’, by all means contact us at info@girlswanttoknow.com.

As we will, most likely, be re-emerging as a dinner meeting, we’ve decided to take a fresh look at the format that we’ve been using for the past few years. What started out as a lesbian business networking meeting has gradually moved into more of a social get-together. Although we recognize the importance of creating social spaces for lesbians, we would very much like to return to our original goal of providing information and networking for, and about, lesbian businesses. But we’d like to know what you think. One of our members has volunteered her time to create a survey that could be sent out via email. So don’t be surprised if you receive a LIX survey in the next few weeks. Your input would be very much appreciated.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to Tanya and the rest of the crew at Swizzles for the kindness and generosity they have consistently extended to us since November of 2007. If they hadn’t opened their doors to us when The Roasted Cherry closed in the fall of 2007, the LIX monthly meeting may have folded.

The April 26th LIX Disco Tea Dance is fast-approaching. Tickets went on sale April 3rd and the buzz in the lesbian community is that dancing on a sunny Sunday afternoon is a delightful idea! See Upcoming Event #11 for details. And don’t forget Taste For Life. If you’d like to join a group of delightful LIX lesbians for dinner and raise money for Bruce House and the Snowy Owl AIDS Foundation at the same time, call The Foolish Chicken and reserve your table now! (See Upcoming Event #12). Catch you later...

Special Interest Groups & Activities
1. A post-adoption support group for LGBTQ parents and parents-to-be. We meet on the 3rd Tuesday of each month from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. at the Overbrook Community Centre, 33 Quill Street. Next Meeting: April 21st; Topic: Why Attachment Matters! How our kids attach to us and we attach to our kids. And more! Future Meetings: May 19, June 16. Please note that to provide a space where parents can talk openly, onsite child care is not provided. For more information, please check out our blog www.lgbtqadoptionottawa.blogspot.com, email lgbtqadoptionottawa@rogers.com or call Holly at (613) 742-5944 (Note: if you don't leave a message on the machine, please assume the 13 year-old messenger failed to take your message!). 2. Monthly group for non-biological Moms in same-sex families. I’m interested in creating a group for those of us who have started families together and where one parent is the biological mother and one isn’t. The purpose of the group would be to provide an informal space to share concerns, fears and issues with other Moms going through this experience and navigating this sometimes difficult terrain. My thought would be to meet for coffee/tea at a café or at someone’s home. If you are interested, please contact Laura Cohen at lauracohen@rogers.com or at (613) 228-9778 and we can go from there. 3. Ottawa Amazons Women's Motorcycle Club. Come and join the gals for fun, friendship, laughter and travel with an all lesbian motorcycle group. Monthly meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month at Bridgehead Coffee, 362 Richmond Road (west of Churchill in Westboro) at 7:15 pm. If you would like information on how to become a member of the Ottawa Amazons, how to obtain a motorcycle license, and/or tips on negotiating the purchase of a new or used motorcycle, the Amazons are the gals to contact. If you plan to attend a monthly meeting, please contact Molly King at Ottawa.Amazons@monaco.ca.
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Volunteers needed for this year’s Dyke March. The Dyke March Committee is looking for volunteers for some of their subcommittees: picnic, fundraising & sponsorship, pre-march rally, volunteer recruitment and co-ordination, promotion and media communications. If you are interested in getting involved, send an email to dykemarchottawa@yahoo.ca.	Where to find those smart outfits for the LIX Disco Tea Dance...getting ready for the upcoming LIX Disco Tea Dance was fun, cheap and easy. All it took was a couple of hours of fun scrounging at Value Village and the St Vincent de Paul store, $13.85, and a bit of ‘repurposing’ of some of my own basement finds. Now I'm all ready to do The Hustle! Remember what we all learned as kids: the more you play, the more fun you have! (Lucy C.)