AALLU’s 6th Annual Herstory Conference

"Expanding Our Power from Within…

Featured above is the AALLU Steering Committee along with Staceyann Chin.

Congratulations is what was repeated over and over again on February 22 & 23, 2003 when AALLU conducted this conference. Well over a 100 women attended this conference who came from all over the Eastern region including NJ, NY, CT, PA, DE, VA, Wash. DC and as far as GA.

The conference included workshops covering various workshops in the following areas:

Educational Development – Entrepreneurship: Successful Strategies for Starting your own Business; Investment Planning for Lesbians; Political Policies that affect People of Color and their Families; Writer Amongst Us: Conversations with Poets and Novelist; Community & Relationship Violence Awareness

Personal Development – Total Wellness for Mind, Body, & Soul; Embracing the Goddess in You; Gender Identity – Labels We Use; Holistic Approach towards Health Wellness; Ridding Our Minds & Spirit of Horizontal and Internalized Oppression; Religion and You: Perfect together???

Relationship Development - Let’s Talk About Sex; Finding Ms. Right; Stress Management for Active Individuals & Couples; Make it Last Forever: Relationship Building Strategies; Beyond Bridging the Gap; Tools for Managing Conflict

The left picture is Tiye Lasley, Executive Director of AALLU along with Rebecca Helem, Joo - Hyun Kang, and Carmen Vazquez who kicked off Conference as the Keynote Panel discussion featuring which captured the essences of what the conferences was all about. Each panelist was able to share their personal cultural identity & experiences and how it has impacted their lives as womyn as well as lesbians. It was clear that the conference participants walked away with a better understanding of our cultural differences within the community, but more importantly how we as a community need to eliminate our cultural and class differences in order to come together as one.

However the pivotal experience took place on Day 2 (pictured on the right) of the conference with Keynote Speaker Staceyann Chin. As a powerful poet, she truly was able to capture the conference participants attention with her political but yet lyrical way that diversity and unity within the community is a must and it is not to be ignored.

We would be remiss not to mention the networking opportunities and comedic relief provided by Elizabeth Marrero. Between the Welcome Reception & the Meet and Greet reception, womyn had the opportunity to socialize and bound as sistahs! During the luncheon Ms. Marrero was able to provide humor that all could relate to and again added comic to relief to the seriousness that workshop sessions and the overall conference experience were devoted to.

Overall, the success of the conference had a great impact on the womyn who attended; it echoed the need for such a conference to take place. AALLU looks forward to next year’s conference in where it will be its 7^th year and looks forward to a continued focus on diversity within our community as well as providing workshops that focus on what is needed for womyn of color. Generally, AALLU meets on the 4^th Thursday of the month at the Pride Center in North Brunswick NJ. Visit our website www.celebratesisterhood.org for future listing of events. Contact us at 732 679 - 7687 or tyaalu@yahoo.com