Good morning everyone!

My name is April Priddy-Smith. I'm a psychology major at the University of NC at Greensboro, a mom of three very unique young people, a former middle and high school art teacher, and an amateur artist to boot! Needless to say, I'm a busy person these days. Anyhoo, I'm currently doing research on the effects of motherhood on women's creativity and I want to invite all of you to visit the web-link to my survey to become involved. My goal is to get 300 female artists to complete the survey by the end of the summer and hopefully, once it's all said and done, perhaps the findings will be published in one of the scholarly journals dedicated to creativity research. Who knows :-).

The We the People News website was running a bit behind its print circulation for awhile, but it is caught up if you want to read my recent columns: www.wethepeoplenews.org

By 2009, I want to have placed stories with HipMama. LiteraryMama, Brain,Child and the Mother's Movement Online. Damn it. And more places, too. Damn it. I'm serious.

Of course, I felt my Bus Brats story was the best fit I'd ever written for LM and they rejected it. Looking forward at ideas that I have for pieces to write, I really can't imagine any that would be a better fit. Except my poetry.

Anyone interested in sharing how motherhood changed their artistic life? I'm a senior psychology major at the University of NC at Greensboro; my area of interest is women and creativity. I'm working on a project about how motherhood affects women's creative processes and I'd like to get input from some Mom's (like myself) who are actually doing the mother-artist thing. If you'd be willing to share with me, either over the phone or through e-mail, I'd love to talk to you.

I lost my Baby Moon notebook months and months ago. All my essays are on the computer, but the actual notebook with my future essay notes, etc., was lost and I couldn't find it anywhere. I knew I could continue with the project just fine without it, but I just got too depressed. I've been depressed about my career anyway, and the child who I was writing about my maternity leave with turns four this summer, so the project just felt further and further away.

While goofing off int eh darkroom (and procrastinating doing any photo stuff), I came across this (old) piece with photographer and mother Marilyn Nance in the 25th anniversary edition of the photo journal "Contact Sheet" (#97)

Because it's long and it's not on-line, I'm only going to quote excerpts, but I thought I'd share it with you all:

"When I was invited to spend a month as Artist-in-Residence at Light Work, everyone said, 'You're going to leave your son?--You're going to leave your husband?--Why are you going to do that?--How are you going to work it out?" But I had to work it out.

I took this from mirandas blurb and the intro ..mixed it up. We need the thing that says FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, at the top, right? and anything else. mamas can you go over this - add, subtract, comment, finalize ...we need a press release/cover letter kinda thing to have on hand.

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The Mother of all Zines is Back!

Mamaphiles, the mama-zine compilation, announces the publication of its third issue. In this installment, twenty five zine-writing mamas (and one papa) take on the theme “Coming Home.” Contributors range from zine veterans like Ariel Gore of Hip Mama, Kate Haas of Miranda, and Jessica Mills of My Mother Wears Combat Boots to young mothers brand-new to zines. Packed with essays, poetry, artwork, and photos, Mamaphiles is a comprehensive introduction to the vibrant mama zine community (or a good way to check in with old favorites).

I've got most of the files and are going to lay it out. I have Trulas graphic - but no other graphic file. who had images beside vikki?

*Need Cover

*Is Corbin going to write an intro?

*How are we going to print this?

*Are we going to raise funds?

I'm going to try to get it out for the NOLA Bookfair, Nov.10, http://www.nolabookfair.com/ where colleen and i will be tabling. if possibl

Hey! I just realized you can read them online. They start in the July issue, one each issue:

www.wethepeoplenews.ccppc.org

yesterday was my extention and I didn't turn anything in. Basically I just decided that I can't do it this time. I tried! But I have this 4000 plus wooly incoherent essay I keep adding too that I can't shape up into anything. I also feel like I have forgotten how to write. Muffy Bolding gave me a pep talk and said that for all writers, on every new project, they feel like they forgot how to write!