Tag: Memphis Area Women’s Council

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Walk a Mile in Her Shoes Takes a Stand Against Gendered Violence

Men can borrow women’s shoes or wear their own. (Photo: Courtesy Memphis Area Women’s Council)

When the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes was scheduled months ago, Deborah Clubb, Memphis Area Women’s Council executive director, could never have predicted how needed the group’s 11th annual walk would be.

Each year, the one-mile walk invites men and boys to don women’s shoes and join as allies in a demonstration against rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, stalking, and any other form of gendered violence. This year, that message is especially important, coming so soon after the kidnapping and murder of Eliza Fletcher.

“It’s such a good opportunity for men and boys to show they care about what has happened,” Clubb says. “Some of us walked or ran the other Friday to finish Liza’s run. That was primarily about getting women out because women running for their health or athletic interests felt targeted or endangered or both.

“This is when men and boys can come and say, ‘I will join you in this determination to stop this completely unnecessary gendered violence.’”

The walk will begin and end at the Ramesses II statue on Central at the University of Memphis, and walkers can choose signs to carry and borrow from the council’s supply of women’s shoes or bring their own. Registration begins at 5 p.m., and the first 200 registrants will get a Walk a Mile visor.

The registration fee of $15 or $10 for students (free for U of M students) will go toward producing the walk and other campaigns the Women’s Council sponsors, including Memphis Says No More, a collaborative effort led by the Memphis Sexual Assault Kit Task Force to bring awareness of and offer resources for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

In fact, in light of recent news about the thousands of untested rape kits across the state, Clubb, who worked with the Sexual Assault Kit Task Force to advocate for testing more than 12,000 stored rape kits in Memphis back in 2013, will be a voice along with Memphis Says No More and the Women’s Council to ask for emergency state funding to remedy the backlog of assault kits and to hopefully secure the resources to prevent such a backlog from occurring again.

Clubb says, “It took me a couple of days to come to grips with the realization that we were back again at this place of needing special effort to catch up with rape kits which are materials from someone’s body, someone who has been completely, horribly treated, traumatized, and possibly hurt forever. It’s deeply disappointing, but I’m glad we got awareness.”

And like with this walk, awareness, more frequently than not, leads to action, which in turn leads to change. Hope is not lost as long as, Clubb says, “we keep women’s voices raised around safety, justice, and equity.”

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, University of Memphis, Thursday, September 22, 5:30 p.m., $10-$15.

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News The Fly-By

Week That Was: Data, Abortion, and Domestic Violence

Clockwise from top left: abortion, domestic violence, art fund, Gov. Bill Lee, transmission rates, Mid-South Food Bank, shop local


New Data

Tennessee’s coronavirus transmission rate fell over the past week, according to new data from researchers at Vanderbilt University, though the virus situation here remains “delicate and uncertain.”

Virus models from the Nashville university pushed the state’s peak of the virus from mid-April, according to one national model, to mid-May or mid-June, depending on new restrictions on social distancing.

Protecting Abortion

The Center for Reproductive Rights, along with two other organizations, is challenging an order by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee that essentially bans abortion procedures in the state.

Earlier this month, in an executive order responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee moved to limit “non-emergency healthcare procedures” until at least the end of the month. The order does not specifically cite abortion services, but instead reads in part, “All healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities in the state of Tennessee shall postpone surgical and invasive procedures that are elective and non-urgent.”

The Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the ACLU of Tennessee filed an emergency lawsuit last week to challenge the order.

The lawsuit argues that the governor’s order effectively bans abortion in the sate, violating Roe v. Wade, as well as women’s rights to liberty and autonomy under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Domestic Violence

As the pandemic continues and stay-at-home orders remain in place, one advocate said it is “common sense” that domestic violence will heighten.

Deborah Clubb, executive director of the Memphis Area Women’s Council, said most in her field are “very worried” for those in abusive or violent domestic relationships.

The biggest concern during this time, “as people are locked in together day after day, week after week,” Clubb said, is a rise in domestic violence homicides. However, there are resources to help those in dangerous situations at home.

Clubb said how one seeks help and relief from domestic violence depends largely on each individual’s circumstance. See a list of agencies and their phone numbers below.

Schools Closed

Governor Bill Lee said last week that he wants all Tennessee schools to remain closed throughout the remainder of the school year.

In a tweet after the announcement, Lee said he’s working with the Tennessee Department of Education to “ensure there is flexibility for districts to complete critical year-end activities.”

The tweet garnered dozens of responses within the first hour after it was published. Many of them from students, were like this:

Week That Was: Data, Abortion, and Domestic Violence

Food Bank Needs

Reports and photos are emerging from across the country showing cars, lined by the hundreds, with people waiting to receive food packages from food banks.

Cathy Pope, president of the Mid-South Food Bank, said as the agency has nearly doubled the amount of food it distributes, it is beginning to see long lines form at a few of its mobile food pantries.

Pope said the key to avoiding the long lines and turning individuals away is having enough dedicated distribution sites located throughout the city. That means securing partners who are willing to set up mobile food pantries.

The best way to ensure the agency has enough food to meet the need, Pope said, is to donate. Find more information on how to do that here.

Model Revised

Tennessee’s coronavirus peak and fatality numbers got another downgrade last week from the widely used epidemic model from the University of Washington.

The numbers from the university’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) have been used by the White House and state and local governments across the country. It has long predicted a virus peak here in mid-to-late April.

But the model has been recently diminished as too optimistic after a Tennessee-specific model was developed by health-care officials from Vanderbilt University in Nashville. That new model holds that the state’s peak won’t come until mid-May or mid-June under different scenarios. Numbers from the Vanderbilt model are not publicly updated.

Art Funds

ArtsMemphis and Music Export Memphis are distributing $77,190 to 159 artists in Shelby County. The funds come from the Artist Emergency Fund, which became public April 1st and supports artists of all types across music, visual art, film and media arts, literary art, theater, and dance.

Shopping Local

With the newly added stresses caused by COVID-19, some of us need a little shopping therapy. Luckily, while we can no longer step inside most shops, local retailers still have us in mind with online and phone ordering for shipping, same-day delivery, and curbside pickup. We’ve amassed an online and curbside shopping guide, featuring products and offerings from our advertisers. View the guide here


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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Women’s Rights Documentary Equal Means Equal Brings Fight To Memphis

Here is the text of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA):

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1920, guaranteed women the right to vote, but the suffergette movement that produced that great human rights victory didn’t feel that the struggle for sexual equality under the law finished there. The first draft of what would become known as the ERA was written during the Seneca Falls Convention of 1923. Fifty years later, a fierce, decades long battle in Congress and state legislatures came very close to finally ratifying it, enshrining equal treatment for men and women under the law. The final failure to ratify in 1982 came as a major blow to the feminist movement. But with the defeat of Hilary Clinton by Donald Trump, American feminism has become energized as never before, turning out the largest protest march in the history of the republic last January. Now there is a serious movement afoot to bring the dreams of generations of women to fruition by finally enshrining the ERA as the Constitution.

This is the atmosphere into which Equal Means Equal is being released. Actress turned director Kamala Lopez steps back from the daily political storms to render the big picture of women’s rights in twenty first century America. The film is a mixture of ground level stories of pay inequality, domestic assault, and discrimination, and examinations of the legal and political fights for reproductive, economic, and legal rights for women.

Equal Means Equal director Kamala Lopez

The Memphis Women In Film and the Memphis Area Women’s Council have arranged three free screenings of Equal Means Equal during May. The first one will be May 2 at Malco Ridgeway at 7:00 PM. The second will be a part of the MWIF/Indie Memphis event series, and will happen on Monday, May 8, 7:00 PM, at Crosstown Arts, with complimentary food and beverages beginning at 6:30 PM. The third will be at the National Civil Rights Museum on Tuesday, May 16 at 6 PM, which will be accompanied by refreshments and a panel discussion facilitated by Memphis Area Women’s Council.

For a taste of the film, here’s the trailer:

Women’s Rights Documentary Equal Means Equal Brings Fight To Memphis