It hasn't escaped our notice that it can get a little... bachelor pad-ish around here. (After all, did you see where the "dat ass" thread in the forums started to go? Yeesh!) Some of the sisters might want to take a break by clicking onto ymib.com, a site that coincidentally launched about a week before our little rag over on this side of the 'net. ymib is the brainchild of editor-in-chief Ericka Taylor along with executive editor Sety Bes, and stands for "you make it beautiful." They've been up and running as a multi-topic webzine since August 1st, and first caught our eye with their interview of Portland artist Damali Ayo.
Ericka tells us the site is devoted to the "woman of culture," a coinage she adopted to emphasize how women of color are often the most attuned to culture and the ways in which it moves through families and communities. The "you" in ymib of course refers to the readers and hits on Ericka's idea that women take charge of their own creative energies by focusing on 3 main areas: inspiration, health and holistics, and everyday creativity. All of ymib's features are designed to create a community in which women can not only explore these areas, but trade knowledge with other women who vibe the same way.
In addition to its strictly online features, ymib has its eye on promoting offline activities such as a book club and lesson plans for stay-at-home mothers. We hear they even have their eye on a print version. We know what it takes to run a website and judging by what Ericka and company have put together can only say: hats off.
Comments
for those that enjoyed the interview with damali ayo, please check out her website (damaliayo.com) and her myspace page (myspace.com/damaliayocds) to see more of her work!
also, damali loves to visit schools and organizations; if you or someone you know might be interested in booking her for a presentation, exhibit, talk etc, just email info@damaliayo.com.
enjoy!
heather day,
assistant to damali ayo.
ymib.com is a really great site, thanks for featuring them--really liking their poetry jukebox. Hmm, at the same time I'm feeling like this was a missed opportunity. Why is it that the sistahs need to take a break from Code Z in order to get relief from a particular "bachelor pad" articulation? Yeah, the "dat ass" thread went off from cara's(nokoni) original multilayered and thoughtful question referencing important questions of the intersection of history, eroticism, and visual aesthetics in relation to African American women's bodies. Perhaps the thread title was ill-conceived, but if more folks had taken up her queries then that could have been a really fascinating thread. But maybe like me, by the time they got there they (be thy brotha or sistah) felt the original intent had kinda disappeared. In light of the responses the original post received it seems to me that both the sistahs and the brothas could have benefited from visiting ymib.com. While I know Code Z isn't meant to be a moderated space, and I get that the bachelor-pad framing makes for a good lead-in, I was hoping you'all would flip the script: instead of (temporarily) directing the currently marginalized to seemingly more hospitable territory, why not reframe the question and look at the challenges of depicting eroticized black women's bodies in a socio-historically attuned visual art context. I'd be really interested to see someone like editor Carla Williams, who has done photography and scholarship on this subject from the historical perspective Cara noted, in conversation with another artist (male or female) who is undertaking complex explorations of the subject from a more explicitly erotic/sexualized angle. Just my $.02.
I think part of what's happening may be about code z's as of yet small sample size--the way it may feel that a single thread, for example, can affect the whole temperature of the room (if that's the case).
My hope is that as more people become involved and more poeple become vocal, there will be more nooks where a multitude of "types" of people can find hospitable territory and sympathetic minds.
ymib has the advantage of starting from a single-gender premise, which will color the presentation in a certain way of course and which will condition a certain kind of response from it users. (i'm speaking strictly from a business development pov, rather than invoking any essentialist argument.) On the other hand, code z slices the subject focus more narrowly, which means it opens up on the other end--in terms of the different kinds of people it must speak to and who will respond to it. figuring out how much control to exercise over how that plays out can be a challenge.
I'm sure Ericka had to figure out similar tradeoffs. but the process has certainly been fascinating, no doubt.
OK, what's funny about this is I didn't experience the thread as changing the vibe of the Code Z "room", not at all. Nor was I feeling the "bachelor pad" vibe on the site as a whole either. I was just responding to notion that if a place becomes something of a one gender (whichever one that might be) clubhouse that everyone else might want to excuse themselves instead of exploring the moment from another angle. Looking at the question from a business model I can certainly see that given the lack of continued response to the thread further coverage of its issues might not be appropriate currently. My suggestion came from my sense of Code Z as being an expansive place of critical exploration and engagement--which I greatly enjoy--even as it trains narrow focus on issues within its chosen purview.