On Being Young and Female and Saying Yes

Today, as walked home from digging out my car, my neighbor was shoveling his bit of sidewalk.  He is a little younger than me, father to two young children, a playwright and a Republican.  Not sure if any of that description matters but I am trying to create a word picture here.  Since I am on a roll, I will add that he had his sockless feet only half-crammed into his shoes and was only wearing a shirt and pants: no jacket, hat or mittens.

But anyway, as I walked by, he said, "What is this "Unconditional Yes" thing?"  (He is one of my facebook friends and was one of the first people to sign up when I sent out the invitation).  I explained that is was an exhibition/project I am working on for a gallery at Simmons College, an all-women's school in Boston, where I have asked the community to respond to a question about unconditional yes.

"Oh yeah, I like unconditional yeses from young college women."

Sooooooo.....your thoughts?

XOXO, Robyn

Rebecca Solnit

Again, I am not exactly sure how and why this relates to our project, but I want to share it with you all.  First, I hope you all are familiar with the writer, Rebecca Solnit.  She has written many books but one of my favourites is called Wanderlust, A History of Walking.  When you have time, do check it out.

But more to the immediate point, here is an article she wrote back in 2008 called Men Explain Things To Me.

It certainly resonated with me.  You?

XOXO, Robyn

A Video Message!

I don't know how we manage to be so awkward - oh and I do actually have eyes...really and truly.

Until next time,

Jessica

Coming to a Lower Fens near you...

Professor Cohen and Robyn - knitting in the Lower Fens

It was bound to happen...thanks to Rachel, we have secured tables for the next 30 years in the Fens and in the main lobby of the MCB.

We will be sitting at these tables to hand out flyers, knit, talk to all of you lovely readers - and hopefully recruit some donations! This is actually a great place to be able to pick up a loan form or drop off a donation. I'm going to post the dates, times and locations of our tables below...

PS - 135 members in the Facebook group...now if only we could get every person to donate ONE object...I think we can do it.

Location: MCB LOBBY
Time: 12:30 - 1:30

[ the location and the time will always be the same ]

Dates:

Monady, Feb. 22nd
Tuesday, Feb. 23rd
Tuesday, March 2nd
Wednesday, March 3rd
Monday, March 15th
Tuesday, March 16th

Until next time,

Jessica

Mouthwash - Kate Nash

Alright - so beyond fantastic news. The Facebook group? 130 members. Obviously it's the place to be. SO if you haven't yet - go check it out (just search "Unconditional Yes").

Anyways, at the risk of being random and off topic - I present the first and hopefully the last  awkward 3 AM post. The kind of post that kinda just...skips around avoiding the point. Kinda like how I'm skipping around avoiding my paper. It's the kind of post you make when a paper is starring you down like a carnivore hunting its prey staring you in the face...a paper that is due tomorrow (technically today) - let me just say this: this paper is certainly not getting an UNCONDITIONAL YES from me. Okay, enough about my procrastination and poor study habits.

Kate Nash.

I'd love to ask her what her "Unconditional Yes" would be - for real.

In my defense of this random post...I think that this song is very 'Simmons' like. So...I'll just leave it at that. Oh, and the lyrics are below the video.

Speaking of which - I should be posting more videos - sneak peaks if you will - at what's to come! Ohhhh the suspense! Please, try to contain your excitement!  They'll be posted ASAP!!

This is my face
Covered in freckles
With the occasional spot
And some veins

This is my body
Covered in skin
And not all
of it
You can see

And, this, is my mind
It goes over and
over
The same old lines

And, this, is my brain
It's torturous
analytical thoughts
Make me go insane

And I use mouthwash
Sometimes I floss
I got a family
And I drink cups of tea

I've got nostalgic pavements
I've got familiar faces
I've got a
mixed-up memory
And I've got favourite places

And I'm singing
"oh
oh" on a Friday night
And I hope everything's gonna be alright
And I'm
singing "oh oh" on a Friday night
And I hope everything's
gonna be alright

This is my face
I've got a thousand opinions
And not the time to
explain

And this is my body
And no
matter how you try and disable it
Yes I'll still be here

And, this,
is my mind
And although you
try to infringe
You cannot confine

And, this, is my brain
And
even if you try and hold me back
There's nothing that you can gain

'Cause I use mouthwash
Sometimes I floss
I've got a family
And I drink cups of tea

I've got nostalgic pavements
I've got
familiar faces
I've
got a mixed-up memory
And I've got favourite places

I'm singing "oh
oh" on a Friday night
And I hope everything's gonna
be alright
And
I'm singing "oh oh" on a Friday night
And I hope
everything's gonna be
alright
Oh oh oh oh oh oh.

Until next time,

Jessica

Knitted Trail begun!

Hi all!

Hope everyone is having a great long weekend. Here are some pics of Kat Riley's and my knitted trail thus far. Getting there!

Love,

Rachel H.

Knitting Information

Pile of my Mom's Knitting Needles!

So we've been getting questions about the Knitted Trail we'll be working on as a part of the 'Unconditional Yes' project. Rachel Heller, another student in my AADM 390 class is a fantastic knitter (is that even a word?) and posted some information on our Facebook group.

So here's the info:

-Using medium weight yarn and size 9 needles is preferable. However if you
don't have that yarn weight or needle size--just knit a width of 3 1/2"

-As for color, ANY color is perfect. This is about the
Simmons Community so we love variety.

-And to crochet-ers out there: We will take your crochet work too! Just
make sure it is 3 1/2" wide.

-If anyone needs yarn Robyn sent us a whole box of it! Let me know
and I will let you know how to get some.

-ALSO - don't know how to knit?! And want to learn?! Email me (heller2@simmons.edu) and we'll figure out
a time to do a knit-together. What day/time works best for all of you?

Speaking of our Facebook group, has hit 109 members! I am BEYOND thrilled, thank you to all of you who joined and keep inviting your friends! And I hope that above information is helpful to all you lovely people out there who may want to knit.

The above picture is of my 4th attempt at casting on...in the background is one of the YouTube videos I used. I told you I'd try to learn!

Granted, this will be so much easier when I can sit down with a group of people and talk it all out. But I'm home, everyone else is asleep and..well, why not right?

Until next time,

Jessica

YARN.

Okay, 5th time is the charm. I'm not even kidding - this is the 5th time I've tried to update this entry.

I shouldn't be admitting that - I'm obviously exhausted and/or inept, but I was way too excited about these pictures to give up!



Ohhhhh look at all the yarn! We were all so excited. I'm pretty sure everyone in our AADM 390 class took at least 1 ball - I took 2 and I don't know how to knit.

If anyone who knows me personally is reading this - you can stop shaking your head. I plan on learning. I'm kind of clutz and things like knitting or any sort of skill similar usually takes some time to catch on to - but I am determined!!

With that said - if you don't know how to knit but would like to - please send me a message (or comment, or email). My class has a few girls in it who are FANTASTIC and are also really good teachers. They're looking to spread the wealth!

Contact us!!


If anyone from Simmons wants in on some of this yarn, please let us know. A lot of us have already started on the trail that will (hopefully) lead from the Trustman Gallery all the way down the 4 flights of stairs.

I think we can do it.

Oh, if you're on Facebook please seach for Unconditional Yes group. In the course of 1 night we've had 46 people join!

I hope I see that number continue to grow!

Until next time,

Jessica

Embrace Your Inner Girl

Not exactly sure how this relates to our project, but I found it very moving and wanted to share it with you.

Eve Ensler: Embrace your inner girl | Video on TED.com

Love, Robyn

Loan Form!

So I'm not sure if there is a way to post a word document up on the blog - similar to an email attatchment. If any of you out there could teach me, please leave a comment!

In the mean time, I will leave you with a preview of what our loan form looks like. Please feel free to copy and paste it into a word document and print one out yourself!

Unconditional Yes - Loan Form

Please provide the following information about yourself and your contribution. Feel free to attach additional sheets if necessary. Please return this form with your contribution (labeled with a tag containing your name and email address) to the art office, MCB, Room C426 from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm.

NOTE: All contributions will be returned to their owners after the exhibition and must be picked up in the art office. Any items left behind after April 30 will be disposed of at the discretion of the art department.

Name:
Telephone:
Email:

Please share some information about your contribution. Feel free to write as much or as little as you prefer.

What does it represent in response to the original question?

What is it made of?

Did you make it yourself?

Is there a special story that goes along with it?

Is there any other information that we should know?

May we include this information as part of the exhibition in the gallery? (yes/no)

So, the more I've thought about it - I realized that one of the biggest "Unconditional Yes's" I've ever given in my 21 years of life, happened my freshman year at Simmons.

Its funny how something so monumental didn't register until weeks later.

How is your answer coming along?

Jessica

It is going to take yarn, a lot of yarn.

Robyn here.

I packed up a big box of yarn and it is headed to the post office in a couple of minutes. One of the students, Rachel, asked if she and some others could knit a stripe a la The Knitted Mile to lead visitors up the stairs to the Trustman Gallery on the 4th Floor. It is a fantastic idea and I gladly dug through my mountainous stash to contribute yarn to the effort. Along the way, I found some crocheted flowers that didn't get included in my Lion Brand Studio window last year. I thought they would make a nice addition to the stripe here and there.

I loved Jessica's post about the chocolate brownie. I never thought about how we can say an unconditional yes even to things like brownies, but perhaps those are the things that need it most. After all, how much fun is it to eat a brownie and spend the whole time telling yourself, Oh I shouldn't be eating this!

Here is a glimpse of one of the needlework pieces I am making that will be on the gallery wall as a kind of provocateur - a way of stimulating more responses from students, faculty, staff, alumnae. I hope to have one for each of the nine (eight?) wall sections in the gallery, each touching on a different idea related to unconditional yes.

Well you have to start somewhere.

Hello everyone.

My name is Jessica and I'm one of the students working on this amazing project at Simmons College.

I'm not going to bother repeating the theme of the project (it's in our heading!) - but I feel like I'd take the initiative to write the first entry. I always find the first entry to be the most difficult.

Unconditional Yes.

Is it me, or are those two of the most terrifying words you've ever seen in your life? I'm serious! Think about it!!

I mean, I've for sure have given an "unconditional yes" to a double fudge brownie baked by my best friend. But I'm trying my best to push myself to think beyond my (unhealthy yet delicious) obession with chocolate and dig a little bit deeper.

What else have I said YES to, unconditionally?

I'm still working on my answer. If you sit and take the time to think about it, I think you'll be surprised at what you may discover about yourself.

Which is why I can't wait for this project to get underway. I can't wait to discover another layer to the Simmons Community - to have faculty, staff, students and alum answer this question too is going to be brilliant.

Honestly, can you think of a better portrait of Simmons than this?! I can't.

We will be posting the loan form for all your objects, letters, artworks, pieces of clothing or whatever else you may want to give to this show SOON.

I'm hoping by Friday (tomorrow!)

I know this wasn't much of a first entry, but please come back and look for updates! I will not be the only one updating this blog - so you can expect to find something new and exciting everytime you visit.

Until next time,

Jessica