The Altar:

The Altar is a very interesting aspect to the women who rock conference. It is meant to honor the women who have stood up for their rights and have endured pain along the way. This pain isn’t limited to physical pain and is a tribute to the women who have been arrested, injured, or has endured any pain fighting for what they deserve. The Altar has images of women who have made a difference and have spoken out in front of large groups, along with women who can be seen protesting for their rights. This is a very powerful booth because it speaks out for women who recognized they needed to speak out and were treated improperly along the way. The Altar is a meaningful way to represent those women.

Claiming space in the Changing City:

At the conference, we had 4 guest panelists (powerful women in Seattle area). Some of the interesting things that were talked about were the ways to claim space in this busy city.  One of the panelists mentioned setting up neighborhood centers to pool money together and make spaces that can be opened up to locals who don’t necessarily have the money to make changes themselves and bring through icons that are typically bought out by rich investors (which takes away from how things were done in the past for the people who were raised with these given icons).  They also touched on the idea that it is important to be aware of how people [minority groups] are mistreated and speak out and go talk to city policy makers to change these issues. They also talked about things in the community that people are doing to take space and make themselves known. Black Mama mentioned that the singers and artists of her country use their power to make differences, but no matter what, profits and proceeds are always shuffled through government hands. This is problematic because these officials don’t have the same interests in the community as the artists do and so the profits aren’t used ‘properly’.