New this week: Open
and closed drawers (Montgomery Ward & Co. catalog, Spring-Summer
1922, U.S.A.)
News and letters postponed till next week
I hope you enjoy the New this week, above.
I misestimated the time the update would take. Half this weekend - Sunday
- I must devote to a comic strip about cats I am
developing (I'm an illustrator and artist), and Saturday
is almost gone.
Do you want to show items from this museum?
Please contact me if, on behalf
of an organization, you want to temporarily show items from this museum
and are able to pay the shipping expenses, or if you have a good idea about
where the museum can set up permanently.
All this depends on availability of items. Right now an American television
network; Opening Closed Doors,
in Texas; and, for a day, the University of Delaware, have chunks of the
museum.
If you're willing to pay my shipping expenses, and if I can skip work,
you can also listen to me, live, talk endlessly about this endlessly interesting
subject!
A TV production company asks, "Did you celebrate
your period?"
If you had a party or created a ritual to celebrate your first period,
we would be interested in hearing your story and seeing your videos, pictures.
This would be for possible inclusion in a television documentary called
Reinventing Rituals, Coming of Age in a Modern World
for Vision Television, in Canada.
Series consultant is Ron Grimes, internationally recognized expert
on ritual and the author of numerous books on ritual including his most
recent, Deeply Into the Bone, Reinvented Rite of
Passage.
These three one hour specials, Coming of Age
in the Modern World; Marriage Separation and
Divorce; and Birth and Death are co-production
between Northern Lights Television in Toronto and Ocean Entertainment in
Halifax for Vision Television Network. They will air on Vision TV, a Canadian
specialty channel whose mandate is to cover multi-faith, multicultural
stories about the human spirit.
Reinventing Rituals will explore exotic cultures and ceremonies that
may, on the surface, bear little resemblance to the hallmarks of our own
lives. We will witness dramatic initiation ceremonies from Africa, complex
funerals from New Guinea, and elaborate wedding and courtship rituals from
South America. Viewers will become acquainted with traditional rites from
many different cultures, contemporary and historic.
However, at the core of this series are the North Americans who are
exploring new ways to mark transitions. We'll meet parents who are preparing
to spend their children out in the mountains to spend grueling days and
nights in initiation ceremonies; individuals who are approaching the end
of life determined to design all aspects of their own funerals; and expectant
couples who are redefining appropriate behaviour in the birthing room.
This series is about these men and women and their quest to reinvent traditional
rites of passage; but it's also about the connections that can be drawn
between these modern pioneers and their counterparts in other times and
places.
Program #1 The Bridge: Coming of Age in the Modern
Reinventing Rites of Passage.
Reinventing Rituals is a compelling series of television documentaries
that explore the dramatic resurgence in ritual and how it is being interpreted
or recreated in order to give meaning to our lives.
From first menstruation ceremonies to vision quests, traditional societies
have used ritual to help young people mark and make the transition from
adolescence to adulthood. All but abandoned by Western culture, initiation
rituals are suddenly becoming more popular.
The increasing profile of street gangs, drug wars, and teenage promiscuity
in our communities have contributed to rising the popularity of the coming
of age rituals. Many parents fear that if they do not provide an initiation
scenario their children will initiate themselves using sex, drugs or dangerous
behaviour. By enrolling their children in complex and often dramatic initiation
rites, families can help young people make the difficult transition to
adulthood. In this program we meet youth at the National Rites of Passage
Institute in Cleveland Ohio who have spent the past year in a coming of
age program. And then we'll join up with teenagers who've enrolled in a
10 day-long program outside Calgary, Alberta as they prepare to spend three
World
If you are interested and/or need more information,
contact
Deannie Sullivan Fraser
902-423-9056 phone
902-423-9058 fax
SNAIL MAIL: Ocean ENTERTAINMENT, SUITE 404, 1657 BARRINGTON STREET,
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA B3J 2A1
Money and this site
I, Harry Finley, creator of the museum and site and the "I"
of the narrative here, receive no money for any products or services on
this site. Sometimes people donate items to the museum.
All expenses for the site come out of my pocket, where my salary from
my job as a graphic designer is deposited.
You have privacy
here
What happens when you visit this site?
Nothing.
I get no information about you from any
source when you visit, and I have no idea who you
are, before, during or after your visit.
This is private - period.
Help Wanted: This Museum Needs a
Public Official For Its Board of Directors
Your MUM is doing the paper work necessary to become eligible to receive
support from foundations as a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. To achieve
this status, it helps to have a American public official - an elected or
appointed official of the government, federal, state or local - on its board of directors.
What public official out there
will support a museum for the worldwide culture of
women's health and menstruation?
Eventually I would also like to entice people experienced in the law,
finances and fund raising to the board.
Do You Have Irregular Menses?
If so, you may have polycystic ovary syndrome
[and here's a support association for it].
Jane Newman, Clinical Research Coordinator at Brigham
and Women's Hospital, Harvard University School of Medicine, asked
me to tell you that
Irregular menses identify women at high risk for polycystic ovary syndrome
(PCOS), which exists in 6-10% of women of
reproductive age. PCOS is a major cause of infertility
and is linked to diabetes.
Learn more about current
research on PCOS at Brigham and Women's
Hospital, the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania State University
- or contact Jane Newman.
If you have fewer than six
periods a year, you may be eligible to participate
in the study!
New this week: Open
and closed drawers (Montgomery Ward & Co. catalog, Spring-Summer
1922, U.S.A.)
© 2001 Harry Finley. It is illegal
to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or medium
without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations
to hfinley@mum.org