FM March 20: “Happiness”/Street Harassment/Amazon’s Indigenous Women

THIS WEEK on Feminist Magazine with host Karina Elias…

FIRST… Lynn Harris Ballen talks to award-winning author Aminatta Forna about her new novel ‘Happiness’.   We hear how this insightful and beautifully-written novel weaves in themes of immigration, love, and the inter-relatedness of humans to one another and to our environment.  And, ultimately, how happiness is about resilience and growing through trauma, and the ties that bind us together. ‘Happiness’ has just been launched in the US to rave reviews, and Aminatta Forna is appearing at Skylight Books in LA this week.

THEN… Then Karina Elias speaks with the founder of Hollaback LA, writer and researcher Genevieve Berrick about shifting our perspective on street harassment. She explains how we can make public spaces better for the survivors of street harassment and refocus our efforts on supporting victims. Plus we learn about the bystander intervention legislation she recently introduced on the California Senate floor.

AND… In a piece by Making Contact, We learn about the indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest ongoing struggle with worldwide multinational corporations and governments who want to extort the land for resources. We hear from indigenous women leaders who will stop at nothing to protect the Amazon from the many destructive forces at play.