Birth Control Costs

More Than You Think

—Even for the Lucky Ones

Amanda Hess
Lifestyle Editor, GOOD

Nona Willis Aronowitz
Associate Editor

February 11, 2012 

Last year, President Obama announced that insurers would be required to provide preventative care to women—including birth control—at no cost. Cue the political posturing.

Ninety-nine percent of women have used contraception, but that hasn't stopped far-right critics of the rule from trying to turn birth control into a controversy, one that has intensified in the past week. No one has spun the issue better than Georgia Representative Tom Price, who claimed that no woman has ever been denied access to birth control because she could not afford it. "Bring me one woman who has been left behind. Bring me one. There’s not one," Price told ThinkProgress when it asked how low-income women could access contraception if it were not insured.

Bring you one woman? Let's start with two. We are a couple of white, middle-class magazine editors. We have both had difficulty affording birth control at some point in our lives. And we're not alone. Many women struggle with the cost of birth control—1 in 3 of us, according to a recent Hart survey. Among young women, more than half face prohibitive costs. We know for a fact that it's not just the poorest Americans who are being left behind. The people affected by the high cost of birth control are poor, working class, and middle class. They are us, and they are our partners, too.

We rounded up a group of our peers to describe just how hard it can be to secure our daily pill. Within hours, we'd heard from two dozen women who have struggled to pay for contraception. And remember: We're some of the lucky ones. Here are our stories. Add yours in the comments or on Twitter with the hashtag #priceiswrong.

"Six weeks after the birth of my second child, I was investigating birth control options only to discover that under my insurance, an inter-uterine device was cost-prohibitive. It is very risky for mother and baby if two pregnancies happen in quick succession, so my options were to 1) take a slightly less expensive oral contraceptive with hormones that made me crazy, 2) stop having sex with my husband, or 3) use a barrier method of protection that is less effective than other forms of birth control. I am a logical liberal who also happens to be Catholic.  I am embarrassed by the outcry against birth control on the whole, but it seems even more ridiculous when applied to my situation—a married woman with two young children (including a one-month old) who is trying to do what is medically best for her family." —Anonymous, 35, teacher

"A couple of years ago, my insurance started covering just a tiny percentage of my birth control pills' cost, instead of most of it. I was on a pretty tight budget, and had to think about what healthcare-related cost I'd give up to make up the difference. I'd been seeing a physical therapist for a painful hand/arm condition I'd developed due to typing constantly. This physical therapy was the only thing that helped alleviate the pain and discomfort, but my insurance didn't cover it. I ended up dropping the physical therapy. My condition worsened steadily, but I had to make a (literally) painful choice." —Maya, 29, editor

"I had just moved to New York City after college, working at an unpaid internship and a few part-time jobs, watching my savings fly out the window with alarming speed, even as I ate PB&J sandwiches for every meal and drank only 40s. Paying the $30 per month to stay on the pill seemed silly since I wasn't even having sex regularly (reason #5,129 that long distance relationships suck: there is nothing more depressing than spending money you don't have on birth control that you're not even fully utilizing). Just using condoms seemed like a reasonable, cost-effective alternative. And it was—until the condom broke. After shelling out $450 for an abortion, $30 a month seemed worth it." —Maya, 25, writer

"When I first went on birth control, I was on a name brand version that worked really well with my body. Then I went to college, and my new health insurance plan's copays rose to $50 per month for the name brand version. There was no way I could afford that. I had to keep switching generic versions to try and find one that worked, but none of them worked with my body at all. Each time I risked pregnancy because they're not effective right away—not to mention, it was a hormonal roller coaster. Had I gotten the original brand without co-pay, I would have been much better off." —Bryce, 27, blog editor

"I went off the Nuva Ring because I felt like I couldn't afford it. I had a month gap between insurance and wasn't about to pay $90. So I went off and haven't gone back on because even the copay seemed like a lot. I'm on condoms now. I also had to go to a Title X clinic for years after college when I was working full time as a sexual health counselor because my private insurance had a $35 monthly CO-PAY! So I got it through a clinic based on my income which made me only pay $23 for it." —Zoe, 27, graduate student

"I stopped taking the Pill over the summer because I can't afford the $60 co-pay.  I already have a $60 copay for my antidepressants, plus $200 a month for therapy. In total, I was paying for $320 for my maintainance health care each month and it was squeezing me too tight. I decided something had to go.  I opted to stop taking the Pill because I was single at the time and not having sex on a regular enough basis to justify the cost." —Jessica, 28, writer

"My income often varies, and when I haven't been engaging in heterosexual possible baby-making activity on a regular basis and have needed funds for other pressing bills, I've opted out of using my preferred birth control method—the NuvaRing—in order to save money. I'd tell myself I would start using it again if the need arose, but that hasn't always been possible. I have had to wait a few days to get Plan B while waiting for a check to clear, thereby decreasing its effectiveness. As a full-time freelancer, I don't always know what my financial situation will be. Shelling out $50 a month for something I may not actually need doesn't always add up." —Rachel, 36, freelance writer

"When I graduated from college and had no health insurance, I depended on Planned Parenthood to gain access to the pills I needed to regulate my cycle.  I couldn't afford the out-of-pocket expense with my entry-level position at a small non-profit. Due to my health care realities, it was important for me to be on a specific pill that was really expensive. If I didn't have access to Planned Parenthood's support, I wouldn't have been able to improve my health and I would have continued to suffer from painful cramps and irregularity." —Jamia, 31, media activist

"I forgot to have my doctor call in my renewed birth control prescription to my campus pharmacy. So when I showed up to pick it up, they had the supplies on hand, but not for me. I had to call out to my doctor to get it reconfirmed. This meant that the prescription had not been processed by the insurance company and I was going to have to pay full price rather than the co-pay. And I had to get it then—I had to start the new cycle that day. You know how much it was? Instead of $10, it was $90! What?! It was a good lesson in how health insurance works, but when you have $180 dollars in your bank account and you're 19, that's kind of a weird call to have to make to your mom. Good thing mine's a college health nurse. I got a lecture on understanding how my healthcare plan works, and not one on having sex. I ended up submitting the prescription as an independent claim and waited three months to be reimbursed. In a way, I could afford it through the "safety net" that is my family. But if my parents didn't approve of my sexual activity, this could have had much larger financial repercussions." —Molly, 25, radio host

"I'll be 42 this spring, and I have NEVER had insurance coverage for contraception, mostly because I stopped having any health insurance at all around 1986. The two years before then, I had coverage, but through a Catholic hospital which didn't cover it. Lucky for me, through much of my life I have lived in cities with decent public health coverage for contraception (I've been a citizen my whole life, so that wasn't a barrier). Sometimes I didn't need it (lesbianism: the most underrated birth control on the planet)." —Heather, 41, sex educator and nonprofit founder

"I have had to struggle to pay for birth control on and off for years. Even though I have always had a job with insurance, my pills sometimes cost as much as $90 a month. My boyfriend helped to pay, but still, it smarted. Here we were trying to be responsible, and we had to pay a huge portion of our income for safe sex. I would always joke with him that every time we had sex we REALLY had to make it count because it was so expensive." —Anna, 27, nursing student

"I was a broke college student like everyone else. But my doctor prescribed me birth control to help with my irregular and extremely painful periods—the kind that would stop your entire day. My parents' extremely good union insurance would not cover the pill at all, even though it was stated by my doctor that it was not for contraception as much as it was for pain and irregularity. I spent a lot of time on the phone with the insurance company and my doctor, and after she wrote a letter explaining the situation, my insurance company refunded me around $600 after paying full price (around $76) for over a year. Flash forward to today—I have new insurance. My birth control pill doubled in price ($40 to $82 a month) WITH insurance coverage. I'm considering going off of this monster altogether because it just doesn't seem worth it. I might as well have a kid—hell, it'd be cheaper." —Jessica, 27, producer

"When I was 22, I was an intern and a waitress with no health insurance. My gyno's receptionist, Genie, was nice enough to smuggle me sample NuvaRings because I couldn't afford them. But even then, I had to pay for a checkup in order to get the prescription, which was more than $200. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place: Go to Planned Parenthood for a cheaper pelvic exam but no free birth control, or give up half my weekly earnings to go to my trusted clinic with a receptionist willing to bend the rules. When I moved from New York to Chicago, that wasn't an option. Once Genie's samples ran out, I had to go off the Ring altogether." —Nona, 27, GOOD associate editor

"I couldn't afford birth control as soon as I graduated. Luckily my gyno was cool and gave me sample packs that would last six months at a time. It's come to a point where I no longer chose to use it or any western meds, and while I am a conscious and alternative-lifestyle-type of person, it certainly didn't start that way. It had everything to do with cost. We got careers on the line and not everyone is cool with a pull out or a knock up!" —Sadye, 27, community organizer

"When I was 25, I had to leave a job without another one lined up because I had serious conflicts with my boss and the direction of the company. I have way too much dignity to beg for money, and since my then-boyfriend was already voluntarily paying more than his fair share of the bills while I looked for a job, I really didn't feel I could ask him to pay for birth control. So I tapped my savings. I scaled back on food, living off spaghetti noodles with oil rather than paying for actual produce. About five months into being unemployed, I was very close to having to ask him for money to pay for it, because I was nearly out of money altogether. Luckily, he got a vasectomy, which his insurance covered." —Amanda, 34, freelance writer

"Years ago, when I still wanted to be on the pill, my employed status went from full time with benefits to freelance with nothing—meaning I had to go off the pill or go broke. My really rich step-sister ended up helping me out by paying for my pill prescription in full until I got another full time job and health insurance along with it, but it was humiliating to have to ask her and I know most people don't have a really rich step-sister. I got lucky." —Anonymous, 33, writer

"Not all birth control is created equal. Because I have polycystic ovary syndrome and a history of depression, some birth control pills can make my symptoms worse. The one brand that I've been most recently prescribed doesn't come in a generic. Even though I have health insurance, those pills are going to cost close to $700 a year, which is way more than I'm comfortable spending. Before this year, I've just gone without the pill—basically allowing my PCOS symptoms to get worse because it was too expensive to get the right pill. I'm sucking it up and spending now just because it's finally come time to put my health needs first. But still, birth control is fucking expensive, and it sucks." —Anonymous, 24, marketing professional

"My junior year in college, it was such a struggle to afford the pill every month. I didn't have enough time in my schedule to have a steady job, plus it was just plain expensive with everything else I had to pay for on my own. My mother had just gotten remarried and became a born again Christian. I remember calling her from the student pharmacy, begging her to help me pay for the pill and some flu medicine. She refused 'for my own good,' even though I was taking the pill because I had serious issues with cramps and irregular periods (and had still never had sex, but that shouldn't even be a factor)...When I was in my twenties, working for nonprofit domestic violence advocacy groups, not making a ton of money, and birth control was a significant dent in my paycheck, I complained about this to my boyfriend. He thought that the pill was a 'luxury' and that I shouldn't complain about it, or just stop taking it. I decided he was a luxury I couldn't afford." —Jen, 31, writer/editor  

"I got a one-year prescription for Lo-estrin that cost $40 a month. The pharmacy company's patent was about to go generic, so a few months before the generic was going to come out, the price went up to $80 a month. A new doctor appointment for a new prescription was $300. Even $40 at the time was too much for me. I just went off it." —Emily, 29, artist

"Living in New York has made it necessary to prioritize expenses, especially when you're broke. Do you pay your phone bill or for birth control? Do you betray your body or miss a call from someone about a job? If doesn't seem like you have a choice when you don't have the money for both. There have been months where I've had to sell clothes, cameras, whatever, to get me to the end of the month. Yes I have a job, a computer, things I don't need, but that doesn't mean that sometimes shit doesn't happen and you're short on cash. And that the $30 you need to pay for birth control is the same $30 you need to pay for two weeks worth of groceries and a pass to the train. Accessibility is about something being at hand when needed (and wanted!), not simply the fact that it exists at the Duane Reade down the street." —Christie, 26, illustrator

"When I graduated from college, I took an entry-level job that didn't offer health insurance. I had been taking birth control to regulate my acne—something that was out of control. When they first rang up the bill at the pharmacy for the pills without a prescription, I was shocked. I immediately turned to Planned Parenthood. To be perfectly honest, I couldn't even afford their sliding scale rates. But I went anyway. I made my way through a picket line of people calling me a baby killer, waited for hours, and got it. When the pills ran out, instead of going back, I gave up. I really didn't want to be called a baby killer again." —Taylor, 28, high school administrative assistant

Right after college when I got kicked off my parents' insurance, I couldn't afford it and had to stop taking it. As a result, I had a few unnecessary 'scares' that wouldn't have been 'scares' at all if I had the pill." —Lucille, 26, government relations

In 2008, I was on a gap year from college and school insurance had just run out. For a few precarious months, I was uninsured and hoping I wouldn't get hit by a bus while walking the dog, who—sad to say it—had a much more sophistocated health insurance policy than anything I'd ever been on. Luckily, I was living in Massachusetts, where my income level qualified me for a state-subsidized insurance plan. I had remained a resident of California all through college, but this was enough motivation for me to give up the right to vote and pay taxes in my sunny home state. My new insurance policy covered the full cost of all prescription birth control, including the IUD, as well as the insertion procedure. —Lena, 24

"I've always been able to afford birth control ... technically. But at various points over the past decade, access to birth control has been made so difficult that it's been almost impossible to get without putting my work at risk. When I moved to Los Angeles and started looking for a gynecologist, I spent hours huddled outside my office building on the phone with random doctors' offices, hoping to find one who would agree to see a woman who was not pregnant. When I finally found a doctor who would see me, he made condescending comments about my relationship status, refused to write me a prescription that lasted more than three months (though I had been taking this medication for ten years), and forced me to return to his office constantly to receive my test results and refill my prescription whether or not there was anything actually physically wrong with me. When I did return, he told me that he had lost my appointment and I would have to make another. I never went back there, and I'm not on birth control now. Time is money." —Amanda, 26, GOOD lifestyle editor

"I've been incredibly lucky when it comes to birth control. [But] friends of mine who very much want to be on the pill can't because their families disapprove or they can't afford it themselves. I've seen girls at my high school pregnant with their second or third child because they can't access or afford birth control or because they and their partners simply don't know how to practice safe sex (thank you, abstinence-only sex ed). So yeah, Rep. Price, access to BC isn't a problem when you're a white straight cis upper-middle class woman from a fairly easy going family with insurance like me. But don't you dare try to suggest that that's the norm." —Caitlin, 20, student

Photo via (cc) Flickr user M. Markus

Backstage with B.B.:

‘King of the Blues’

is generous with his music,

and with his time

Posted by Nick DeRiso

Guitarist Magazine is honoring B.B. King this month, releasing a gala 132-page magazine focused on the man they call “The Undisputed King of Blues.” That had us going back to a personal moment spent with this music-making legend …

The magazine offers an historical overview of King’s live and influence, following him from humble beginnings near Indianola, Mississippi, to international stardom as an ambassador for the blues. There’s also a exclusive one-hour documentary DVD from director John Brewer, who is at work on a feature-length film about B.B. King. The DVD features in-depth interviews, archival film and images from throughout King’s career, along with new video from last year’s blockbuster sell-out performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Elsewhere, the magazine offers technical sections on King’s guitars and gear, along with playing lessons and techniques, and more.

But first, let’s go backstage with B.B. …

B.B. King, inside the bright circle of television light, asks someone to bring him a soda. The stage crew, meanwhile, is hurriedly disassembling the stage out in the arena. King takes a sip and looks at the label: “We’re not getting paid for his,” he says, and puts the can out of sight.

He has been signing an endless stream of albums, pictures and scraps of paper, first just off stage and then in his dressing room. King’s been interviewed, photographed and given the key to the city. The concert has been over for hours, forever. But B.B. King is just getting started.

“What we want you to say, Mr. King,” the TV person instructs, “is: ‘Hello, I’m B.B. King. Lucille (his legendary guitar) and I would like to encourage every one of you to join the fight against crime in this parish.’” King considers it for a moment, after saying “O.K.” Then he looks some more at a piece of paper with notes about what he’s supposed to say.

There are a group of people lining the walls of his dressing room — friends, bodyguards, attendants, and another in the never-ending line of families waiting for their sliver of time with a living, breathing legend.

“May I say, ‘Hello, I’m B.B. King. Lucille and I would like to encourage you to join in the fight against crime,’ like that? I want to make it for everybody,” he says. The TV person answers: “Well, sure, Mr. King. It doesn’t have to be like that. It can be universal.” King looks over the paper again, whispering to himself. “If you just let me look at it a couple of times, I think I can get it in my head,” he says, helpfully. After another moment, King says: “I think I’ve got it,” but asks for another soda break.

He’s just finished performing for more than 1,900 people in a little Louisiana town, another in a lifetime’s tapestry of nights spent weaving stories of love-gone-bad and love-gone-for-good, all with his patented butterfly-wrist guitar twang. King has thrown off his coat, and wiped his brow. It is well past midnight on a Sunday morning, approaching now 1 a.m. But he doesn’t seem weary.

“Hello, I’m B.B. King. Lucille and I would like each and every one of you to join in the fight against crime,” he says, then waves off the take with a quick hand gesture. “O.K., let’s try it once more, just to make sure we’ve got it,” the cameraman says. There is a quiet moment. Then, in a louder voice, King says: “Hello, I’m B.B. King. Lucille and I, we’d like to join –” He stops, and smiles with open joy. “We’ll do another; we’ll do another,” the TV person says. King takes a deep breath: “Are we ready? Alright,” he says, cheerfully. “O.K., Hello. I’m B.B. King. Lucille and I would like to encourage each and every one of you to join in and help the fight against crime.”

The take is finally done. They cut the camera off, and start spooling up cords and taking down the lights. “Now, I’m a star. Get the wheelbarrow!” King booms, gesturing around the room. “Get the wheelbarrow, ’cause my head’s going to expand! I got to get it out of here!” Everyone laughs. But no one leaves.

Another woman comes up with another notebook to be signed. “I have a friend who wants me to get your autograph,” she says. “Because she is in love with you.” King’s smile grows wider. “In love with me, huh?” Sitting next to King now, the TV person says: “You have more women in love with you.” King is writing “Best Wishes” in the notebook, then. “But none of them,” he says, wryly, “want to marry me. Lucille, she just stays with me ’cause I pay her.”

Somebody else in the dressing room says: “Do you imagine it’s because a woman can’t keep up with you?” “Well,” King says, “I’ve been married more than once. That may have something to do with it.” Again, everyone laughs. Again, though, nobody moves. The pause this time is longer than the last. King finally says: “Well, thank y’all.” But somebody gets him going again, talking about being given the key to the city. King sits back, taking it all in: “When he handed me the key, I wanted to ask him … ‘if I run a red light …,” he says, looking around the room with another huge grin. “Would it help get me out?”

Then, King is up and ready to leave. But he never does. “Alright, thank you all,” he says, then starts right back in.

“A couple of days ago, it was Monday,” King says. “I was in San Jose, Calif. I needed to see my dentist, so I told my secretary to get me a car, which he generally do. And if I’m running late like I was at that time, we have to call all the agencies in town that rent cars kind of in a hurry,” King continues. “Well, I call this lady up, and the lady says: ‘I’m sorry, but do you have a reservation?’ You can’t get a car without a reservation.”

King is sitting again, though still at the edge of a couch that was hastily dragged into the dressing room for the show. “Then she said: ‘But, can you give me an autograph?’” King exclaims, then glances around, incredulously. “So, I didn’t say anything. I just looked at her, kind of like this.” King makes the same face he makes when he roars that nobody loves him but his mother — and she may be jivin’, too. “She says: ‘I’m sorry, but I ain’t got no car.’”

Out by the door, the backstage manager is asking photographers if they need any more shots, and writers if they have gotten everything they need. The people around B.B. King look tired, and ready to go. He doesn’t. Not by a country mile.

“She said: ‘But, I’m going to try to help ya,’” King continued. “And she did. I got me a car, from some car company I never heard of before.” King shakes his head at the memory, laughing softly. “O.K., thank you,” he says, after being prodded to leave again. One of the members of this entourage says: “Thank you all.”

What might have been the last group files out of King’s quarters, only to stumble into another smattering of fans and friends still waiting in the hall. Several children traveling on tour with King are walking up and down the arena halls, patiently biding their time under flourescent lights that make their church clothes glow. One of them, a boy wearing crooked glasses, finally asks: “Is he done yet?”

The man guarding B.B. King’s door says: “Almost, son. In a little while.”

Video of the Week!

Posted on February 10, 2012 by blackatlanticresource 

We here at the Black Atlantic Resource are happy to announce a new feature: Video of the Week. Each week we will aim to bring you an interesting video – posted here within our debate space – which we have found freely available online. We are doing this to highlight the amount of potential research material which is now digitized and accessible by a click of your mouse!

Here’s your first Video of the Week: Cab Calloway – Minnie the Moocher

Cab Calloway and His Orchestra’s hit jazz song Minnie the Moocher is used here as the soundtrack to a Fleischer Brothers’ 1932 Betty Boop cartoon. First we get to see Calloway’s signature dance moves while he conducts his orchestra, the video then cuts midway through the cartoon to a dancing ghost walrus voiced by Calloway and sporting his moves! Cab Calloway was a hugely talented American bandleader, singer and dancer who performed regularly at Harlem’s Cotton Club in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance era and later. Click here to find out more about Cab Calloway.

Aside from this the content of the cartoon, which at that time would have been produced as entertainment mainly for an adult audience, provides an interesting comment on American society of the 1930s. The cartoon’s representations of capital punishment – in light of the Powell v. Alabama ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court associated with the Scottsboro Boys case of 1931 – or what it’s depictions demonstrate about animators and audiences associations with jazz music are all telling…

Folio Prose Contest 2011-2012

 

5,000 word limit
Deadline: March 5, 2012
Submission fee: $15 per submission

First Prize: $500
Two Honorable Mentions: $150 each

Finalists will be judged by the award-winning author of Volt, Alan Heathcock. His work has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, VQR, and The Harvard Review, among others. He’s been critically acclaimed by the Huffington Post, Publisher’s Weekly and The New York Times, which raved, “Heathcock displays a generosity of spirit that only those writers who love their characters can summon, and Volt is galvanizing proof of his talent.”

Joy Williams had this to say, “VOLT is booming, cracking good. Heathcock’s characters are trying to make things right, whether they’re busting up a town, avenging the grief of a mother, or trying to live with the self-imposed judgment of loyalty or remorse. Guilt and grace are the pillars of this excellent collection, and there are no stronger or more mysterious pillars than those.”

Be sure to address your submissions, cover letter, and SASE as follows:

ATTN: Fiction Contest
Folio
Department of Literature,
American University
Washington, D.C. 20016-8047

Call for submissions:

children's poetry

e-book anthology on sports

 

 

Deadline: 30 April 2012

On your marks, get set, write!

An independently published e-book anthology of children’s poetry dedicated to the wide world of sports is in the works.

ADULTS who write children’s poetry, including those who are emerging poets, are invited to submit their work.

We’re looking for original, unpublished poems, written in English, aimed at 5- to 12-year-olds that deal with various aspects of athletics:

• Olympics and other major international sports events (i.e., FIFA World Cup)

• winter/summer, individual/team sports

• winning and losing

• amateur/professional athletes

• sports fans and those behind the scenes (coaches, refs, etc.)

• equipment/uniforms and places where sports are played

• sports history and other miscellanea (halls of fame, records, trivia, etc.)

*We are interested in receiving poems written in a variety of forms including but not limited to the following: couplet, triplet, limerick, haiku, tanka, cinquain, diamante, mask poem, apostrophe poem, list poem, etheree, palindrome, etc.

Poets whose work is selected for the collection will receive a small honorarium.

We will contact you shortly after the deadline if we plan to include your poem in the anthology.

A portion of the anthology’s proceeds will be donated to Right to Play, an organization working with volunteers and partners to use sport and play to enhance child development in areas of disadvantage.

Please email poems to Carol-Ann Hoyte at kidlitfan1972@yahoo.ca.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: kidlitfan1972@yahoo.ca

For submissions: kidlitfan1972@yahoo.ca

 

The Fellowships

Since 1986, the University of Wisconsin's Institute for Creative Writing has provided time, space, and an intellectual community for writers working on a first book of poetry or fiction. Altogether, our poetry and fiction fellows have published over ninety full-length collections and novels, many of them winning major national honors. Since 2008, the Institute has also awarded a fellowship for playwrights.

At present, the Institute annually offers up to seven year-long fellowships. Typically there are three fiction fellowships (the Carl Djerassi Fiction Fellowship, the James C. McCreight Fiction Fellowship, and the Carol Houck Smith Fiction Fellowship), two poetry fellowships (the Jay C. and Ruth Halls Fellowship and the Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellowship), one playwriting fellowship (the Carl Djerassi Playwriting Fellowship), and one fellowship in either fiction or poetry for a graduate of the University's MFA Program in Creative Writing (the Halls Emerging Artist Fellowship).

Each of these fellowships carries with it a $27,000 stipend, generous health benefits, and a one-course-per-semester teaching assignment in intermediate or advanced undergraduate creative writing. Fiction and poetry fellows are asked to give one public reading in the spring semester. Additionally, all fellows participate in determining the recipients of the annual Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry, as well as the Program in Creative Writing's undergraduate writing contests. Along with faculty, fellows also serve on the committees selecting the following year's Institute fellows.

Details and frequently asked questions regarding the fellowships can be found on the applications page of this website. Applications to the poetry, fiction, and HEAF fellowships must be received in the month of February. Applications to the Djerassi Playwriting Fellowship must be received by April 1.

The current director of the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing is Judith Claire Mitchell. For questions about the fellowship program not answered below please contact the Institute Program Coordinator, Sean Bishop, at institutemail@english.wisc.edu.

The Halls and Middlebrook Poetry
Fellowships & the Djerassi,
McCreight, and Smith
Fiction Fellowships

Poets and fiction writers who have completed or will have completed an MFA or a PhD in creative writing by August 15th of the fellowship year are eligible to apply for a Wisconsin Institute poetry or fiction fellowship, provided they have not yet published or signed a contract for a book of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or other creative work by the postmark date of application. Applications must be received in the month of February. Details and frequently asked questions regarding these fellowships can be found on the fellowship applications page of this website. The HEAF is the only Institute fellowship for which graduates of the UW MFA program are eligible to apply.

The Djerassi Fellowship
in Playwriting

The Carl Djerassi Fellowship in Playwriting was established by scientist and author Carl Djerassi to encourage beginning-to-mid-career playwrights whose work is not only performed, but also has intrinsic literary value. To realize Dr. Djerassi's vision, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Program in Creative Writing annually awards a fellowship to a playwright whose whose plays can be read and discussed as works on the page as well as performed on the stage. Playwrights whose works have been published as well as performed are especially of interest. Applications must be received by April 1. Details and frequently asked questions regarding the fellowship can be found on the application page of this website.

 

The Halls Emerging
Artist Fellowship

The Halls Emerging Artist Fellowship (the HEAF) is awarded to a graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Creative Writing MFA program who has not had a book of fiction, poetry or other creative work published or accepted for publication as of the postmark date of application.

The recipient of the HEAF will be determined by an outside judge who publishes both fiction and poetry. The name of this judge will be withheld until the HEAF has been announced. Applications should arrive during the month of February. Details and frequently asked questions regarding these fellowships can be found on the fellowship applications page of this website. The Institute may decline to give the HEAF award in any year it deems appropriate.

Third World Newsreel

Acquires "Audre Lorde

- The Berlin Years

1984 to 1992"

For March Release

+ Trailer

News by Tambay | February 10, 2012

Previously profiled on S&A, and scheduled to make its world premiere in the Panorama Documentary section is Dagmar Shultz's Audre Lorde - The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 - an untold chapter (the Berlin years) of the late writer, poet and activist, Caribbean child of immigrants from Grenada, who died rather young at 58 years old in 1992.

Specifically, the film will focus on...

Audre Lorde's years in Berlin in which she catalyzed the first movement of Black Germans to claim their identity as Afro-Germans with pride. As she was inspiring Afro-Germans she was also encouraging the White German feminists to look at their own racism

The film will serve as a historical document for future generations of Germans, which profiles and highlights, from the roots, the African presence in Germany, and the origins of the anti-racist movement before and after the German reunification, as well as facillitates an analysis and an understanding of present debates on identity and racism in Germany.

The film can be considered a companion piece to the1994 documentary A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde by Ada Gray Griffin and Michelle Parkerson, which also screened at the Berlin Film Festival.

It was announced today that Third World Newsreel has acquired the 84-minute film and will premiere at at The Brecht Forum in New York City on Monday, March 23rd; no word on where it'll play after that. But it'll be out on DVD sometime this spring.

A trailer for the film has also been released and it's embedded below (hopefully we can get a Berlin review after the film screens next week):

Watch This Must-See Debate

Between Tavis Smiley,

Viola Davis + Octavia Spencer

About "The Help"

Video by Cynthia Reid | February 10, 2012

If you're like me, you're probably ready to move on from all the controversy surrounding The Help but here's a spirited debate between Tavis Smiley, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer that's a must-see!

With a tag-team style, the ladies tackle all the questions and never-ending conflict about the film.

Watch Actresses Viola Davis & Octavia Spencer on PBS. See more from Tavis Smiley.

The Widening

Academic

Achievement Gap

between the Rich

and the Poor:

New Evidence and

Possible Explanations

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Authors: Sean F. Reardon,

 

Publication Type: Book, Book Chapter
Year of Publication: 2011

Editor(s): In Richard Murnane & Greg Duncan (Eds.)

Journal: Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality and the Uncertain Life Chances of Low-Income Children, New York: Russell Sage Foundation

Download

Download appendix

Abstract

In this chapter I examine whether and how the relationship between family socioeconomic characteristics and academic achievement has changed during the last fifty years. In particular, I investigate the extent to which the rising income inequality of the last four decades has been paralleled by a similar increase in the income achievement gradient. As the income gap between high- and low-income families has widened, has the achievement gap between children in high- and low-income families also widened?

The answer, in brief, is yes. The achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is roughly 30 to 40 percent larger among children born in 2001 than among those born twenty-five years earlier. In fact, it appears that the income achievement gap has been growing for at least fifty years, though the data are less certain for cohorts of children born before 1970. In this chapter, I describe and discuss these trends in some detail. In addition to the key finding that the income achievement gap appears to have widened substantially, there are a number of other important findings.

First, the income achievement gap (defined here as the income difference between a child from a family at the 90th percentile of the family income distribution and a child from a family at the 10th percentile) is now nearly twice as large as the black-white achievement gap. Fifty years ago, in contrast, the black-white gap was one and a half to two times as large as the income gap. Second, as Greg Duncan and Katherine Magnuson note in chapter 3 of this volume, the income achievement gap is large when children enter kindergarten and does not appear to grow (or narrow) appreciably as children progress through school. Third, although rising income inequality may play a role in the growing income achievement gap, it does not appear to be the dominant factor. The gap appears to have grown at least partly because of an increase in the association between family income and children’s academic achievement for families above the median income level: a given difference in family incomes now corresponds to a 30 to 60 percent larger difference in achievement than it did for children born in the 1970s. Moreover, evidence from other studies suggests that this may be in part a result of increasing parental investment in children’s cognitive development. Finally, the growing income achievement gap does not appear to be a result of a growing achievement gap between children with highly and less-educated parents. Indeed, the relationship between parental education and children’s achievement has remained relatively stable during the last fifty years, whereas the relationship between income and achievement has grown sharply. Family income is now nearly as strong as parental education in predicting children’s achievement.

This chapter is now published in the book Whither Opportunity:
https://www.russellsage.org/publications/whither-opportunity

Rwandan and Burundian

“Street” Dancers

 

February 8th, 2012

J Majik, Wickaman, and D Freer made this video for their single “In Pieces”. The video features dancers from Kigali in Rwanda and Bujumbura in Burundi. I believe this video was also feature on AIAC a while back.