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ON THE ISSUES MAGAZINE ONLINE is a successor to the print publication, On The Issues Magazine, a progressive, feminist quarterly print publication from 1983 to 1999, both published by Choices Women’s Medical Center, Merle Hoffman, President and CEO, located in Long Island City, New York. For inquiries about On The Issues Magazine, contact managingeditor@ontheissuesmagazine.com

Merle Hoffman, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, is a writer, activist and health care provider. She is the Founder, President and CEO of CHOICES Women’s Medical Center, one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive women's medical facilities. Established in 1971 with a vision of patient empowerment through knowledge and education -- “Patient Power" -- Choices serves more than 50,000 patients a year. She also established Choices Mental Health Center which specialized in the treatment of rape incest and domestic violence. In an historic joint venture with the Yelstin Government she worked on developing the first feminist outpatient medical center in Russia as well as organizing Russian Feminists to deliver an open letter to Boris Yeltsin on the state of women's health care. As an activist and organizer, Hoffman was co-founder of the National Abortion Federation (NAF), founder of the New York Pro-Choice Coalition, and organized the first pro-choice civil disobedience action at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.She is a frequent media guest and speaker, including at the 1995 International Women’s Conference in Beijing. She co-produced the documentary film, “Abortion: A Different Light," and produced and hosted a thirty minute cable TV show entitled "MH: On The Issues." In 2002, she was appointed to the National Advisory Board of American Philosophical Practitioners Association. Her archives were acquired by Duke University in 2002 and are a major part of the Sally Bingham Center's women's History papers. Hoffman has been honored for her work by the Department of Corrections of New York City, National Organization for Women (NOW), Women's Health Care Services, Ecovisions, Community Action Network, the National Victim's Center, the Congress of Racial Equality, the Veteran Feminists of America, former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, and others. Hoffman writes frequently on topics related to women, politics and medical care, including for the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Journal of American Women's Associations, in addition to her groundbreaking interviews and editorials in On The Issues Magazine.
To contact: merle@ontheissuesmagazine.com

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Cindy Cooper, Managing Editor, is an award-winning playwright, journalist and author. She writes frequently about women, justice and reproductive rights. Her articles have appeared in The Nation, Feminist Studies, In These Times, FAIR Extra!, Poz, Canadian Woman Studies, Women’s eNews, the National Law Journal, Ms. and elsewhere. Cooper’s plays have been produced off-Broadway and at dozens of theaters throughout the nation. A former practicing lawyer, she is the author of six books, most recently co-authoring with Elizabeth Holtzman, The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Practical Guide for Concerned Citizens (The Nation Books).
To contact: managingeditor@ontheissuesmagazine.com

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Judith Arcana, Co-Poetry Editor, writes poems, stories, essays and books; her work has been published widely for more than thirty years, in print and online. She’s the author of two classic motherhood studies, Our Mothers’ Daughters and Every Mother’s Son, as well as Grace Paley’s Life Stories, A Literary Biography and the recent poetry collection What if your mother. Judith is a frequent speaker and performer of her work at colleges, community events, libraries and bookstores. Her newest book is 4th Period English, a chapbook of poems about immigration and related themes – about which Alicia Ostriker has written: “Judith Arcana’s 4th Period English is so wonderful, I feel privileged to have read it, and I wish it were part of every curriculum starting right now…. This is absolutely terrific writing.” Visit her website juditharcana.com
To contact: Judith@ontheissuesmagazine.com

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Clare Coss, Co-Poetry Editor, is a writer, psychotherapist and activist has served as the Poetry Editor of AFFILIA, a feminist journal of women and social work. Her plays include: Emmett, Down in My Heart; Love and Defiance: Ten Scenes from the Twentieth Century; The Star Strangled Banner. She co-authored the feminist trilogy The Daughters Cycle: Daughters, Sister/Sister, Electra Speaks. Coss presents dramatic readings of her two one-characters plays: Lillian Wald: At Home on Henry Street (New Federal Theatre production in Theatre on Film and Video Collection, NYPL Lincoln Center) and Dangerous Territory, about Mary White Ovington, a white co-founder of the NAACP. She edited The Arc of Love, an Anthology of Lesbian Love Poems (Scribner), a Lambda Literary Award finalist. Her Lillian Wald: Progressive Activist (Feminist Press) features a biographical essay, the Wald play, and a selection of Wald's speeches and correspondence. She is a member of PEN, Dramatists Guild, The League of Professional Theatre Women.
To contact: poetryeditor@ontheissuesmagazine.com

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Mark D. Phillips, Technology and Creative Design Director, worked for over twenty years as a photojournalist, including for three newspapers and two major news services. In 1992, he won First Place awards for his Sports photography in the Pictures of the Year competition and First Place from the Baseball Hall of Fame while working for Agence France-Presse. In 1994, he and five photographers formed a company to combine traditional media and new technology. Later that year, he experimented with photo transmission while in South Africa covering Nelson Mandela’s election as the first black president. In 2001, as a witness to the World Trade Center attacks, he captured on camera an eerie image that came to be known as “Satan in the Smoke” and received enormous worldwide attention across the Internet. A Brooklyn resident, Phillips also operates SouthBrooklyn.net.
To contact: mark@ontheissuesmagazine.com

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Linda Stein, Art Editor. The concepts of Protection and Justice have permeated Stein’s sculpture for the last three decades, culminating in Knights, her sculptural series of body-as-armor. She references icons from spiritual and pop culture, especially the superhero, Wonder Woman from World War II comics, who excites Stein as a defending warrior who never killed in her pursuit for peace and security. The Power to Protect: Sculpture of Linda Stein, travelled in 2006 to Flomenhaft Gallery, Chelsea, NY and Longstreth Goldberg Art, Naples FL. In 2007, a retrospective was shown at the Rosen Museum, Boca Raton, FL and an exhibition was mounted at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. In 2009, Linda Stein Sculpture--Strong Suit:Armor as Second Skin was shown at the National Association of Women Artists. Stein's videos are on YouTube and her papers are archived at The Sophia Smith Collectio, Smith College, Northampton, MA. Stein’s work can be viewed on www.LindaStein.com and her most recent catalog obtained through www.amazon.com. To contact: LindaStein@ontheissuesmagazine.com

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Eleanor Bader, Contributing Editor, teaches college English and journalism. She writes for The Brooklyn Rail, The Indypendent, Z Magazine, The Progressive, The L Magazine, RHRealityCheck.org and Library Journal. She is also an activist and the co-author of Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism (Palgrave/St.Martin's Press, 2001).

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Georgia Kral, Editorial and Outreach Assistant, is a writer, blogger and photographer from Brooklyn. Kral has a master's degree in journalism from the City University of New York and a bachelor's degree from Hampshire College. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times and The NY Press and on Spinner.com. She writes and edits a music blog called Microphone Memory Emotion.
To contact: georgia@ontheissuesmagazine.com or 718-391-0023

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Contributors to Passion, Freedom & Women, Winter 2010

Writers

Eleanor J. Bader ( Amy Hagstrom Miller: Picking Up The Reins) is a freelance writer, teacher, and activist. She writes for The Brooklyn Rail, The L Magazine, RHRealitycheck.org, and other progressive and feminist publications.

Barbara Becker (With the Understanding of Gandhi, Aminatou Put Her Life on the Line) is principal and founder of EqualShot, where she develops campaigns on behalf of social justice institutions worldwide. She is also a part-time faculty member at Columbia University's masters program in strategic communications and is currently teaching “Communications for Social Change.” The views expressed are her own and are, in no way, meant to reflect those of her clients.

Janet Benshoof (Justice for Aung San Suu Kyi: End Male Power Structures) is an international human rights lawyer who has established landmark legal precedents on equality in the U.S. and worldwide. She is the founder and current president of the Global Justice Center in New York.

Theresa Braine ( Esther Chavez Cano Added Up the Devastation of Gender Violence) is a freelance journalist in New York City who was based in Mexico for seven years.

Cynthia L. Cooper (In The Act Alone: German Resistance to the Nazi Movement) is a journalist and playwright in New York, and managing editor of On The Issues Magazine. Silence Not, A Love Story is published by Gihon River Press.

Gloria Feldt ( Convictions to Action: Lessons from Margaret Sanger) is the author of The War on Choice and former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Feldt is currently writing Unlimited, an exploration of women’s relationship with power to be published by Seal in Fall 2010. Tweet her @heartfeldt.

Mary Lou Greenberg ( Susan Hill – 37 years of courage) is an activist in New York City who writes for Revolution Newspaper.

Mahin Hassibi (in MAHIN HASSIBI: Visionary Ideas, Thinking Out Loud by The Editors) was a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry (Ret.) at New York Medical College, and a frequent contributor to On The Issues Magazine. She died of cancer on January 20, 2010 at the age of 72.

Merle Hoffman (The Courage of No) is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of On The Issues Magazine. She is the Founder, President and CEO of CHOICES Women’s Medical Center.

Karen Jones Meadows ( Harriet’s Voice: A Writer and Her Inhabitation) is the author of HARRIET’S RETURN: Based Upon the Legendary Life of Harriet Tubman is a healing artist, working as a writer, actress, intuitive medium, arts- in-education specialist and workshop facilitator. She creates stories and environments that inspire people to align in practice with their highest intentions. She can be reached at onpurposenow@cs.com or www.harrietsreturn.com.

Linda Stein (Wonder Woman: A Comic Book Character Shows the Way) is the Art Editor of On The Issues Magazine. The concepts of Protection, Peace and Parity in Stein’s art, writing and lectures include a sculptural series called Knights, of body-as-armor, in which she references Wonder Woman and other icons from spiritual and pop culture. More about her work and upcoming exhibitions is at www.lindastein.com.

Jaye Austin Williams (Film Review: Liberian Women Forge a Real-Life Lysistrata) is a doctoral student in the Joint PhD Program in Drama and Theatre at the University of California Irvine/San Diego, where she is also an instructor of dramatic literature. She is pursuing an emphasis in Critical Theory as it applies to depictions of and articulations by and about African-descended Peoples in dramatic literature, performance and cinema. Jaye holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and has spent the better part of the last 30 years as a stage director, playwright, actor, teacher, writer and consultant.

Sakena Yacoobi (Unlocking the Quiet Courage of Afghans) is the Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning, an NGO in Afghanistan and Pakistan which provides education for women and children; training in pedgagogy, leadership, human rights, administration and health, as well as health services and education to rural women and children. Dr. Yacoobi has won numerous awards for her international work in peace and human rights, and serves on over 15 affiliated group panels and boards. See more information at www.creatinghope.org.

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Poets

Heather Lynne Davis (From Armenia) is the author of The Lost Tribe of Us, which won the 2007 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award. For the past 16 years she has worked in international health and development, meeting amazing women from every part of the globe. She also writes a blog about post-city life in rural small town America. From Armenia first appeared in Women's Studies Quarterly: Volume 35, Number 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 2007.

Susan Eisenberg (Partner #3 ) is the author of We’ll Call You If We Need You: Experiences of Women Working Construction, a New York Times Notable Book, and the poetry collections, Blind Spot and Pioneering. She entered union construction in 1978 and is a licensed master electrician. As a Resident Artist and Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, she focuses on projects that address patient-centered medical care and employment equity through two touring exhibits: the photographs and poems of Perpetual Care, and the mixed media installation, On Equal Terms..

Renny Golden (Bring in the Clowns: Kip Fiernan, Founder of Rosie’s Place; Troubling the Waters) was nominated for a National Book Award in 2000 for book of poetry, The Hour of the Furnaces. Her poetry book, Raising the Bones will be published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2010. Golden’s most recent book, War on the Family: Imprisoned Mothers and the Families They Leave Behind, (NY: Routledge 2005), was a Finalist for the C Wright Mills Award. Her poetry has been published in: International Quarterly, The American Voice, Literary Review, Irish American Poetry from the 18th Century to the Present, ed. Daniel Tobin (Notre Dame Press), and elsewhere.

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Featured Filmmaker

Filmmaker Diana Whitten on Women on Waves

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Featured Artist

Retrospective of Miriam Schapiro in The Art Perspective by Linda Stein

Artists

Joan Barber

Meredith Bergmann

Diana Kurz

Danielle Mailer

Christine Peloquin; Also see Peloquin here

Ellen Pliskin

Linda Stein; Also see Stein here

Tamara Wyndham