Jodi Leib's March For Women's Lives Journal
April 23-26, 2004
Jodi Leib and Carri Ferrand of Planned Parenthood
What's in
Jodi's CD player?
music selected by Jodi Leib
produced James Oddo
Friday, April 23 12:30 am. Los Angeles Int'l Airport, CA
LE Stokes, Good Intentions LAX airport to Minneapolis My cousin Sara drives me to the airport. Camaraderie begins with family. LE Stokes is so super spiritual. Her music takes me away into a place of spirit for humanity. It's feel-good for the borderline lonely. I'm on my journey, alone, toward a greatness of gatherings, a historical moment in feminism. Feminism is womanhood for all generations. I'm feeling nostalgic for a moment that hasn't even occurred yet. Something profound is happening, I can feel it.
Friday, April 23 6:30 am. Minneapolis Airport, MN
Sheryl Crow, C'Mon C'Mon Minneapolis airport to Washington D.C. The excitement builds. I'm seeing a few cool girls (they're women actually in their 40's, but Feminism is always hip) who look like they're on their way to the March. I meet Jane and her friends from the Santa Barbara delegation. They fly into DC National while I head out to Dulles. I'm waiting at the gate, happily awaiting my moment in the sun. I need to be with Sheryl. There's a cute guy sleeping on the bench opposite me.
Friday, April 23 10:30 am. Dulles Airport and Bus, VA
Now the women have landed. Dulles is consumed by women and men attending the March for Women's Lives. People from all over the country joining together, being nice to one another. I meet a cool punk from Minneapolis. She was on my flight. She is a lawyer who represents people living in poverty. She has spiky blond hair...Nicole is her name. She looks nothing like my father. She's radical. We talk about politics, the law and domestic violence. She and I join together and find the bus that will lead us cheaply into Washington D.C. We are joined by Deb, a journalist from LA and some other activists or students from somewhere in the South. We get on the bus, talking intellectually and passionately about why George Bush sucks and how we're so excited to be at the March.
Friday, April 23 12:30 pm. L'Enfant Plaza, Washington DC
We are all dropped of at L'Enfant Plaza where Nicole was staying. Everyone was off to lunch together as best friends. I, however, am on a low-money diet, and decide to head over to the March office to retain my press pass for the coming events. I get a kick out of fame and media, so I say farewell to my new lifelong friends I will probably never see again, and I'm on my way...suitcase in hand, walking toward the metro.
Friday, April 23 3:30 pm. March for Women's Lives Office, Washington DC
March for Women's Lives office. I check in for the first time in my life with a real-live media pass. I'm so super cool with myself. This is my life's passion living itself in reality, fully-realized, full self-expression. I'm stoked. Like LE, she's always with me in my head. I have Good Intentions. I'm a good actress, and I'm sure I convinced them I've done this before. After all, I went on tour with The Black Eyed Peas. Yes, I've been called a shameless self-promoter before, but not to worry, they love me. I love them. I'm making a movie about the family planning debate, and a portion of the soundtrack is going to family planning centers worldwide. Where do I need to be and when?
On my way out, Aimee from Olympia, WA area meets me and tells me she's taking a college class about women rock journalists. I stop and give her an interview.
Friday, April 23 4:30 pm. Metro from Washington DC to Maryland
Mazzy Star, So That Tonight I Might See, on the metro from Washington DC to rural Maryland where I'm staying the night with Gina, a friend of a friend who will graciously take me in. I am depressed from the travels, tired and moody. Mazzy is surely the perfect vibe for my excursion into Maryland. My boyfriend would call it decompression.
Gina hosts the women of West Hollywood where I spend a beautiful evening being updated on the injustices our government is dishing on homosexuals in America. I am reminded of the days before World War II when Hitler rounded up the gays and used his platform to discriminate against his own people. I am shocked and angry, always sensitive to the underdog. How dare Bush use his job to break the constitution of our United States! And I once, actually liked him. Now, he is the ultimate Anti-American.
Saturday, April 24 1:00 pm. Metro from Maryland to Washington DC
Bijou Phillips, I'd Rather Eat Glass She's so funky, I can't help but feel her upbeat tempo as I hit the streets walking. Bijou's Hawaii seems to be my ultimate travel song. I'm smiling at all the women I see wearing this color pink. They've got their buttons, their signs, their t-shirts. The waitresses at the cafes are wearing pins, everywhere I look, women are around for the March. I guess I'd say about 1 man to every 5 women was the demographic wherever I looked. It's funny, because I stopped feeling like God was a 'Him' for a moment. You know, outside of the male-dominated mental frame we call American society, God really isn't a 'Him' at all. It's our structure that's a 'Him'. God is an energy, that is like tofu; you choose, God adapts. God truly is in estrogen, and I'm proud of it. Estrogen is a hormone that we humans can't live without. It's a beautiful, sexy, passionate hormone. I love it, and I believe it was the color of the estrogen that made the weekend so unique and special.
Saturday, April 24 3:00 pm. Streets of Washington DC
I get off at the wrong metro stop and must walk endlessly to my Best Western hotel where I am to meet my roommates Lori and Jose. I can't walk anymore, and so I jump in a cab. I go to make a call, and my cell phone is gone. GONE! Ok, what? Go, back, please, where's my phone? The nice cab driver man turns around, lets me use his phone to call mine...to make a long story short, it was run over by a car on the ground where I hopped in the cab. Luckily, for me, it was only a near death experience....the significance of which I will know later tonight.
Saturday, April 24 7:30 pm. The Warner Theater, Washington DC
The Warner Theater was housing a Planned Parenthood event that was sure to become one of the coolest concerts/spoken word, rallies, I have ever attended. Keep in mind, I went to University of Michigan, where leg hair and politics is customary. After 10 years in LA, it felt like home. Since I graduated from college, however, politics has gotten chic. Moby played, Ani DiFranco vibed, Camyrn Manheim danced, Gloria cheered, Susan Sarandon motivated, Francis Fisher inspired, Wanda Sikes chuckled, Suzanne West ripped it, and basically I decided to sue George Bush for discrimination, thanks to my impassioned talk with the massage therapist.
And yes, I got to Talk It Out with Moby. Special thanks to all the ushers, and Planned Parenthood supporters and staff. Carri, you ROCK! Gregg, you frickin' RULE, dude!!!! (he's Moby's manager). One thing I learned to do early in my life is always to thank my dad for dinner. It's habit. I do it on every date too. Seriously, that's why I always acknowledge others. Something's missing if I don't. FYI.
Check out my Talk It Out Session with Moby....
Moby + Laura from MoveOn.org + all the speakers, For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield ~ By the way, Laura has a beautiful voice. This was the theme song of the March. I had been singing this song just last week with my guitar teacher Edward, and it's still in my head. Moby, how did you know it was there? What it's worth ain't exactly clear.....At this moment, I truly knew, something was happening here.
You're beautiful Moby.
Sunday, April 25
12:30 am. Chinatown, Washington DC
I meet some really cool girls outside
the Warner Theater while I'm waiting for Jose and Lori to come pick me up.
Jose is a union organizer and Lori is a psychology student. I bonded with
Lori over our mutual interest in psychology. Jose is an added bonus.
Together, they are intellectual, passionate, and spiritual...all good
qualities. We go for Chinese food in Chinatown, where I ask Lori why my
cell phone got run over by a car. At that moment, behind Lori sit, who I
think to be, two PRO-LIFE extremists. I run my mouth off loudly about how
I think that violence against doctors is not Pro-Life and that I'm Pro-Choice
and God loves me. I soon realize that my cell phone damage is to help Lori
and I understand how we are to speak to Anti-Choice activists tomorrow if confronted
at the March. I am now okay with my cell phone turmoil and I understand
the higher purpose involved. On our way out of the restaurant, I say
"Blessings" to the woman. She smiles at me as if I'm not so bad.
Sunday, April 25 2:00 am. Best Western, Washington DC
Madonna, Ray of Light It's the night before the March and I yearn for Madonna as I fall asleep on the pull-out listening to the queen of estrogen pop/rock feminism...expecting a lucid dream.
Sunday, April 25 9:00
am. Streets of
Washington DC, Day of the March for Women's Lives
The streets are packed, alive and like
the roaring 20's, excited. Everyone's in motion. Women from all
walks of life, young, old, teenagers, mothers. Women from foreign
countries, men who are liberal. The coolest T-shirt I saw a guy wear said,
"Feminist chicks dig me." He was totally cute. All the delegations
gathered together as a unit, while Lori and I stuffed our backpacks with
continental breakfast and headed out with our media backstage passes. Jose
would catch up with us later.
Sunday, April 25 12-5pm. March for Women's Lives, Capital Hill, Washington DC
1.5 million people cheered, supported and promoted healthcare access to women, families and men. Political figures like Barbara Boxer, actresses like Julianne Moore and Whoopi Goldberg, and musicians like The Indigo Girls simply gave it their all. The issues were addressed, the friendship expressed. We have a job to do, ladies. Our most essential priority is to VOTE for a candidate who won't bully our decisions and a government that won't snoop on our lives. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!
Check out Indigo Girls on Talk It Out
That's 1.5 million people together side by side from the Capital to the Washington Monument. Regardless of how many sexist newspapers disrespect our numbers...we will not idly standby while our rights are raped from our lives. Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, George Bush has got to Go!
Sunday, April 25 5:30 pm. Metro from Union Station to Dupont Circle, Washington DC
PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love seemed like the appropriate decompression album after the march. Wow! Howard Dean, Gloria Steinem, everyday people. To bring you my love!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, God. Lori had some run-ins with the Anti-Choicers and so did I. I yelled, "God created abortion" and Lori almost took on all 200 of em'. Thank you to the DC Police for keeping us all cool and peaceful, in love and in harmony! Gloria Steinem told me that Unity is not One Voice like I thought is was, but that Unity is Many Voices...Talk It Out!
Sunday, April 25 9:30 pm. The 9:30 Club, Washington DC
Planned Parenthood rocks and so do The Clicks, The Whips, The Lascivious Biddies, The Casual Dots, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts and everyone at the 9:30 Club...not to mention my cool friend from Detroit Nikki M. She rules!
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce to
you
The Clicks
and
The Whips on Talk It Out!
The Clicks are from Brooklyn and came down to play the Planned Parenthood Punk party and The Whips are a freshly knit DC band. I took those photos...and devirginized Matt with my interview. By the way, I own the cherries of many a previously silent rock band. Don't worry, I'm very nurturing.
Move over Annie Leibowitz...Jodi Leib is asking you to retire.
Did you all know I had such an attitude? This is my journal after all. Now you know what I really think. Behind that sweet exterior, lays a punk grrrrl-kid from Detroit! Smiles! Love is still Mystical.
Monday, April 25 1:30 am. Cab Ride, Washington DC
The Clicks, Problematic Hand Movements in History get radical in the cd player as Jose, Lori and I find our way back to our hotel. Lori bought the CD... she's so cool.
Monday, April 25 2:00 am. Pull-Out Bed, Best Western, Washington DC
Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization Meditation After Lori, Jose and I had a three-way Talk It Out session in which I interviewed them and they interviewed me, I drifted off to sleep, listening to the this soothing and powerful meditation to absorb all the experiences of this incredible day. Love was so in my heart. I am so happy I could be at the March. Thank you to my Mom and Dad for giving me life, and for sending me to accomplish my dreams at the March for Women's Lives in Washington DC. I wish my mom was here with me. Although both she and my Dad are a phone call away, and were with me the whole time. I had just enough money to save a few bucks to pay rent upon returning to LA. Mark was also with me by phone and in spirit. He's so nice and smart and really seems to understand (and accept) my mind. Although I'm not sure he's seen this punk side before, but he's from Detroit too, so hopefully he's cool with it.
Some people are so picky, he's not one of them.
Monday, April 26 11:00 am. National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC
Hole, Live Through This I waited all weekend to play Courtney Love as I wandered through the Frida Khalos and all the other chickas that got to display their paintings in the hippest women's art museum in America (it's the only one - but not for long) Someday, I hope my paintings will be an a museum.
Rock On! by Jodi Leib, shows just what America has become...barely the vision? You decide.
The Lips (a wound) by Jodi Leib
Postmodern abstract from Warhol through the 90's. Raw primal sexual energy about people and being female and having all the estrogen it takes to stand up through oppression.
Smile...they're lips.
Monday, April 26 2:00 pm. Metro and Bus from Washington DC to Baltimore, Maryland Airport.
Sara Mann, Sara Mann. You've heard her rendition of All My Loving (The Beetles) that has been the theme song for the NBC show, American Dreams. Well, she sings it so beautifully. It's my American Dreams song now too. What a perfect way to end the trip, musically. She's so downtime. I love Sara. I love being on the bus, in motion, on the metro, with my suitcase and all. I'm a backpacker and I traveled mainstream, like a feminist should.
Monday, April 26 9:30 pm. My apartment, Los Angeles, CA
Jodi Leib, Love Is Mystical My very good cousin Sara Leib and her friend Sandy picked me up at the airport and drove me home. I invited them in so I could make Sandy some curry garbanzo beans. I was so hungry. And really I just wanted them to come in so they would sing Love Is Mystical with me. It's a very spiritual song, and just singing it makes me feel healing. I subtly begged that singing Love Is Mystical would complete the whole March experience, spiritually, emotionally and physically. Sandy agreed, and jammed on my keyboard. He's abstract. I love it. I sang Love Is Mystical, a chant/trance of sorts, while he did some funky keyboard techno moves. Sara flipped through a magazine, and I felt completely 200% satisfied. A moment lived in full.
I await the day that Love Is Mystical can be for you what it is for me. Please let me know when it finds you and how it touches your soul. Music is my collective and my mediation. Love It Out!
Many, many thanks to ACLU, NARAL, Planned Parenthood and many others for all the hard work it takes to organize the most successful women's rights march in herstory!
Howard Dean Interview Janeane Garofalo Interview
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