21 men brunched at Rick Gravrok's in February and 31 at Andy Mickel's in March! Eat and socialize at the next Monthly Men's Sunday Brunches (bring something to share/cook up). Men hang out together and enjoy good food with no agenda whatsoever. Next brunches: Sunday, April 15th (Easter) at Harry Greenberg's, 2435 Garfield Ave S, Minneapolis, 612/870-9418 (one block east of Lyndale). Sunday, May 20th at the new home of Stephen Sewell: *notice address* 1509 Summit Ave, St. Paul (one block east of Snelling Av) 612/823-0890. These brunches are open to all men from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m; plan to come and chat and eat for a 1/2-hour to 2-hour period anytime . --inevitably some men stay on until 2 p.m. - Andy Mickel, 2001-03-25. The Retirement Support Group has been watching part of the time, two Channel 2 videos, one called "Refirement" after retirement, and another on energizing life after 40. These have led to good discussions. We meet every 3rd Sunday night at 7:30 except for April, when because of Easter, we meet the 4th Sunday Apr 22 at 7:30. Come join us and discuss your feelings about retirement before and after this major life change. If you have a special request for a daytime group, call The Men's Center: 612/822-5892, and we'll see how great the need is. - Norm Petrik, 2001-02-20. Fathers and Sons: Building Connections Saturday, April 21 will be a special opportunity for fathers and their sons ages 9 to 12 to share--through discussion, interaction and creative projects--their understanding, attitudes and expectations about the changing roles of men and boys in our society. Facilitated activities to open communications between fathers and sons around issues of puberty, community values, friendship and responsibility. Co-sponsored by: Adventures in Fathering, Planned Parenthood, Robbinsdale Teen Clinic and Robbinsdale Area Schools Community Education Youth and Families Division. Call 763/504 -4906 - Jon Harper, Adventures in Fathering, jonharper@wans.net, 763/531-9267, 2001-01-05. "I would greatly appreciate it if "Men Talk" would become a more effective and bold counterpoint to the "Minnesota Women's Press", which I find sexist and offensive-filled with anti-male bigotry. "Men Talk" should become ever more stauchly pro-male. There should be no affinity with feminism. Feminism is sexism and has nothing to do with gender equality." - Kyle Knutson, Edina, 2001-02-05. "You are doing a great job; Ideas for future development: 1. Men Working to End Rape; 2. Homophobia: A Working Group to End; 3. Volunteer Child Care Providers for Shelters; 4. Fight Racism Initiative; 5. Exploitation of Men's Labor." - David W. Johnson, Minneapolis, 612/625-4820, 2001-03-13. Outfront Minnesota will be providing the 20-year old Gay and Bi-Sexual Men's Father's Support Group a permanent 800 number and space on http://www.outfront.org/ to provide information about the group 24x7. Aaron Olson is the contact for the group: 612-874-6368 for monthly updates http://home.earthlink.net/~atolson/. The group gathers for monthly Cookboyz events featuring themes: April 14 Caribbean island foods, May 12 Hispanic foods, June 9 Italian foods, July 14 Western BBQ/summer food, August 11 Summer Picnic Food, September 8 South and southeast Asia, October 13 German & Polish foods, November 10 Thanksgiving foods, December 8 International holiday foods, January 2002 Chinese foods, February 2002 Creole, Soul food. - Denny Siemers, 2001-03-06. Gordon Clay of Menstuff¨ has created a campaign to increase awareness of testicular cancer and the important of doing self-exams for early detection. National TESTICULAR CANCER AWARENESS WEEK - APRIL 1-7, 2001. http://www.menstuff.org/mencare/tcaw.html and http://www.menstuff.org/issues/byissue/getagrip.html - Gordon Clay, 2001-03-14. Family Constellation Workshops exploring how family systems affect our lives are coordinated by Gary Riestenberg. People are invited either to observe first, then participate. Workshops are on Saturdays: 9a.m.-6p.m. $250 (early registration $200) Observers $15 (early $10) FFI: contact Gary Riestenberg at vgreisten@aol.com 651/690-1725. Michael Martens, rmm@cfrmoney.net, 2001-03-13.

Letter to the Editors of Redbook Magazine (Feb 14, 2001), "I am writing, as a man who has worked in the field of gender isues for over twenty years, to thank you for your recent article (The Secret Violence of Women, October, 2000). In my capacity as president of the Twin Cities chapter of the National Coalition of Free Men, I hear stories of woman-on-man spousal violence. I also have access to a huge amount of research that documents this phenomenon. Having a magazine of your stature speak out about domestic violence in the way you have, brings us closer to addressing the problem for what it is and moving the culture towards balanced treatment of everyone involved in domestic violence. I especially appreciated your quoting Claudia Dias, to wit, 'I'm a serious feminist and I want women to be treated as equals--and that includes being held accountable for their acts of violence.' Your compassionate and blame-free tone sets an excellent example of the direction we can move in discusions of gender and violence in our society." Sincerely, Jim Lovestar. (You can view this article at http://www.redbookmag.com/.) Robert Bly's 27th Annual Conference on the Great Mother and the New Father is set for June 2 - 10, 2001, Camp Kieve, Nobleboro, Maine. FFI: Craig Ungerman, 1-877/333-3136 hiddenwine@earthlink.net, http://www.GreatMotherConference.com/ Teachers include: Humberto Ak'abal, Gioia Timpanelli, Mart’n Prechtel, Robert Bly, La Conja, Reza Derakshani, Santiago Prechtel, Vicente Griego, Campbell McGrath, Coleman Barks, Marcus Wise, David Whetstone, Doug Von Koss, plus many others. This year will focus on the great meeting of cultures - Arabic, Jewish, Christian - that began in 13th Century Spain. That culture was and is a culture of grief and desire, which we experience now through flamenco singing and dancing, through the inwardness of architecture that unites feminine and masculine which we associate with the Alhambra.We will study flamenco rhythm which is learned by clapping and hear great Latino flamenco music. An Iranian singer will be with us. We'll hear poetry, and the emphasis will be on the elegance of exaggeration and excess. - Mark Stanley, 2001-03-01. Keeping alive the indigenous knowledge, wisdom and traditions of Siberian shamanic culture through education, research and the arts are two workshops: The Shamanic Journey-Climbing the Nine-Branched Tree, April 27 - 29, 2001 and An Introduction to Siberian and Mongolian Shamanism, May 4 - 6, 2001 to be held at the Carondelet Center, St. Paul. FFI: 1-888-645-0542 or http://www.SiberianShaman.com/ - Lydia Kulesov, 2001-03-16. The Men's Center in the News. Articles covering the Men's Center appeared in Twin Cities Pulse and in the East Calhoun News. TCPulse ran a fairly positive cover story with the misandrist title, "Sympathy for the Devil" in its February 21-27 issue, pages 4-5. ECNews ran a story, "Men's Center Centers Men" on page 3 of its March, 2001 issue. - Andy Mickel, 2001-03-21. The Minnesota Mankind Project is producing a Boys-to-Men Initiation late this summer (September 14-16) for boys 12-16. There is an extensive pre-training process to verify that all initiates and their families are ready for this work. To inquire about getting a boy you love into our work, call Charlie Borden, 651/222-2551. To inquire about becoming a mentor, call Jim Lovestar, 612/588-8984. - Rick Gravrok, 2000-12-15. Call for Papers: The Journal of Men's Studies invites empirical and theoretical articles for an upcoming multidisciplinary issue devoted to African Masculinities. Possible topics include: constructions of masculinities; questions of masculinity, maleness, and the male body; virility or infertility; representations of the male body in cultural texts and in the media; sexual practices and sexual identities; race, ethnicity, class-and masculinities; masculinities in the African Diaspora; fatherhood and male identity; male-female relationships; relationships between patriarchy and dominant masculinities; relationships between concepts of masculinity and nationalism; colonialism, westernization, and African responses to "modernity." Other relevant topics welcome. Deadline is May 1, 2001 for essays up to 8,000 words. Submit essays to: Professor Lahoucine Ouzgane, Department of English, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E5 or Lahoucine.Ouzgane@ualberta.ca. FYI: The Men's Studies Press, which publishes The Journal of Men's Studies, is announcing a new, peer-reviewed journal for men's health, which will publish its's first issue in early 2002. They are now accepting applications for editors. See the newsletter for more information: http://www.mensstudies.com/mspnewsletter.pdf - Dan Bollinger danbollinger@home.com, 2001-01-06.