News and Events


  • Neanderthal Make-up Containers Discovered
  • Scientists claim to have the first persuasive evidence that Neanderthals wore "body paint" 50,000 years ago. The team report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that shells containing pigment residues were Neanderthal make-up containers. Scientists unearthed the shells at two archaeological sites in the Murcia province of southern Spain. The team says its find buries "the view of Neanderthals as half-wits" and shows they were capable of symbolic thinking. Professor Joao Zilhao, the archaeologist from Bristol University in the UK, who led the study, said that he... Read more >>


  • Menstrual Blood as a Source of Multipotential Stem Cells?
  • Since last November it has been reported that scientists are researching menstrual blood as a possible source of multipotential stem cells. THE "monthly curse" may be anything but: menstrual blood appears to be a rich and accessible source of adult stem cells. The uterine lining is already known to contain adult stem cells, but harvesting them would be as invasive as getting them from other adult sources, such as bone marrow. Now two separate groups led by Xiaolong Meng of the Bio-Communications Research Institute in Witchita, Kansas, and Julie... Read more >>


  • METAFORMING LIVE! Judy Grahn opens for Ani Difranco
  • Joined by Animal Prufrock & Anne Carol. West Coast Tour. April 5-23, 2008.

  • anitour Kicking off their first show in Los Angeles at the Orpheum Theatre, metaformic theorist, Judy Grahn, will be joined by some of the next generation of feminist artists, Animal Prufrock and Anne Carol, as they open for the unstoppable, independent rock star, Ani Difranco. Ani has been performing "Detroit Annie" and other poems from Judy's infamous collection, The Common Woman, at her concerts for years now and recorded on her live album from Carnegie Hall in 2002. Now fans will have the opportunity to hear Judy perform her... Read more >>


  • South Indian Filmmaker Takes on Metaformic Theory
  • Vipin Vijay's 55 minute film, Poomaram, or A Flowering Tree is a conscious tribute to Judy Grahn's Metaformic Theory. Vipin is a south Indian filmmaker, from Kerala. His film is not meant to teach the theory in any rote manner. Rather, Vipin's cinematography powerfully illuminates crucial points in Judy's book, Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World: the menstrual origins of sciences and arts, such as geometry, time, painting, and cooking; and also the violence, and the isolation that inevitably accompany the loss of women's rituals within... Read more >>


  • Red Web Foundation seeking Board Members and Executive Director Creating lifelong menstrual health through community and education
  • Creating lifelong menstrual health through community and education

  • The Red Web Foundation in San Francisco is dedicated to supporting a positive societal view of girls' and womens' bodies and menstrual cycles from first bleeding through menopause. In 2007 RWF became a main media resource regarding choices to menstrual suppression pills now being marketed. We hold that in order for girls and women to make informed choices best suited for each personal menstrual situation, they first need to know the innate value of their cycle. When a girl or woman values her cycle, her self-respect is deepened along... Read more >>


  • A Metaformic Action at Union Square
  • December 17, 2007, 12:00 noon, across from Macy's front door (on Geary St.)

  • Please come and help us spread the word that menstruation is at the center of culture and needs to be honored. rose It is likely that menstruation generated abstract thinking and most forms of human culture. Some examples in today's world are such items as measurement, calendars, geometry, mechanical devices, ritual, ceremony, law, royalty, skirts, hats, jewelry, make-up, shoes and wine.          Awareness and honoring of woman's menstrual flow, and all that is derived from it, sets humans apart from animals. The conceptualizing of cyclical menstruation, coordinated with that... Read more >>


  • A Salon in the Grove - Metaformic Theory in Berkeley
  • Starting February 24, 2007

  • Save The Oaks - The Public is Invited Sunday Afternoons at 2:00 PM Memorial Oak Grove, Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley Campus Starting February 24, 2007 The Salon in the Grove offers a place and time to discuss the meaning and implications of the tree-sitting protest. Guests and tree-sitters will participate in the salon, which will include discussions, games and experiential lessons learned from the tree sitters and the trees. In the first session of the Salon, the tree-sitters will tell their stories of living alone in the trees to protect... Read more >>


  • New Metaformic Theory in South America
  • Report from Chile by Judy Grahn
  • Dear Colleagues, Students, and Friends, Metaformic Theory in South America After an intense nine day trip to visit South American activists, Annie Lapham and I returned Monday, January 29, from Santiago, Chile. Surrounded by ripe apricot and plum trees, we had a glorious time, and found the South American women were eager to hear new theory, and in particular they are very excited about Metaformic Theory (Teoria Metaformica). Several took my powerpoint back to their countries, which were Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil and of course... Read more >>