Mama Gathering 2003 provides a forum for ideas that look beyond the mainstream.

Not all moms drive a minivan. Not all moms shop at Gymboree. And not all are soccer moms, even if that’s the image promoted by mainstream consumerist culture.

Student, atheist, punk, working, poor, vegetarian, lesbian. There are all kinds of moms out there -- mothers who are defying the cultural norm and raising kids in unique ways. For them, there is Mama Gathering 2003, an alternative, feminist parenting conference that recognizes women are still women, even after they’ve become parents.

“Our entire identity didn’t change after we gave birth,” said Dorrie Lanni, the 27-year-old unmarried mother who is Mama Gathering’s lead coordinator. “We still retain the same values that we had before, but now we understand even more how important it is to keep pushing these issues and being champions for justice so our kids will see us being active and effecting change.”

During a three-day event that kicks off with a potluck on July 11, participants can attend a variety of workshops that cover everything from anti-racist parenting and alternative family health to household waste reduction, teen motherhood and family yoga. Additionally, there are writing seminars, as well as sessions on sex toys and the art of striptease.

Most, but not all, of the sessions have to do with parenting. According to Lanni, “Feminism is the issue that brings all of these other issues together.”

This year’s Mama Gathering is the second event of its kind. An outgrowth of the alternative mothering magazine Hip Mama, it’s coordinated by a group from the magazine’s now-defunct online discussion board who, two years ago, saw the need to bring various issues out of cyberspace and into a more public space. The result was the first Mama Gathering, which took place in Portland, Ore., in 2001, attracting about 400 attendees.

This year’s Mama Gathering offers more workshops and better-known speakers, such as singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh, homeopath Dr. Lauren Feder, former On Our Backs magazine editor Lisa Palac and members of the Guerrilla Girls. About 300 attendees are expected.

The gathering was originally designed as an educational forum, but it serves another purpose. In bringing a diversity of mamas together, it also fosters community.

“The most important job on the planet is making good human beings,” said Kristin Hersh, a singer-songwriter who came to prominence with the band Throwing Muses and a mother who is also a Mama Gathering panelist.

“Coloring outside the lines parenting-wise has interested me since I had my first baby and realized that he was definitely not playing by the rules. When I really listened to my babies instead of reading books about them, I learned what I needed to do to take care of them,” said Hersh, who has four sons, all of whom she home-schools while touring. “I know other people have had similar experiences and, as trite as it sounds, I bet we could learn a lot by sharing them.”

In sharing their experiences, Lanni hopes Mama Gathering’s participants will feel inspired to develop their own communities and, eventually, their own mama gatherings in different cities around the country.

“There are people sitting in states like Wisconsin thinking, ‘There is not a single other mother like me in the entire state,’ but there are. They just have to find each other,” said Lanni, who happened on to the Hip Mama Web site four years ago while investigating natural birthing options for a surprise pregnancy.

“The first time I went there I could’ve cried. I was so relieved there were other feminist mothers who didn’t give up their whole lives when they became parents, that they still had all these goals and plans,” said Lanni, who lives in Mar Vista and co-parents her 4-year-old son with an out-of-state father. “You can still be concerned with all these things and not sink into this life of diapers and baby food and cleaning.”

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Mama Gathering 2003

When: July 11-13

Where: Radisson Hotel at LAX

Cost: $40, adults; $10, kids. Registration closes July 7.

Info: www.MamaGathering.com