crystalsavestheday:

I made this video forever ago, but I feel like it really applies after the amazing weekend I’ve had with the SPARK ladies. I’m feeling so inspired and empowered to create and make change because it’s our right to do so.

I’m so grateful to have had amazing teachers such as Dana Edell, Dana Hernandez, Shelby Knox, Jamia Wilson, Elisa Kreisinger, Renee Watson, Rebecca Mushtare, Courtney E. Martin, Deanna Zandt, and Jaclyn Friedman. Please look up everyone of these women; they have done and are doing fucking amazing things that NEED to be shared. And you best believe I’ll share them with you.

I’ll hopefully do an extensive post on everything later, but I need to write about it in my (paper) journal :-) And to loosely quote Stephanie, “We debunk girl hate when we get into spaces with each other because immediately we have an instant connection”

I feel like I’ve known these women for years. And even though it was only 3 days, I know that I’ll know and be with them for the rest of my life. This experience will forever stay with me and has been life changing.

Love you SPARKteam. <3

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The members of our SPARKteam aren’t just totally amazing bloggers, they’re also activists in other parts of their lives. Check out some of the projects they’re working on right now:

Carina, 16: “I want to begin fundraising for educational resources, especially reading and writing resources, for children in South Africa. I eventually want to develop it into an international foundation The Ayoba Project.” 

Bailey, 22: “I’m currently working on a project dealing with the portrayal of women in magazines - for the next few months, I’m buying copies of several magazines and working with a few different aspects of the images: counting each time there is a picture of a person and examining the different ways in which women’s bodies are used to sell a product or a message.”

Genevieve, 18: “I’m working on an essay about how relaxer manufacturers and sellers expect and want black women to look more like white women with straight, long hair. I want black women to feel closer to their natural selves and beings. Why shouldn’t we be?” 

Kaye, 21: “I’ve been working on a fantasy novel for about the last year. It’s funny, most popular fantasy novels are all set in alternate medieval societies or dystopian societies and they’re almost always patriarchal. Why is that? It’s a fantasy novel, you’re creating the world! I want to write a novel that has better messages than ‘this is inevitable.’”

Izzy, 13: “I’m helping raise my four year old brother with a healthy view of women and the way men are ‘expected’ to act versus the way they should act.” 

Stephanie, 22: “I’m about to start writing my first novel, a feminist fantasy YA novel, not directly in response but at least subconsciously in response to the sexism of Twilight and Twilight rip-offs.” 

Crystal, 22: “I want to host a sex ed symposium for youth, especially queer youth and youth from religious backgrounds who don’t have access to comprehensive sex ed. I’m starting it small with the LGBTQ youth group I facilitate and growing it from there.” 

Ness, 20: “I’m currently training to become a doula. I think it’s really important to empower people who are having babies by trusting them to make their own decisions about the birth process.”

Emma, 16: “I’m part of a community service organization called JSA, where I’m co-organizing a collaboration with City Year where we’ll be going to a public school in NYC and bettering the learning environment by painting murals, fixing bookshelves and other equipment, and other projects.”

Maya, 16: “I’m working on developing a theater program for 4th and 5th grade girls in my hometown with a focus on empowerment and letting them develop their voices through theater. I want them to be able to write their own theater pieces in order to get their voices out there and speak to an audience.”

Joy, 22: “I’m interning with the Women’s Media Center doing press & promo for Miss Representation, and also blogging for them about the treatment of women in the new fall shows.”

Eliana, 19: “I’m really into TV, especially children’s TV, and I’m seeing that there’s a lot of racist, sexist things in kids’ TV that’s really poisonous. My goal is to write a truly empowering kids’ TV show.”

Seila, 19: “I’m blogging for Girls Action Foundation, a local Montreal organization, and organizing a poetry reading to encourage girls to write and share their thoughts.”

Melissa, 22: “I really want to set up Girl Pirate Radio, a radio show produced, mixed, edited, DJ’d, etc. by a team of awesome middle and high school girls. I think it’s an awesome way not only to teach media literacy and criticism, but also important media production skills.”

Rachel, 17: “Besides writing with SPARK, my school magazine, and Writopia Lab, I’m involved with my local urban farm (Prospect Farm in Brooklyn). I’m also helping start a charity called Teen Connection: Afghanistan to link high school students from Afghanistan and the United States.”

The food at this retreat is blowing my mind

Action proposal time! Super excited to hear what everyone suggests.

Vegan biscuits and gravy by Melissa, Eliana, and Seila! This retreat is the bomb.