Oftentimes undergraduate students complain that they are not introduced to women’s studies and feminism early enough. In an effort to support the development of girls as social agents we must consider exposing to them feminist spaces at earlier ages.
The Crunk Feminists are on the case! In November, we will facilitate a workshop on “Feminism 101” with a group of 10 Atlanta area teens, at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference. We want to provide them with powerful readings, music, and speeches/spoken word as a means of introducing them to the language, issues and fierce care and resistance of our foremothers. We intend to share our stories, hear their stories, and work with them to start making connections and naming their experiences. Family, we solicit your help and your donations to make this possible.
So often young girls of color are not given the tools to name their experiences and are therefore dealing with various forms of oppression in silence or unheathy ways. In the tradition of Audre Lorde, this workshop will present the basic tenets of feminist thought to help these young women craft the tools that will “transform their silences into language and action.” To be clear, we see this workshop not as an end, but as a beginning of building relationships, acting as mentors and big sisters, and working with these young women to create a brighter feminist future. As our QBG sister Alexis Pauline Gumbs once said, “we do this work because we think it changes lives.”
We would really appreciate your support. And there are two ways you can help.
1.) The cost of the workshop materials per girl is $20. Click here to sponsor a participant. You can contribute any amount. And every little bit will help.
2.) We have also created an Amazon wishlist, where you can purchase individual items (a book* and a journal) that will be included in the goodie bags we are providing for each girl.
Thank each of you in advance for helping with this endeavor!
*After many conversations we have identified a feminist body book that we think will be an important reference for these young women, a book that will remain relevant as their questions become more complicated. It offers great information about women’s bodies, does not center men’s bodies, and is progressive on LGBTQ sexualities. We wish the representations were more racially diverse and that conversations about disability were included, but frankly, more feminist of color, non-ableist, queer inclusive teen body literature is needed.
Agree, agree, agree! I didn’t learn about feminist theory until graduate school and I OFTEN wonder about choices I would’ve made (personally and professionally) if I’d learned earlier. So wish I could be there to attend, support, and learn for myself. I want to do this work here in Florida too! I have “chipped in!” I wish you the absolute best!
Just contributed. This project is truly the beginning of something transformative for the lives of these girls! I can’t wait to see the way the world’s gonna look when they get their hands on it! This is love!
Chipped in 🙂
This is a brilliant idea! I’d like to help out with a couple of the items on the Wish List, but I’m not sure where to ship to — Amazon keeps trying to ship to my address?
Thank you for your support! I think the glitch has been corrected, and it should give you the option to ship the book to Sheri Davis-Faulkner (one of our CFs) in Atlanta.
Awesome — thank you!
Thank you for making this opportunity available to the girls, and for making it so easy to support your effort. Can we look forward to a post about how it all goes? Maybe even, some comments from the girls?
What a wonderful endeavor. You have my full support and yes, I will fund a feminist-in-training!
Indeed! This is BEAUTIFUL. Education needs feminism more than ever. Our kids are bombarded with so many images that depict them negatively. It’s time for us to utilize the prinicples of feminism to close the achievement gap. I try to in my 9th grade classroom everyday (a difficult task!)
What an amazing idea–I would have *loved* to know something about this when I was a smaller version of me! I will definitely sponsor a participant.
Thank you so much for your support!
Awesome!! Just chipped in. Note that the ‘Chip In’ fundraising bar is not showing how much you’ve raised so far, but hope you surpass your goals and have a kick ass workshop. 🙂 I can definitely see this as a continuing series/work.
Thank you for your support. Apparently chipin does not update their widget very often, which we didn’t know before starting. However, at last count, we had raised $392, which will give us enough money to do this workshop, and begin work on the next one.
So thank you again for your support!
Lil Sis, I see you’ve gotten all the books needed (sorry I’m late to this wonderful thing you ladies are doing!) – sent a couple journals. Will check back in the p.m. to see where you are on those. What date do you need them all by?
Thanks much, Deb! We need everything by November 7th.
My best friend and I were just talking about the need to support and teach young girls about their own power. This is wonderful and I’m so glad you’re doing this.
This is amazing, & something I will support! I believe in this idea & it is so important to pass the knowledge on!
Just did my ‘Chip in’ and was happy to do so. Wish there was this kind of support when I was younger – things might have been different. It’s all good. Pls. contact me if you do something in Cali – will be here to support. I have been Blessed by the postings I read, please keep them up – I look forward to them. Maybe one day I can contribute myself.
Yay! I love this so much and would have completely benefited as a youth. So happy to support!
This is absolutely amazing! Will help in any way I can!
Lovely! Let us know if you find other needed materials!
This is awesome. Do y’all need any help on the ground level? I live in Atlanta and would love to help out (and visit the event in general, ha).
This has been a very difficult week for some of the CF’s and the overwhelming support from our community has been sustaining. Thank you all so very much.
For all you young sisters have taught me – my support is the least can give. Hang in there seems so trite to say, I know – but please do.
Thank you. Last week, one of the mentors and grad school advisors who trained several of the CFs passed away. He was a model of feminist manhood and we are blessed to have known him. Seeing the support for this project over these last few days as we’ve mourned has given us lots to smile about and be excited about as we’ve mourned his passing. I’m truly thankful for this community, and for all of you, our readers, who make this space a real joy.
My condolences – and “a real joy” right back atcha!
I think this is an excellent project & I totally support it. If it were not for my own pro-woman/feminist exposures as a young girl I might not have the confidence & tools to do the work I do today. I do wonder if this needs to be a girls only project? Can we educate our young men to be feminists too? This equally important when we think of culture changing, game changing actions. Let’s not just teach girls how to deal with their experiences, let’s alter their experiences altogether.
Great suggestion. I’d love to see young men included in this.
We have received many great suggestions for this workshop. This is just the beginning, a pilot. We will keep folks updated as things develop. Again thank you so much or the support. It exciting because some of the books have already arrived.
When I go to the Amazon link, the wish list is empty, perhaps suggesting everything has been purchased? Could you post the original list, just for interest sake? I have two daughters, and I’d like to know which feminist body book you are suggesting. Best of luck with your project. Thank you.
hiya – the “wishlist” on amazon seems to be empty; i’m curious what the book is – want to check it out and support y’all
email me with more info! much love from ATX.
-CRB
Greetings to All of my Crunk Family,
This idea is absolutely amazing. We need to be educating our girls early so they can help put together a better world together for all of us in the future. Also, I think what I just said could be extended to our young boys too. Growing up, there were so many spaces where silence held me captive and oppression held me close. I, too, am deeply interested in learning more about feminism/womanism to help create more healing and creative spaces for myself and the world. I currently attend Morehouse College where there are progressive faculty and staff teaching us the things that are mentioned in the blog. As a black man, I truly appreciate what you sisters are doing because you are showing me that the words I use can liberate and heal the world. I will try to attend the National Women’s conference as well and I am excited for what I will learn. Thank you for being and being well!
I recently finished a paper on a similar topic highlighting the current problems involving the intersections of African American & Women’s Studies. For instance; when there is conflict…Black Women’s Studies is Often times overlooked-in lieu of other subjects. Consequently..Both Women & Men are much older, before they can even remotely understand many of the problems; which have plagued the majority of their adolescent and young adult lives. A good point for this issue resonates around the problem with ‘Black Boys’. They need these studies as much as women. It’s that important. I feel that there should be a program where each feels comfortable, & conversation is open. Thus; I applaud your efforts. This program is very badly needed, & long over due.
Crunk Ladies! When I end up on your Wishlist page there are no books on it. Are you all set or do we think it’s just an Amazon glitch?
This is a fantastic idea, I hope it goes really well.
All of the books and materials we needed were purchased. Thank you so much for your support.
Crunktastic
That’s great news. I hope the conference is a fantastic success.
Good luck with the workshop at the NWSA conference! It’s really wonderful to know that young girls will be able to have Feminism 101 conversation with all of you. I concur with some of the other people who commented. It took so many of us much longer to get some much needed Feminism 101 and some of us, who are not ‘young girls’ anymore continue to be in need of such conversations.