Feminism Archives - Javacia.com

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An Evening of Empowerment

Check out the Over the Mountain Journal’s story on the upcoming event An Evening of Empowerment featuring me!

What would you do if you were not afraid to fail?

That’s the question that Girls on the Run Birmingham will explore on Thursday, October 8, Girls on the Run during its Evening of Empowerment. The event will celebrate local “Women Who Inspire” including yours truly!

I am so honored to be among the women who will be recognized at this event. (You can read my interview with Girls on the Run here.)

An Evening of Empowerment will be held at 5:30 p.m. on October 8 at Clubhouse on the Highlands. The evening will include wine, appetizers, and a meet and greet and Q&A with the “Women Who Inspire,” including Molly Baker, the founder of Girls on the Run International. There will also be a screening of The Empowerment Project, a one-hour documentary that celebrates positive female role models.

If you’d like to attend An Evening of Empowerment, you can purchase tickets here. Use the code GOJAVACIA for $10 off your ticket.

On Friday, October 9, the other “Women Who Inspire” and I will have the opportunity to view the film again with a group of middle school girls from across the Birmingham metro area. We’ll also have a Q&A with them after the screening about how we overcame fear to make our dreams come true.

So, what would you do if you weren’t afraid to fail?

B-Metro Feminism

Do STEM Like a Girl

“Little girls with dreams become women with vision.”

The quote above is on a print on the wall of my home office. The quote above speaks a truth that drives so much of what I do. I believe that if you train up a girl in the way she should go, when she is old she will not depart from it. That’s why I created a Women and Media elective at the high school where I teach — I want girls to know about feminism and the women’s rights movements and to be smart enough to examine representations of women in the media. That’s why I dream of one day starting a feminist blogging camp for teen girls through See Jane Write. And that’s why I was honored to team up with B-Metro last week to help promote the new STEM program at Highlands School in Birmingham.

Dubbed Highlands 21, this new program is a strategic school-wide effort to implement 21st century learning techniques by building enhanced facilities, increasing classroom resources and improving faculty development. The school has launched a 4K-8th grade initiative to integrate science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) throughout the Highlands School curriculum with the support of two state-of-the-art STEM labs designed by PITSCO.

Here’s a fun fact about me: Even though I’m writer and English teacher today I attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts for its Math/Science program, not creative writing. Because of my amazing English classes (and a love for writing that I had since I was 7), I left ASFA eager to pursue a career in journalism, not science, technology, engineering, or math. But because of ASFA’s Math/Science program I also left with a great deal of confidence and never for one second considered STEM classes or careers off-limits for women and girls. (In fact, my freshman year of college I took a senior-level calculus class, made 100s on every test and tutored many of the upperclassmen also taking the course.)

A recent survey of educators revealed that only 30 percent of teachers feel equipped to properly encourage girls in math and science classes. The programs and professional development of Highlands School’s STEM initiative and others like it can help change that.

Also STEM programs teach students how to find answers in informational text and thus can help them in their language arts classes, too. Perhaps that’s why I liked English so much that I wound up teaching it!

In high school STEM classes gave me confidence and better communication skills. I’m excited that Highlands Schools is working to do that for other girls at an even earlier age.

Learn more about the Highlands School STEM initiative here.

Feminism lifestyle

5 Things That Made Me a Happy Feminist in New York

New York owes me nothing.

My husband and I spent the past week in New York and words really can’t express how amazing our trip was — but I’m going to try anyway.

One of my favorite quotes about New York:

One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.

Or five days.

I went to New York for the Melanie Duncan Workshop, a one-day conference for entrepreneurs. (Be sure to swing by the blog Friday for recap of the conference.) But we decided to make a trip of it and stay a few extra days.

My legs are still sore from pounding the pavement of New York’s city streets for five days in sandals not fit for walking several miles at a time, but that is not a complaint. All that walking was needed to help burn off delicious food from places like the Meatball Shop and Calle Ocho.

But someone once said…

New York walking isn’t exercise; it’s a continually showing make-your-own movie.

And the movie I made was a feminist one. Here’s why:

1. I met Melanie Duncan.

I don’t know if Melanie Duncan considers herself a feminist or not, but her workshop oozes female empowerment nonetheless. She and her husband Devin Duncan both presented at the conference and watching them work together as partners was a case study for the beauty of egalitarian relationships.

The Bowsers meet the Duncans!

I left the workshop even more motivated to be a wildly successful entrepreneuress like Melanie and to help other women do the same. Plus, by meeting Melanie Duncan I got to cross off something on my Life List!

2. I met Eric Danforth IRL!

Several years ago a piece of mine was published in a collection of feminist essays. One day I received a message from someone in New York named Eric who loved my writing and loved that I was a feminist wrestling fan. My husband (the ultimate wrestling fan), Eric and I became fast friends. We talk all the time via social media and send gifts for Christmas and birthdays. Edward and I always talked about how crazy it was that we were so close to someone we’d never actually met. Finally, that has changed! We finally met Eric in real life during our New York trip. And Eric is even more amazing in person! He took us to great restaurants like the Meatball Shop, the nerd heaven that is Forbidden Planet and Strand Book Store, home of 18 miles of new, used, rare and out-of-print books.

Thanks to Eric I also think I know what tattoo I’m going to get.

3. I got to embrace my inner feminist nerd.

Check out my feminist nerd purchases made at Forbidden Planet!

And speaking of being a nerd…

4. I got to hang out at NerdLand!

I said that New York owes me nothing, but really 2015 owes me nothing. Earlier this year I got to meet Melissa Harris-Perry on my birthday and I thought nothing could top that as far as meeting your heroes goes. I was wrong.

During our trip Edd and I had the chance to hang out at NBC Studios at 30 Rock during the taping of the Melissa Harris-Perry Show. We were in the studio while she was interviewing guests and got to spend time in the control room.

We even attended the post-show meeting which was too much fun because when Professor Harris-Perry takes those braids down after the show you get to really meet Melissa! She is so down-to-earth. I love it!

We couldn’t have picked a better day to be there as several segments were about body image issues and feminism in pop culture — two topics I love discussing most. My favorite segments included Why ‘Magic Mike XXL is a feminist movie and NYT slammed for Serena ‘body image’ story.

5. I was reunited with two of my favorite feminists.

Our time at the MHP Show was made possible thanks to two friends from my grad school days at UC Berkeley. My friends Traci and Kai are producers at the show and arranged for us to be special NerdLand backstage guests. They were also the producers behind those two segments that I loved the most.

***

If you follow me on Instagram (@writeousbabe) you may have noticed that most of my New York pictures were of people, not places. That was intentional.

New York is one of the greatest cities on the planet — we all know that. But what made our trip so wonderful wasn’t really the city itself but the people we spent time with while we were there.

This was a great trip for Edward because he met in person many people he’s gotten to know over the years through blogging and social media. And when I met them I felt as if I were seeing old friends again, too.

With Fred and Alysa at the Met Rooftop Garden

And, New York, you had me at brunch.

Unlimited sangrias? Yes, please.

At Dino in Brooklyn

The best part about this trip was that Edd and I had time to relax, to reconnect with each other and even reconnect with ourselves. I’ve never been more motivated to read and write as I am right now. Thank you, New York.

The beautiful scenery for our last dinner in New York

Long Island City Boardwalk

“Quite simply, I was in love with New York. I do not mean ‘love’ in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and you never love anyone quite that way again.” — Joan Didion

Feminism

5 Things That Made Me a Happy Feminist This Week

One of my readers requested that I bring back this feature. This reader is also one of my favorite people on the planet (you know who you are) so I was happy to comply.

Here are 5 things that made me a happy feminist this week:

1. Misty Copeland became the first African-American principal ballerina for the American Ballet Theatre. I’ve been waiting for this moment since I read Copeland’s memoir last year and as a teacher at a fine arts school I know how important this moment is for aspiring professional dancers. I have seen firsthand the impact that Copeland career has had on young dancers, especially female dancers of color. Take a moment to take in her greatness. Head over to Bust.com to see a collection of Copeland’s best performances.

2. Roxane Gay’s TEDWomen Talk was finally posted on the TED website. I was fortunate enough to view a live stream of her talk and several others at TEDxBirminghamWomen in May. When Gay’s talk was finish I wanted to shout, take up a collection and open the doors of the church. See it for yourself:

3. LEGO’s newest characters encourage girls to explore math and science. Visit Bust.com for more.

4. America Ferrera wrote an open letter to Donald Trump in response to comments he made about Latino immigrants. Here’s a snippet:

You’ve said some pretty offensive things about Latino immigrants recently, and I think they’re worth addressing. Because, you know, this is the United States of America, where I have a right to speak up even if I’m not a billionaire. Isn’t that awesome?

Anyway, I heard what you said about the kind of people you think Latino immigrants are — people with problems, who bring drugs, crime and rape to America. While your comments are incredibly ignorant and racist, I don’t want to spend my time chastising you. I’ll leave that to your business partners like Univision and NBC, who have the power to scold you where it hurts. Instead, I’m writing to say thank you!

You see, what you just did with your straight talk was send more Latino voters to the polls than several registration rallies combined! Thank you for that. Here we are pounding the pavement to get American Latinos to the polls, while your tactic proves most effective. Remarks like yours will serve brilliantly to energize Latino voters and increase turnout on election day against you and any other candidate who runs on a platform of hateful rhetoric.

Read the full letter here.

5. Glamour magazine announced that producer and former model Jessica Lewis is preparing to debut Straight/Curve, a documentary that delves into the world of plus-size modeling.

The documentary will examine the complex relationship between the fashion industry, mainstream media, and body image in society and questions such as: “When, how, and why did size zero become the norm when two thirds of women are considered ‘plus-size’ sitting between a size 10 to 14?”

What made you a happy feminist this week?