March 2012
1 post
Colorlines: How Can We Help Kids Define Healthy...
Colorlines’ Akiba Solomon interviewed Hey, Shorty! co-author Joanne Smith and Girls for Gender Equity community organizer Nefertiti Martin on how to define positive sexuality for today’s youth. You can read the article here.
February 2012
1 post
Jezebel: How to Be a Good Guy on the Sidewalk
A new Jezebel article on street harassment features Hey, Shorty! co-author Joanne Smith breaking down ways men can interact with women on the street without being a threat. Check it out here.
January 2012
1 post
Two New Reviews: The F-Word & Shameless Magazine
November 2011
1 post
October 2011
2 posts
Sex, Power and Speaking Truth: Anita Hill 20 Years...
Girls for Gender Equity (GGE) founder and executive director, Joanne N. Smith, was a featured panelist at the Sex, Power and Speaking Truth: Anita Hill 20 Years Later conference at Hunter College in New York City. The panel was moderated by Pat Mitchell, President & CEO of The Paley Center for Media, and Joanne spoke alongside several other activists and scholars, including Melissa...
Teaching for Change/Busboys & Poets (Washington,...
One of the most exciting things about being a street harassment activist is the look on peoples’ faces as they figure out what on earth I’m talking about. Many of my friends have never heard the term ‘street harassment’, or consider it some sort of overblown synonym for catcalling, but when I start to describe the behaviors and attitudes it encompasses, their expressions transform...
September 2011
3 posts
Activism and the Academy (NYC)
I was humbled to be asked by the Barnard Center for Research on Women to share the work I have done with Girls for Gender Equity and Hey, Shorty! as a part of the “Writing, New Media, and Feminist Activism” panel at their 40th anniversary event, Activism and the Academy: Celebrating 40 Years of Feminist Scholarship and Action. Many of us struggle with our understandings of the...
Left Bank Books (Seattle, WA)
Located in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market, Left Bank Books is a 38-year-old radical institution of learning and agitation, so I was overjoyed when they agreed to host a stop on the Hey, Shorty! book tour. The event drew a crowd of folks who came to learn more about gender-based violence in public spaces, gain tools with which to write curricula for youth programs, and share their own...
In Other Words (Portland, OR)
Last night’s crowd at In Other Words, Portland’s feminist bookstore and community center, was small and intimate. Many thanks to all who attended, especially the cutie pie who loudly and proudly sang her ABCs when the amount of attention she received wasn’t sufficient (way to advocate for yourself, girl!) and the two women from Seattle who suggested seeing the vaux swift roost in the chimney...
August 2011
1 post
Restorative Justice Reading Group (NYC)
“It is truly important to acknowledge that the problem does not lie within the individual being harassed, the problem lies within the external forces that perpetuate and enable sexual harassment to exist in a place like school, where all are supposed to feel safe.” (Hey, Shorty! p. 110)
The above quote comes from Girls for Gender Equity’s (GGE) recent book Hey, Shorty!: A Guide to Combating...
July 2011
4 posts
Wooden Shoe Books (Philadelphia, PA)
Many moons ago I met Matt Dineen through some mutual friends and our shared work in independent media. A passionate activist and all-around lovely guy, Matt currently works at Wooden Shoe Books as a collective member and event organizer. After hearing about Hey, Shorty!’s release, Matt invited me to Philadelphia to do a reading — and I enthusiastically accepted.
Technically...
Thank You For Tipping Our G-Team Deal on Groupon!
We raised $920 through Groupon.com! Girls for Gender Equity was featured on a G-Team campaign July 12th-14th to help raise money to bring our Sisters in Strength activists to Atlanta in November to present on participatory action research at the National Women’s Studies Association’s annual conference: Feminist Transformations. We needed 55 supporters pledge $10 or more to reach the...
Free Minds, Free People (Providence, RI)
Free Minds, Free People was amazing! Not only did I meet incredible people from other great organizations, but I learned that Girls for Gender Equity is not alone. There are other organizations fighting for the same and similar causes. It felt good to facilitate “Hey Shorty!: A Youth Organizing Model to Combat Gender-Based Violence in Schools and on the Streets” and empower other...
Ten Days in the Heartland (Detroit -> Madison ->...
Just days before leaving for a multi-stop Midwest excursion, Open Society Foundations generously donated 200 copies of Hey, Shorty! to the 2011 Allied Media Conference (AMC) in Detroit, MI — and Girls for Gender Equity could not have been more thrilled. An annual gathering of grassroots artists, activists, and writers who use new and traditional media to further the aims of social justice,...
June 2011
6 posts
National Conference for Women Student Leaders...
The following clips are of college students who attended the workshop about Hey, Shorty! at the National Conference for Women Student Leaders stop on the tour at the University of Maryland.
Off to AMC! (Detroit, MI)
After an intensive fundraising week, I am thrilled to be heading to the Allied Media Conference. I’ve been to AMC once before and had an excellent time building with fellow activists and writers who are committed to social justice. This will be a welcoming event for the work of Girls for Gender Equity and Hey, Shorty! I plan to screen the DVD continuously in the exhibition area and collect...
We Raised $1,935 on IndieGoGo for ‘Hey, Shorty! on...
We owe much thanks and gratitude to our supporters for their generosity during this fundraising campaign! It’s not too late to make a contribution!
Hey, Shorty! Goes to Feminist Summer Camp (NYC)
On Monday, some of the ladies from Sisters in Strength (me, Ash, Red, and Taryn) had the opportunity to have our brains picked by a group of college-aged activists who are taking part in a weeklong Feminist Summer Camp, organized by Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner’s Soapbox Inc, where they learn about and interact with several feminist activists and organizations. This group of young...
Hey, Shorty! at Charis Books (Atlanta)
On June 9th I made my way to Atlanta, GA, the city where I first discovered street harassment and social justice activism while an undergrad at Georgia State University. Even though I had a car, I took public transportation to school my freshman year, and had to walk through groups of men outside the Five Points MARTA station daily who thought it was good fun to make sexual advances at young women...
May 2011
2 posts
Ending LGBTQ Sexual Harassment in School
Sexual harassment is unwanted and unwelcome sexual attention that can come from anyone to anyone no matter what race, gender, class, sex, age, size, etc. LGBTQ-based harassment is often viewed now as “bullying,” but the Coalition for Gender Equity in Schools strongly believes that LGBTQ-based harassment is, in fact, a form of sexual harassment. The negative attention one receives through this...
Gender, Sexuality and School Social Work Practice...
On May 20th, I presented with Sisters in Strength (SIS) intern Red Booker and Ian Harris, an attorney who works with Day One, at the Gender, Sexuality and School Social Work Practice conference at Hunter School of Social Work in New York City. It was my first visit to the campus since I graduated with my MSW in 2008, and the moment I walked into the room, which was full of about 200 school social...