by Brenda Guesnet Daniela Groza is a Romanian artist based in New York City working mainly as a documentary photographer. She recently got in touch with SPARK for her newest project Be Kind For Real (BKFR), which is all about practicing kindness through art. The project was exhibited in the Emmanuel Fremin gallery in NYC…
by Brenda Guesnet We’ve all experienced it in one form or another: a small remark from a passer-by that was ‘only a compliment,’; an unwanted hand somewhere on our body at a party; a person we trusted going further after we said no. I don’t have a single female friend who doesn’t have a dozen…
by Dee Putri I had never been a leader before. I don’t have that charisma–you know, like Ellen Page with her coolness, or Hillary Clinton with her powerful presence? I’m not one of them. I wasn’t born with it; I’m this shy girl. I do have opinions, but sometimes I just feel that it is…
by Candice Iloh, SPARK Program Associate This year, the SPARK Action Squad launched its first-ever online book club, with Americanah by Chimamanda Adiche as our first readers’ pick. The club started knowing that a majority of SPARK’s amazing feminist activists are also huge readers and writers interested in talking about an array of issues that…
by Celeste Montaño and Joneka Percentie When the CW released its first look at Jane the Virgin back in July, everyone in SPARK was on the fence about it. The trailer’s tone was intriguing, but a show that revolves entirely around a Latina woman’s sex life—or lack, thereof? Less intriguing, more off-putting. Turns out, we…
by Montgomery Jones If there’s anything Issa Rae’s Awkward Black Girl taught me, it’s that awkwardness is colorblind. But for some reason, black women are only ever shown as one way in the media. Words like “awkward,” “shy,” nerdy,” “self aware,” “multi dimensional,”….well those words are never used to describe us. I myself am a…
by Aviv Rau Being an introverted teenaged girl with tons of free time and a newly acquired driver’s license, I spent a lot of time alone this past summer. Except that I was not really alone. Everywhere I went—bookstores, cafes, stores, restaurants, even on the street—significantly older men making inappropriate comments approached me. Thankfully, things…
by Cori Fulcher Not too long ago, I talked with a friend about men who could write teenage girls. I had mentioned Jeffery Eugenides and could not for the life of me think of any others. I listed all the teenage girls of literature I loved dearly and then remember one by one they were…