ALL THE LADIES SAY

What a great weekend, and such beautiful weather here in the NYC area. Spring has (*fingers crossed*) sprung!

This was a weekend of inspiration, sisterhood, and bonding. On Friday, my friend and musician, Ally Way stopped by the house for pasta and convo, and introduced me to the teachings and amazing YouTube videos of Abraham Hicks.

I started Saturday with a trip down the block to NJPAC for the Ladies First panel discussion, as part of the Alternate Routes Hip Hop Festival 2011. In 2009, Martha Diaz, an educator and hip hop media producer created the Ladies First! Fund awarding seed grants to “women in hip hop to develop creative ideas that inspire social change or expand women’s entrepreneurial opportunities and roles.”

Four of the fund’s recipients joined Diaz on stage to discuss the importance of including women’s voices in current hip hop music, and how their individual projects were providing a space for women artists and creators. DJ Kuttin Kandi opened the event with a live performance before introducing her project, The Womyn’s Hip-Hop Movement: A Hip-Hop Feminist Anthology Album of Womyn United to End Violence Against Womyn.  The album, slated for release this summer, features a roster of amazing poets and emcees including one of my all-time favorites, Queen GodIs. Vanessa Nisperos used her grant to fund the launch of her women-centered website, the 5th Element, serving as a sexism-free resource hub and go-to site for women who create, and love, hip-hop music. Newark resident and emcee, Purple Haze, joined the stage to shed light on her work in Newark-area prison and detention centers, and dancer Ana “ROKAfella” Garcia presented her documentary, All the Ladies Say, a look at women break dancers–a project that Garcia says is now officially 6-years in the making.

Watch the trailer below. These women are soooo good!

 

The panelists spoke so eloquently about their work, and displayed so much passion for hip hop culture, and it’s widespread influence. There was a group of young men in the audience who seemed so interested and respectful of these women, and their perspectives on the role that gender plays in the music biz. It was an inspiring event, and I hope you can check out each of these projects to learn more and support!

Finally, Sunday offered a chance to check out Among Women, a presentation of  seven young women writers at Brooklyn’s A.I.R. Gallery. The event invited, “a group of emerging young women writers to read their new and unpublished work, spanning short stories, poetry and essays.” Along with my friend from college, who’s in the process of applying to grad school for creative writing, I got to hear a beautiful and entertaining collection of works from women of all backgrounds, and was even treated to hearing my friend, Pamela Jackson, read for the first time.

What a filling three days! What did you get into this weekend?