20th Anniversary Event

Wednesday, December 2, 2015
9:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m
Lower East Side Girls Club – 402 E 8th St, New York, NY

20th Anniversary Event Videos 20th Anniversary Event Photos

Note: This event has passed - view a Facebook Album of Pictures and Videos from the event.

Read re-caps by our partner, Women, Action & the Media: #Fem20 Recap: Envisioning the Future of Gender Equality

Read re-cap by one of our sponsors, Omega Women's Leadership Center: OWLC Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Feminist.com

Celebrate with us! To commemorate our 20th anniversary we’re hosting a one-day conference with a range of exciting speakers, guests, and even a few surprises!

Join Feminist.com to reflect on the last two decades of feminism, and to envision where we want to be in the next twenty years.

Confirmed Speakers Include:

Penny Abeywardena, Imani Brown, Soraya Chemaly, Dianne Cohler-Esses, Maria Ebrahimji, Ashley Ford, Laia Garcia, Carla Goldstein, Joanna Hoffman, Chung Hyun Kyung, Kathy LeMay,Kaylo (Kerri Lowe), Brette McSweeney, Elise Peterson, Latoya Peterson, Elizabeth Plank, Kim Reed, Genevieve Roth, Marianne Schnall, Diamond Sharp, Joanne Smith, Maria Torres-Springer, Latham Thomas, Adriene Thorne, Mini Timmaraju, Quentin Walcott, Jamia Wilson, Lindsey Taylor Wood and Brianna Wu and performances by The Arts Effect, BETTY, Sarah Jones and other surprise guests.

Program and Schedule

9:00-9:10

Feminist.com executive director Marianne Schnall Introduction to event

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Performance poet, Kaylo (Kerri Lowe)

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#SayHerName: A Spotlight on Black Women & Girls in the Movement for Black Lives

9:10-10:40

From the media to the White House, the lion’s share of the response to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, has prioritized the plight of young men and boys. But in a climate where black girls are suspended from school six times more than white girls, and African American women are incarcerated three times more often than white peers, the safety of black women and girls is often ignored—or at best, an afterthought.

#SayHerName emerged as a rallying cry to surface the stories of innumerable black women, trans women, and girls who have been assaulted, and or killed as a result of police violence. Shifting the spotlight to state violence targeting women of color, sexual assault by police, and law enforcement abuse of pregnant women, moderator Jamia Wilson and panelists will center the activism of movement makers dedicated to justice for black women and girls.

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Moderator: Jamia Wilson, Women, Action, & the Media & Move to End Violence Movement Maker
Speakers:
Imani Brown, Black Youth Project
Diamond Sharp, Rookie Magazine & Black Youth Project
Joanne Smith, Girls for Gender Equity & Move to End Violence Movement Maker
Quentin Walcott, CONNECT & Move to End Violence Movement Maker
Sponsor/Partner: NoVo Foundation: Move to End Violence
Move to End Violence, a 10-year program of the NoVo Foundation, aims to strengthen leaders, organizations, and the movement working to end violence against all girls and women.

10:45-10:55 Performance by The Arts Effect All-Girl Theater Company performing an excerpt from SLUT: The Play

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What Makes A Woman? The Next Frontier of Sexuality, Identity and Womanhood

11:00-12:30

Elinor Burkett’s controversial NYT op-ed, “What Makes A Woman” claims that the burgeoning trans movement may be compromising a version of womanhood previously designed and inhabited by ciswomen. Since then, a national discourse around the future of gender, sexuality, and identity has accelerated, with Laverne Cox, Janet Mock and Caitlyn Jenner moving squarely into icon status. This panel explores the changing face of both the feminist and the LGBTQI movements, and interrogates traditional notions of what being a woman means in our society and culture.

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Moderator: Lindsey Taylor Wood, LTW
Panelists:
Ashley Ford, Poet and Teaching Artist
Elise Peterson, Freelance Writer
Kim Reed, Filmmaker
Brianna Wu, Giant SpaceKat

12:30-1:15 Lunch (Catered by girls from Lower East Side Girls Club)

Our Inner Lives: a Multi-faith Dialogue on Spirituality, Religion & Feminism

1:15-2:45

In the midst of an election season where moral debates about everything from health care, to confederate flags, to marriage equality, to reproductive rights fill the headlines, the voices of progressive women of spirit and faith are disturbingly absent. What does a moral imperative set by diverse women look like? In contrast to the patriarchal narrative that dominates discourse about our cultural and spiritual values, panelists and our moderator Carla Goldstein will discuss how they transform spirit into action as they navigate their faith, their resilience, and their activism.

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Moderator: Carla Goldstein, Omega Women’s Leadership Center
Speakers:
Dianne Kohler-Esses, Romemu
Chung Hyun Kyun, Union Theological Seminary
Maria Ebrahimiji, I Speak for Myself
Latham Thomas, Mama Glow
Adrienne Thorne, Middle Collegiate Church
Sponsor/Partner: The Omega Women's Leadership Center
The OWLC envision a future where women’s leadership advances what matters most: nurturing and mutual relationships, healthy families and communities, and a peaceful, just, and sustainable world—for everybody.

3:00-3:10 Joanna Hoffman

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Feminist Mass Media: Fact or Fiction?

3:15-4:30

Of the paltry number of women represented in front of and behind the camera, most are white, thin, young and hyper-sexualized. This limited archetype of “beauty” is also found in the vast majority of "women’s media" outlets – from lifestyle centric .coms to the most prestigious glossies. While some magazines feature “real women” in one vertical, others showcase airbrushed, nearly nude girls.

Onscreen the landscape is just as dismal. The wage gap persists, and the ability for a woman to find a leading role or to be hired as a director is nearly impossible. Though “women’s media” appears to have made some gains, the numbers and tradeoffs prove otherwise. Which begs the questions: is "women's media" inherently fertile ground for feminism, and can feminist media really exist in the mainstream media marketplace?

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Moderator: Soraya Chemaly, Writer
Speakers:
Elizabeth Plank, Mic
Laia Garcia, Lenny
Latoya Peterson, Fusion
Genevieve Roth, Glamour

4:35-4:45 Performance by BETTY

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Women, Leadership and Power: the NYC Edition

4:45-6:00

Women are still vastly underrepresented in leadership realms and in all spheres of influence including media, politics and business. With the backdrop of the 2016 elections and the candidacy of women presidential candidates for both parties, the conversation around women in leadership will be amplified. At our women’s leadership panel, we’ll tackle important questions related to women’s paths to leadership, how women are treated once they become leaders, what cultural and structural changes are needed, and how women can model new paradigms of power. Join our moderator Marianne Schnall and our distinguished panelists as they discuss these topics and more.

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Moderator: Marianne Schnall, author What Will It Take to Make a Woman President?
Speakers:
Penny Abeywardena, Commissioner of the Mayor's Office for International Affairs
Brette McSweeney, Executive Director of Eleanor's Legacy
Mini Timmaraju, Women's Outreach Director for Hillary for America
Maria Torres-Springer, President of the NYC Economic Development Corporation
Sponsor/Partner: Eileen Fisher/Eileen Fisher Community Foundation

6pm Cocktails

Evening program:

Cocktail party 6-7:30

Tony award-winning playwright, performer and activist Sarah Jones will perform improv based on her new play Sell/Buy/Date.

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Funds raised from this celebration will support Feminist.com, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization’s growth and future work.

Produced by:
Women, Action and the MediaLindsey Taylor Wood

Sponsors:

NoVo Foundation The Jacquelyn and Gregory Zehner Foundation Omega Womens Leadership Center Eileen Fisher Eileen Fisher Community Foundation The Harnisch Foundation