June 11th, 2013 | by Veralyn Williams | published in Blog, Personal Essays
Finally focused and made a dent in Caitlin Moran’s book, How to be a woman. Moran’s memoir / feminist manifesto has been assigned reading for me, for over a month, as Wednesday is the 2nd annual “Meeting of Women Thinkers” a.k.a. an unofficial book club that started in April. During our first meeting, about 25 women […]
February 20th, 2012 | by Veralyn Williams | published in Blog, My Two Cents
Last Thursday, ImageNation Cinema and the Film Society of Lincoln Center gave NYC the first East Coast look at award-winning film, Better Mus’ Come. Having played at Los Angeles’ Pan-African Film Festival just a few days before, it was only the second American screening of the movie, becoming known as the best film out of Jamaica […]
September 1st, 2011 | by Veralyn Williams | published in Blog, My Two Cents
I finally went to see Colombiana, a movie about a young woman (Cataleya, played by Zoe Saldana) who grows up to become an assassin, after witnessing her parents’ murder… and I must say- I loved it! Sure there were a few “Oh Really? I’m supposed to believe that’s how it would go down in real life?” moments… but once you […]
March 2nd, 2011 | by Veralyn Williams | published in Blog, My Two Cents
Boy this has been an emotional week for me! I just watched Waiting for Superman a documentary about our failing public school system, and I am writing this through blurry eyes… It was so painful to watch the futures of the students being featured, determined by a random lottery into a charter school– with a 1 […]
September 22nd, 2010 | by Veralyn Williams | published in Blog, My Two Cents
So as Netflix has helped me realize- When it comes to movies I am more the Romantic-Comedy / Drama kind-of girl… And I usually like anything based on a True Story or a Documentary… But every once in a while one of my friends will drag me to see something I don’t want to see- […]
Remember #BringBackOurGirls? This Is What Happened In The 5 Months Since
As I mentally prepare to watch and discuss #GirlsRising today– a film that portrays the lives of nine young girls from around the world describing the challenges they face being denied an education– I googled “chibok kidnapping nigeria."
On the night of April 14, 2014, hundreds of schoolgirls at the Chibok boarding school in northeastern Nigeria awoke to the sound of gunfire. They saw men in camouflage approaching and thought soldiers were coming to save them from a militant attack, …
My new essay explores how Beyonce’s feminist stance in pop culture helped frame my own feminist awakening:
“I am in my 30s and was emboldened by Beyonce’s feminist stance on that stage, and can’t help but believe that that image will be equally as powerful to young people who witness that moment, whose first engagement with feminism will be that moment. Maybe, just maybe, Beyonce will serve as the bridgebetween pop culture and feminists like bell and Barbara and Audre, maybe some young woman bobbing her head to ‘Blow’ or ‘Partition’ or ‘Flawless’ will do so while reading Ain’t I A Woman? or Homegirls or Sister Outsider.”
—FROM my new essay: My Feminist Awakening & the Influence of Beyonce’s Pop Culture Declaration
