MY FEMINIST CREATIONS
7 drafts in 7 genres
These are the seven projects that I explored in entirely different genres. These are unedited, short, unfinished pieces that correspond with different course topics and speakers. Some have explanations or prompts, and others are just there for you to ponder.
You will also find photos of our class experiences with guest speakers. All also found on our schools GWSS Instagram; everyone should follow it: gwssuwb
FICTION
Meeting Laurie Frankel
We were able to meet with Laurie Frankel writer of the novel This is how it always is. We were able to ask questions about the writing process, discuss fiction as activist writing, character creations, and so much more.
Prompt to write a memory of water
Make a List:
The time my sister almost killed our cat Huey with a hose in the outside sink
Got stung by a bee climbing a ladder out of the river
When our dog midget couldn’t swim and tried to walk on top of water off the dock at the Lake by the house
Stung by a bee on the shoulder while in the kid pool in yard of the house that everyone use to live in
Stung by a jelly fish when pulling up crab pots
When James jumped in the swimming hole with Mason camping
Swimming across the lake fully clothed on a floaty
Jumping off the houseboat church camp
Stepped on a bee when playing in sprinklers in the yard of the house that everyone lived in
Pick one to write a story about for ten minutes:
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”
She froze. Halfway up 10 foot ladder from the shallow section of the river to the campsite, fingers griped on the rung, knuckles turning white… she tried not to fall. Hot tears coming down her face. He ran to the river bank, and he looked down to see his daughter - his PunkinMonster in tears Asking what was wrong she just cried, snot was now coming out of her nose. Her uncontrollable tears had transitioned to hyperventilating sobs that words could not be deciphered from. He reached down, using encouraging words to coax her up the ladder - there was no point in asking what happened he couldn’t understand her.
Last step; chang the gender of one of the characters and see how it changes the seen. Then write it again and see how it changes.
It hurt. It hurt so bad. All she did was adjust her bathing suit, and now here she was stuck on a ladder, butt in so much pain, and no idea why. Did something fly out of the bathing suit? MOOOOOOOOOOOOM - it was always Mom; I don’t know…. MOOOOOOM.
Tears pouring down her face; Mom appeared over the embankment. There she was her LoveBug, in tears, screaming something about her butt. The sobbing turned into hyperventilating, and the words harder to understand and she continued to climb up the ladder.
Arms outreached to help up off the ladder and onto solid grass land, what is wrong? I dunno it hurts… something was in my bathing suit - it just hurt…
It was a yellow jacket? A bee? Something STUNG me? Tweezers were gathered; a stinger expelled, a bee, of some kind, had attacked the bum.
THEATER
Prompt to write about a severed connection:
I don’t wish I told you that I loved you more, I think that you knew that just fine – I wish that I asked how you felt as you slowly lost your memory; your words, your speech, heard from you exactly what it was that you would want in this situation. Instead, here I am wondering how much of you is actually left, I don’t see you in your eyes anymore… how lonely I hope that you aren’t right now. You don’t remember, but I do. I dreamed of growing up and taking you away, giving you a space of your own, with the English bulldog you always wanted. Support while you found yourself outside of being a wife, a mother…
I can assume, based on our long talks, how silly to know that
I see you in me now, how I do the things that I remember you doing. How I wish you had a partner in life; not financial strangulation.
Theater Improv
Professor Deborah Hathaway, a lecturer at the University of Washington Bothell, shared their expertise in theater and had us go through an improv exercise using a scene from The 9 Fridas by Kaite O'Reilly. It was a week that took me out of my comfort zone and inspired me to understand theater in a new way.
CHILDRENS BOOK
Author Sondra Simone Segundo joined our class. She read her book Killer Whale Eyes and shared the story of her other book Lovebirds the True Story of Raven & Eagle. We asked questions about the use of children's books as feminist texts, and how important representation is for children.
ART
Our class had the pleasure of being instroudcues to water color pencils, the art medium that Sondra Simone Segundo uses in her own art for her books. She walked us through the creation of a Killer Whale fin using the traditional Indigenous art shapes, with explanations of what each part was for.
MUSIC & CONNECTION
Sondra shared her music. and used her traditional drum with her family crest on it, while singing to our class including the song that is in the Killer Whale Eyes book.
CHILDREN'S BOOK DRAFT
While I did not write a piece for a children's book, I did create this Killer Whale Fin following the direction of Sondra in the same medium, watercolor pencil, as she uses in her artwork for her books.
MEMOIR
The Prompt is to start with "I cannot stop thinking about…." and see what happens.
I cannot stop thinking about how much I need to stop and be present. I move through the world far too fast, and cary the tension from all that speed in my shoulders and in my clenched jaw. I don’t remember what it is like to be bored and I can’t remember the last time I was only mentally stimulated by one thing that wasn’t a compulsive necessity; like reading a good book that is so good you can’t put it down – compulsively you keep picking it back up. I can’t relax.
I feel is right now in my left shoulder blade, the dull ache, it is there with me reminding me that I am too sedentary, too attached to my computer, always in a seat, overworking. Today it’s also in my jaw. What I tilt my head to the left I can feel the muscles and tendons scream as I force them to stretch. They are not ready for this movement. But, here I am still sitting, still working.
I turned the television off to do this, I can hear the tik, tik, tik of the clock on the wall behind me… and every few seconds I battle against the urge to look at my phone. I can’t focus… although this is better than it was before. The before the meds time. Now I can’t believe that I ever didn’t take them. Such a silly waste of a battle. Like taking antidepressants and anxiety meds made me week.
My thoughts spiral less now, but still I stay busy.
It is the worst at night, I have to go to sleep listening to a podcast. I even bought a fancy headband with headphones in it. Little speakers play sounds so that I am not alone with my thoughts. Sometimes when I try to sleep without the sounds I need to stick my arm straight up in the air, or my leg – even now sitting here my right food has started to jiggle.
I find comfort in these quirks. They keep the mind distracted.
If I leave myself alone with myself for too long in the quiet that is when I get myself. That is when I remember every old awful thing, or the new awful things that make me feel like the old awful things. Sometimes I feel like I can’t stop thinking about trying to not think about the things that hurt.
POETRY
Killing Marías: A Poem for Multiple Voices
Book by Claudia Castro Luna
Meeting with Claudia Castro Luna was a beautifully moving experience. Not only did we learn about writing poetry, but we were also able to hear her read her work out loud to us, and explain the process of creating the book.
The provided prompt was to look at your hands and write what you see:
I hate to look
To see myself
A whole half of me I hide
It's why I wear hoodies in 110 degrees
Light weight long sleeve clothes -
I had tan lines on my wrists until my 30's
I haven't looked in so long I didn't notice aging
The wrinkles
The hangnails
The dryness
I need water? need lotion?
It itches..
I don't want to see them
Like I refuse to see the hump of my back
The short torso
The whole 5 feet tall
Once 5 foot 2
Im shrinking
Its too early
Inside I see different. I close my eyes and see me
But that isn't the same as the reflection; has it ever been
I don't remember
The pain hasn't changed but the dryness has
The stiffness is more constant
The depression most noticeable in the aches
My hip
I can't dance like I used to
My knuckles hurt sometimes
Why do I feel like I am failing
The half of me I refuse to see
ACTIVIST
Collegiate Community Transitions (CCT) Club Post
I created a post for what would have been the educational book series that CCT wanted to have. CCT is a club that focuses on supporting formerly incarcerated and system impacted students on college campuses. The club also have a passion for education around prison abolition.
Meeting Ijeoma Oluo author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race and most recently, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. It was a privilege to be able to spend such precious time with a professional "writer, speaker and internet yeller" (according to her website).
MOVEMENT JOURNALISM PITCH DRAFT
Ms. Magazine and Roxy Szal
Our class was lucky enough to be able to meet with Roxy Szal, digital editor and writer for Ms. Magazine. Roxy presented us with how to write a piece for publication. With guidance on how to break away from academic writing I created the following draft of a short pitch with author bio as if I would be submitting it to Ms. Magazine.
Pitch:
Book banning the performance we have never learned from. The United States has an extensive history of banning works from many genres autobiographical, fiction, and non-fiction… what is it about this performative practice that we haven’t learned from, and why are the adults attempting to protect children from books, instead of the actions that are depicted within those books, that exist because they are true, in the context that these situations happen every day and being told about them are the best ways to prepare. Why continue to ban books when it isn’t effective, and deny a child an opportunity to be seen?
BIO: Katie is a recent 2022 graduate from the University of Washington Bothell who graduated with a double major in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies & American Ethnic Studies, and a minor in Diversity Studies. They will be continuing their education at the Claremont Graduate University in California where they will be pursuing a double degree program to obtain a Master of Arts in Applied Gender Studies and a Master of Arts in Cultural Studies.