Hosted by Marisa Crawford
“The selfie suggests something in picture form—I think I look [beautiful] [happy] [funny] [sexy]. Do you?—that a girl could never get away with saying. It puts the gaze of the camera squarely in a girl’s hands, and along with it, the power to influence the photo’s interpretation.” – Rachel Simmons, Slate
Veronica Arreola is the director of the Women in Science and Engineering program at the University of Illinois-Chicago._ Veronica is a respected member of the Chicago and national feminist community, having worked with organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Women Employed and the National Organization for Women. She blogs at VivaLaFeminista.com about feminism, motherhood and her Latinadad, and is the creator of the #365FeministSelfie project.
Marisa Crawford is the author of the poetry collection The Haunted House (Switchback, 2010), and the chapbook 8th Grade Hippie Chic (Immaculate Disciples, 2013). Her writing has recently appeared in Fanzine, The Hairpin, and Bitch, and is forthcoming in Electric Gurlesque (Saturnalia, 2016) and The &NOW Awards 3: Best Innovative Writing (&NOW, 2015). Marisa is founding editor of the new feminist blog WEIRD SISTER. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Kate Durbin is a Los Angeles based artist and writer whose work deals with popular culture, gender, and digital media. Her books include E! Entertainment, The Ravenous Audience, and Abra, an iPad app and artists book created with support of an NEA grant from Center for Book and Paper Arts at CCC. She is founding editor of the online pop cultural criticism journal, Gaga Stigmata, and her tumblr, Women as Objects, archives the teen girl tumblr aesthetic. She has recently performed at MOCA and The Hammer Museum. Her performance piece HELLO, SELFIE! presents a new form of passive aggressive performance art, reveling in teen narcissism and the girl gaze.
Morgan Parker is the author of Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night (Switchback Books 2015), selected by Eileen Myles for the 2013 Gatewood Prize, and There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé (Coconut Books 2016). A Cave Canem fellow, graduate of NYU’s Creative Writing MFA program, and poetry editor for Coconut Magazine, Morgan lives in Brooklyn where she is Education Director at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA). She also contributes writing to Weird Sister. You can find her at www.morgan-parker.com.
The author of Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV (Seal Press, 2010), Jennifer L. Pozner is a media critic, journalist, activist and founder/ executive director of Women In Media & News (WIMN), a women’s media analysis, education and advocacy organization dedicated to increasing the presence and power of women in the public debate. A noted public speaker, Pozner has conducted interactive multimedia presentations and participated in panels and debates at dozens of high schools, colleges, and conferences in more than half the US. Visit her website at RealityBitesBackBook.com.